Lemon Tart

Dish as in the book

I woke up on the day of cooking having endured a late finish at work and around 4 hours sleep so I wasn't particularly looking forward to grappling with pastry first thing in the morning. Still it was only a Lemon Tart, something I have made before and to be honest, its not all that difficult, is it? Well we were about to test that theory.


This dish is taken from Marco's time under the tutelage of Albert Roux at Le Gavroche and is served to the man himself in the episode of 'Marco cooks for....Albert Roux'. The key difference to the Gavroche version is that Marco fires up his blowtorch and roasts the crap out of icing sugar dusted over the top creating a crème brulee type finish.

Beginning the pastry

 

The starting point for this dessert is the pastry, a concoction of flour, egg, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and butter. The quantities specified raised an eyebrow or two as it seemed to make enough pastry to line my entire kitchen, let alone a standard tart tin. After working my biceps pushing together crumbly butter/flour/eggy mess I had something resembling pastry, a quick cling film wrap later and it was in the fridge chillin'.



Rested pastry

I preheated the oven and lined the tart base, weighed the base out and placed the whole thing in the oven to blind bake. Sadly fate wasn't on my side as the oven decided to do a number on me and drop the temperature resulting in a pastry case that would have ended up over my head had I been part of Harveys kitchen brigade. Hearing a Marco style bollocking in my head I feebly attempted to patch up the mess which was now resembling uncooked choux pastry, eurgh.

After another session in the oven having fixed the problem the tart was beyond repair, I admitted defeat, waved the white flag and went away to sulk.

The first attempt....

I strongly believe now the reason that cooks swear so much is part of self-therapy as on my return to the kitchen I did my best Gordon Ramsay impression and made another batch of pastry. Thankfully this attempt worked like a charm aside from a few patch up jobs, its tricky stuff is pastry when you go for the whole 'I can get this thin and crisp' mentality.


I halved the quantities for the filling as I was using a shallower tin than before and a good tip is to place the tart base on the oven shelf and pour the filling in while on the tray, thus being able to fill it all the way to the top.

Freshly baked lemony goodness

The book states that the tart needs to be cooked for 30 minutes however mine was closer to 47-50mins. Be careful though as it can go from liquid to set in the blink of an eye.

Marco states that he prefers to serve the tart warm so that the fragrance of the lemon comes through but as we were eating this the next day I opted for the fridge to ensure the tart would be firm enough to withstand the heat of the blowtorch.

The final plate

I then cut a slice, dusted it heavily with icing sugar and fired up my new toy. I purchased my blowtorch from B&Q and to be honest its a million miles away from the little ones you get in the cookware stores and not a lot more expensive.


Simplicity itself and breaking beautifully with the slightest pressure from a spoon, the tart was every bit as smooth and light as a Lemon Tart should be. No wonder Albert Roux approved of the glazed sugar crust on the top, its a textural masterpiece as you get the crispy top, soft upper half and fully set lower going into crispy pastry, it really is simply brilliant.