Strawberry and Lemon Tart

, from Issue #33. September, 2015
Photography by Manja Wachsmuth.
Strawberry and Lemon Tart

This recipe is based loosely on a ‘shaker lemon tart’ where whole lemons are thinly sliced, combined with lots of sugar and left to marinate overnight before being baked in pastry.

Serves: 6-8

INGREDIENTS

Pastry
250 grams plain flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup icing sugar
150 grams butter, diced and chilled
1 egg

Filling
1 large juicy lemon
½ an orange
1¼ cups caster sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
½ cup melted butter, cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To finish
1 punnet strawberries
icing sugar for dusting

35 cm x 10 cm rectangular tart tin with a removable base

METHOD

Pastry: Put the flour, salt, icing sugar and butter in a food processor and pulse to coarse crumbs. Add the egg and pulse again until the dough just starts to come together. Tip onto the bench and gently bring the dough together with your hands. Form into a disc, wrap and chill until firm.

Preheat the oven to 200˚C.

Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured bench and line the tart tin. Refrigerate or freeze until firm.

Bake the tart blind for 20 minutes, then remove the baking beans and paper. Reduce the oven to 175˚C and bake for a further 5 minutes. Cool.

Filling: Cut the lemon and orange into quarters and remove the pips. Chop the fruit roughly and place in a food processor with the sugar. Process until the fruit is finely chopped then tip into a bowl. Put the cornflour in a small bowl and stir in a ¼ cup of the fruit mixture until smooth. Tip back into the bowl and add the remaining ingredients, gently whisking to combine. You don’t want a lot of bubbles in the mixture.

Pour into the tart case and bake for 25 minutes until the filling is just firm and the top is lightly browned. You may not be able to get all the filling in the tart case. Cool.

To serve: Halve or quarter the strawberries and pile on top of the tart. Dust with icing sugar to serve. 

Use 300 grams of good quality purchased sweet short pastry if you don’t want to make your own.

To bake blind: line a prepared pastry case with baking paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. The beans support the pastry as it cooks. Bake in a preheated 190˚C - 200˚C oven for up to 20 minutes before removing the paper and weights. The shell should now have taken form. Return to the oven for the time specified in the recipe.