My husband and I bought our fixer in the Oakland Hills last year. I still do not have a functioning oven, but I do have a super cool and surprisingly functional Breville countertop oven. Yes, you are reading this right, I am going to blow your mind with amazing recipes that can be made in a $200 Breville oven. I hope this post will inspire and encourage others that also do not have a fully functioning oven (such as many of my friends in the City). You can still manage to make these amazing lemon tarts.

Basically, these are a take on a tart that I tried at Bouchon years ago. Over the last few years I’ve created my own easy lemon tart recipe. It is very yummy, and easy to make. It will definitely impress your family and friends, especially if you make it for a wine party. It pairs nicely with a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio.

Ingredients

Crust

2 sticks of butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg yolk
½ tablespoon milk
2 1/3 cup all purpose flour (I like Bob’s Red Mill – it has the best consistency)
¼ teaspoon salt

Lemon Sabayon

(Sabayon is just a fancy word for curd)

2 eggs, cold
2 egg yolks, cold
½ cup sugar
½ cup fresh lemon juice (I like using Meyer, but any lemons will work)
3 tablespoons (1.5 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

 

Preparation

Crust

  • Preheat your oven to 350 F. If you use a convection oven, 330 F.
  • Butter your tart pan if you decide to make one large tart. As you’ll see above, I free handed a few small tarts.
  • Cream butter and sugar until its almost a whipped consistency. Then add egg yolk and milk and mix by hand.
  • Roll dough into a ball and put in the fridge for 30 -45 minutes. When I’m in a rush, I put it into the freezer to 10-15 minutes and it does the trick.
  • Roll out your crust and either line your tart pan or free hand small pie crusts. - Before baking the pie crust, poke small holes into the crust with a fork. (This will allow the steam to escape while baking. If you forget this step, your crust will bubble and puff up.)
  • Bake crust in oven for 12-14 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

While the crust is cooling, make the lemon sabayon!

Lemon Sabayon

  • Bring 2 inches of water to a boil in a pot that is smaller than the diameter of the bowl you will be using for the sabayon.
  • While you are waiting for the water to come to a boil, in a large metal bowl, whisk the eggs, yolks and sugar until the mixture is smooth (about a minute).
  • Set the bowl over the pot of boiling water and whisk the mixture while turning the bowl which will help with heating the sabayon evenly.
  • Once the eggs have thickened and start to foam, start by pouring half of the lemon juice into the mixture and continue to whisk vigorously.
  • Once the mixture thickens again, add the remaining lemon juice and whisk until consistency is thick and you can see the bottom of the pan as you beat the mixture.
  • Take off heat and fold in the butter.
  • Last step is pouring the sabayon into the crust and placing the tart back into the oven for 30 seconds.

Now refrigerate and enjoy! You can add some garnishes as you wish – fresh berries are always a great choice!

 

Audrey