Raspberry Lemon Tart for Sugar High Friday

Funny thing that I haven’t entered a Sugar High Friday in months and the one that I choose to do, that I’m inspired by is themed citrus. Quick background information about me: I love chocolate, and rich, creamy, heavy things. Citruses don’t normally fall into that category. They’re more of the refreshing, light, tart types. I’ve never been tempted by key lime pie, for example. But the other day, I was tempted by some extremely red, juicy looking raspberries. For these, I wanted a dessert to do them justice. And even though I don’t love citrus based things so much, I know a few people, or one specific person, who does.

Because of my bias for chocolate, I’m not too experienced in the world of lemons and limes, especially curds and creams and things along that line. So I wanted to start with something basic and (almost) universally loved: lemon cream. And so my raspberry lemon tart was born. Very simple but good. It was well received, and I even liked it. The raspberries were so ripe, at that point where they’re sweetest, so it actually isn’t a big surprise that a bite of sour lemon and raspberry along with thick, cookie-like homemade pate sucre was pretty dang good. It was a one-sitting sort of tart, granted I made a little one, so it didn’t last longer than about 5 minutes.

I just used a regular pate sucre recipe except instead of almond powder, I used hazelnut powder, which was hard to detect with the strong flavors from the lemon cream. And for the cream, I followed Maury Rubin’s recipe from Book of Tarts. It was actually a very liquidy, smooth cream, I was expecting it to be a bit more firm after refrigerating it, but as you can see it spilled out as soon as we broke into the tart.

So, for this Sugar High Friday #43 hosted by Tartelette, and created by the Domestic Goddess, I’m going to bat with my Raspberry Lemon Tart. It might not be the most original, but it’s not bad to look at, and eating it isn’t too rough either. If only every day could be Sugar High Friday...


Raspberry Lemon Tart

pate sucre
300 g butter
190 g powdered sugar
60 g powdered hazelnuts (or almonds)
1 vanilla bean
2 eggs
500 g flour
pinch of salt

First, cream the butter until it’s nice and soft, then add the powdered sugar, ground hazelnuts, and scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean. Mix again, then beat in the eggs. Now add the flour and salt until everything is just incorporated, don’t overmix. The second everything comes together, form it into a ball, wrap in saran wrap. Now I think you’re supposed to refrigerate for at least 4 hours or some ridiculously long time like that, but I never have the patience, so I just put into the freezer for about half an hour while I clean up. When it’s pretty hard (because it’ll soften the second you get it out and start rolling it), take it out and work quickly. On a floured surface, roll it into a circle larger than your tart mold (I used a springform pan because I like the look of straight edges). Mine turned out a little thick, remember, it puffs up in the oven, so roll it to about ¼ inch thick. Put over the mold, press down in the pan and fill in any patches that you might have, then cut the edges off to make a straight line. Poke some holes with a fork around the crust. Now in a piece of wax paper placed over your crust, pour in some rise or beans or whatever sort of pie weights you can and spread them out to the edges. Bake at 175C/350F for around 15-20 minutes, after which you’ll probably need to take out the weights and wax paper so the crust can brown in the oven for a few more minutes. When brown and done, take out of the oven and let cool.

lemon cream
zest and juice from 4 lemons (separate)
4 egg yolks
100 g sugar
113 g butter
pinch of salt
raspberries

In a bowl, mix the sugar and lemon zest in between your fingers (I’m not sure why you do this, but many different recipes I looked at said to do it this way, so I did, and it was fun and turned out to make pretty sugar). Add the egg yolks and lemon juice and whisk well, then in a double boiler over simmering water, whisk the cream for about 5-10 minutes, until it thickens and coats a wooden spoon. You need to whisk almost constantly, especially around the edges, to minimalize lumping. When it’s good and thick, put the butter in a bowl and pour the lemon cream through a fine mesh sieve over the butter. When you’ve passed it all through, stir it with the butter until it’s all melted. Sprinkle in a tiny bit of salt, mix again, and then pour into the tart shell until it comes up to the edges. Put in the fridge to cool for a few hours and when you’re ready to serve, top with raspberries and enjoy!