Lucas Schoormans’s Lemon Tart
- Total Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes, plus 45 minutes' refrigeration and up to 8 hours' steeping
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 4lemons, thinly sliced, ends and seeds discarded
- 1cup sugar
- 1vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
- 2cups all-purpose flour
- 9tablespoons sugar
- ¼teaspoon salt
- 6tablespoons cold, unsalted butter
- 3large egg yolks
- 11tablespoons softened, unsalted butter
- ⅔cup ground almonds
- 2tablespoons flour
- ½cup sugar
- Grated zest from 1 lemon
- 2large eggs
Lemon Confit
Pastry Dough
Frangipani
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Preparation
- Step 1
Make the confit: place sliced lemons in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Steep 4 to 8 hours.
- Step 2
Drain lemons, place in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Simmer gently until lemon rind is just softened, about 5 minutes. Let cool, then drain the lemons again, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Return lemon slices and reserved liquid to the pan and add sugar and vanilla bean and seeds. Simmer 5 minutes. Use tongs or a slotted spoon to transfer slices to a wire rack to cool.
- Step 3
Return the pan with the liquid to the stove. Bring to a boil and cook until thick and reduced to about ⅔ cup. Discard the vanilla bean. Set aside.
- Step 4
Make the pastry dough: pulse together the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until pieces are no larger than peas. Add yolks and pulse until you have a dough that just pulls away from the sides of the bowl; add a tablespoon or two of water if necessary. Form dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate 30 minutes.
- Step 5
Remove the bottom from an 11-inch tart pan and place it on a work surface.
- Step 6
Put two-thirds of the dough on top, and using a floured rolling pin, roll dough over the tart-pan bottom to cover. Using a knife, trim the excess dough. Lift and place bottom back in the tart ring. Using your fingers, break off bits of the remaining dough and press them onto the sides of the pan to cover. Roll the pin over the top of the pan to trim. Refrigerate 15 minutes.
- Step 7
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover the dough with parchment paper, weigh down with rice or beans and bake until edges are just browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and remove parchment and rice.
- Step 8
Make the filling: in the bowl of a mixer, cream the butter. Beat in almonds and flour. Beat in sugar and zest. Beat in eggs one at a time. Scrape into the baked crust and return to the oven. Bake until filling is browned and firm to the touch, about 20 minutes.
- Step 9
Lay lemon slices over top of tart. Gently reheat lemon syrup and pour over tart. Tart may be served chilled or at room temperature.
Private Notes
Comments
A very interesting, sophisticated and delicious alternative to a typical lemon tart. My guests loved it completely. The recipe could be more clearly written, but it works. I understand now why the crust needed to be assembled in this odd manner - it is difficult to roll out in the normal way. And I now understand how the reduced lemon syrup works - it gels on top from extracted lemon pectins. Be very gentle with the lemon slices to prevent them falling apart. Excellent recipe.
This is one of the best finds ever! I find it better to use only about ⅔ of the sugar called for, and also to use an extra lemon for both taste and coverage.
Slicing the lemons is easier if you slice each lemon from the ends to its middle rather than trying to go straight though.
I will make this again and again. Made with Meyer lemons, and had to add lemon juice to the reduction to make it more tart. Don't get the slices too thin or they'll fall apart esp. if the lemons are seedy. Used my standard sweet tart dough instead of what sounds like a PITA recipe. Outstanding and beautiful.
I've made this three times. Each time I followed the recipe to a "T". The first time, the lemon syrup set up all glassy. It was a thing of beauty and I decided that both Lucas Schoorman and I must be geniuses. On rounds two and three, the syrup never quite set. It stayed runny and I wound up with a wet, cold tart. Still pretty tasty but not very presentable. I'm taking this out of my rotation. I need recipes that work more than 1/3 of the time.
truly a showstopper! I used blood oranges which were tasty & striking, and meyer lemons. Used good amount of juice from both in the frangipane syrup. 4 tbsp water to crust. Had to do quite a bit of doctoring to the syrup — I’ve never used vanilla beans before so maybe my error but when I tasted after reducing felt the vanilla flavor was sickly strong. Luckily I saved all the liquid from step 1 so poured about a cup in juice of 1 lemon, including seeds to add pectin back, and reduced again.
truly a showstopper! I used blood oranges which were tasty & striking, and meyer lemons. Used good amount of juice from both in the frangipane syrup. 4 tbsp water to crust. Had to do quite a bit of doctoring to the syrup — I’ve never used vanilla beans before so maybe my error but when I tasted after reducing felt the vanilla flavor was sickly strong. Luckily I saved all the liquid from step 1 so poured about a cup in juice of 1 lemon, including seeds to add pectin back, and reduced again.
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