Tarte au Citron

Style Kitchen Masterclass

Tarte au Citron - Tom Axford at Salty’s

If you were to step in through the teal-coloured doors of Salty’s Restaurant in Yarmouth and order the tarte au citron with chilli and lime crème fraîche, you might wonder how this delicious dessert was made. Well, you can try creating it yourself if you’re feeling brave enough, as we take you behind the scenes for a special masterclass with AA Rosettes winner and Head Chef Tom Axford, sharing his step-by-step guide and a few insider tips to show you exactly how it’s done. So, get zesting those lemons and enjoy!

Ingredients:

For the sweet pastry (enough for two tart rings)

250g plain flour

90g icing sugar

125g unsalted butter (softened)

1 whole medium egg

1 egg yolk

Egg yolk for sealing tart

Lemon filling (enough for one tart)

120ml fresh lemon juice, or concentrated is fine

Zest of two lemons

250g caster sugar

5 whole eggs

125g unsalted butter (softened)

Step one is to make the pastry ready for blind baking. Using a mixer, beat together the flour, icing sugar and butter until it has a breadcrumb texture. Once this has been achieved, add the whole egg and yolk and mix until it starts to form a dough. Remove from the mixing bowl and shape into equal sizes on a floured surface, cover and leave to rest in the fridge for approximately 30 minutes.

Once rested, roll out the pastry to 3mm thickness and line your pastry tart ring. Make sure you get the pastry lined evenly in the ring. Then, preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

The next step is to blind bake, using either cling film or baking parchment with baking beans or rice on top. Once lined, place in the oven for 12 minutes until the edges have turned golden, remove from the oven, and take away the baking beans or rice. Egg wash inside the tart case, this will seal the tart case to prevent any leakage which may occur if there are little cracks in the pastry. Once egg washed, place back in the oven for a further 2 minutes.

Once the tart case is cooled, you need to trim it. I use a potato peeler, which gives it a nice tidy finish, but a sharp knife will do the trick. These cases can be made in advance, and kept in the fridge or freezer.

Now for the tart mix. Set the oven to 120 degrees. Bring the lemon juice, zest and sugar to the boil. Whilst waiting for that, whisk your eggs till well beaten. Once the lemon juice and sugar have come to boil, reduce the heat down to a slow simmer. Transfer half the liquid to the egg mixture and mix well, then add back into the pan of remaining lemon juice. This is a very important step: you need to make sure the eggs don’t scramble — you need to keep whisking, just like making a custard.

You will start to see the mixture thicken as the eggs start to cook out. When you see this, you need to start slowly adding the softened butter whilst still whisking of course. Adding the butter too quickly will cause the mixture to split, which we don’t want. Temperature control is also very important here, as you don’t want the mixture to go over 80 degrees. I use a controlled induction hob, but removing the pan from the stove for this part will do the trick. Once all the butter has been added, you should be left with a lovely silky lemon curd mixture. You now need to pass the mixture through a fine sieve, this is to remove the zest.

Carefully pour the lemon mixture into the tart case and transfer to the oven, preheated to 120 degrees. In my commercial kitchen, I’m able to set the fan speed. I have it on the lowest setting so it will prevent any uneven cooking and blistering that a high fan speed can do. Cook for 30-35 mins. The tart should look set but still wobbly; as it cools, it will continue to set.

When it comes to blind baking you might already use ceramic baking beans and baking parchment, which is absolutely fine. Personally, I prefer to use rice and cling film because it fills the tart case right to the edges, preventing the pastry from developing air bubbles or movement.