Blackberry-Lemon Tart

Hey foodies,

Blackberry season is here! I love this little fruit! I enjoy picking it in the forest just as much as eating it!

Today I suggest pairing it with lemon to create a lovely tart – it's delicious and full of pep!

For a rectangular tart of 26 x 10 cm you will need:

Lemon cream:

- 1 gelatine sheet

- 65gr of sugar

- 1 yellow lemon (60gr of juice + zest)

- 1 lime (25gr of juice + zest)

- 75gr of eggs

- 87gr of cold butter

Shortcrust pastry:

- 125gr of softened butter

- 75gr of icing sugar

- 20gr of eggs

- 2gr of salt

- 1 lime zest

- 225gr of flour

Decoration:

- 300gr of fresh blackberries

- Snow sugar

- A few mint leaves

Lemon cream

We'll start by preparing our lemon cream.

Soak 1 gelatine sheet in a bowl of cold water.

Using a microplane grater, zest 1 yellow lemon and 1 lime over the 65gr of sugar.

Little tip: mix the sugar and the zests together – this will infuse the sugar and develop the aromas. Set aside.

Crack 2 eggs into a bowl and lightly whisk with a whisk or a fork. Divide the mixed eggs as follows: 1x 75gr and 1x 20gr.

You may need a third egg, depending on their size. Here 2 eggs were enough for me.

Keep the 75gr of eggs. Set the 20gr of eggs aside – they will be used for the shortcrust pastry later.

Whisk the 75gr of eggs with the sugar/zests until pale. Set aside.

Juice the yellow lemon (60gr of juice) and the lime (25gr of juice).

In a saucepan, bring the lemon juices to a boil.

As soon as the juices boil, pour them over the whisked eggs with the sugar and zests. Mix.

Pour back into the saucepan.

Using a 2-in-1 whisk-thermometer, stir continuously and vigorously to cook the lemon cream.

I highly recommend this utensil – with it you no longer need to hold the thermometer while whisking. The bonus: it beeps once the desired temperature is reached.

Back to our lemon cream! Cook it up to 82°C, always stirring. Be careful not to let the lemon cream stick to the bottom of the saucepan – scrambled eggs in a tart aren't great ;-)

Remove the saucepan from the heat, squeeze out the gelatine and add it to the cream. Mix well with the whisk.

Did your cream stick a little? Are there lumps? You can strain your lemon cream. Here I didn't need to as I got a perfectly smooth cream.

Add 87gr of cold butter to the lemon cream. Mix well.

You should get a perfectly smooth cream.

Transfer to a container and cover the lemon cream directly with cling film. Refrigerate for 2h or until completely cooled.

Shortcrust pastry

In the bowl of your stand mixer, add 125gr of softened butter and 75gr of icing sugar.

Mix these two ingredients with the flat beater until the mixture becomes creamy and smooth.

Take the 20gr of eggs and add them to the bowl with the rest.

Using the spoon-scale, weigh 2gr of salt and add it to the mixture.

Zest 1 lime with the microplane grater.

Mix for a few seconds with the flat beater.

Finally, add 225gr of flour and mix very briefly with the flat beater. As soon as you see a crumble-like texture, stop the mixer.

If you over-mix, the gluten will develop and your pastry will puff up during baking. So take it easy! ;-)

Finish by working the dough by hand.

Once the dough is well combined, place it between 2 sheets of baking paper. Place 5 mm guide sticks on each side of the dough and roll it out evenly with a rolling pin.

Once evenly rolled out, place it in the freezer for 10 minutes.

For this recipe, I used this rectangular frame from Silikomart.

Get a perforated baking tray and a perforated mat. Baking will be optimal with these two tools! A perfectly baked and crispy pastry all over.

Once the 10 minutes are up, take out your pastry dough and cut it using the frame. Silikomart frames/rings are super handy for cutting the dough. You can use it as a cookie cutter – that's what it's made for! ;-)

Cut out the tart base and place it on the perforated tray and mat.

With the remaining dough, roll it out (same method as above) then using a pastry strip cutter, cut even strips of 2 cm.

Don't hesitate to put your dough back in the freezer if it becomes too sticky and soft.

Place the strips against the edge of your frame. Be as neat as possible, pressing the dough firmly against the frame.

Using a knife, trim off any excess dough.

Prick the tart base with a fork. Leave in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 170°C, fan-assisted.

There's still a little dough left, so we'll use it for the final decoration (and for snacking, hehe!)

Roll out the dough again. Using a plunger cutter, cut out the remaining dough. Here I chose this one, in a leaf shape (the smallest in the set) which has lovely embossed details. I want to give my tart a little autumnal feel ;-)

After 20 minutes in the freezer, place the tart base and the little leaf biscuits in the oven.

About 10-12 minutes for the small leaf biscuits.

About 20-25 minutes for the tart base.

So make sure to take out the small biscuits before the tart base ;-)

Once baked, unmould the tart – it should come out easily.

Using a microplane grater, gently smooth any small imperfections on the top or sides of the tart.

Take the lemon cream out of the fridge.

Loosen the lemon cream with a whisk to make it smooth and supple.

Pour it into the tart base and smooth evenly with an offset spatula.

Decoration

Time to decorate! My favourite part! ;-)

For this, place 300gr of blackberries on the tart. The blackberries here were very large, so you may not need as many as I used.

Using a small sieve, dust the blackberries with snow sugar. Snow sugar is like icing sugar except it resists moisture – and that's brilliant! I'm a huge fan of this product!

Place a few leaf biscuits on top – whatever is left will go with the coffee! ;-)

Do the same with a few mint leaves. Use precision tweezers to help.

What a beautiful tart!

If all these steps seem daunting, you can of course prepare your lemon cream 2 days ahead, your shortcrust pastry the day before, and finish with the baking and assembly on the day. I often do it that way myself! ;-)

I hope you enjoy this tart!

See you soon, foodies!

Laura

PS: all the equipment used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.