Creamy Lemon Tart Recipe with Almond Crust | Gluten Free (2024)

FAQs

Why does my lemon tart filling crack? ›

Why does my lemon tart crack? The most common reasons why your tart has cracked is because the oven was too hot or the tart baked too long and overbaked. We recommend pulling your lemon tart from the oven when it's still a little jiggly in the middle when the pan is gently shaken.

A custard with both eggs and starch needs to be thoroughly cooked. The reason is that yolks contain an enzyme which liquidifies starch. It doesn't happen outright, but will happen while your tart is cooling. The only way to prevent it is to heat the mix high enough so the enzyme is deactivated.

A runny lemon tart could be the result of two things: not cooking the filling long enough or not chilling the tart long enough. To know how long to cook the filling, you'll need an instant-read thermometer. The filling should reach 175 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit before it's pulled from the heat.

One such issue is the problem of a curdled custard tart. Burr explains that custard, especially ones that are heavy on fruit, have a tendency to split as a result of the moisture content and too-high oven temperatures. This is the chief issue you'll encounter when baking a lemon tart.

Runny pastry cream most often comes from undercooking the egg yolk mixture. If you remove it from the heat too soon, the amylase in the egg yolks won't break down and will prevent the cream from fully setting. If you find your crème pâtissière is too thin, return to heat and bring to a boil over medium heat to thicken.

Half-fill the tart case with lemon mixture, then place tart on an oven shelf, ensuring it's level. Fill to the rim with remaining filling (you may have a little left over). Bake until the tart is set but with a little wobble in the centre (about 30 minutes).

Carefully pour your filling into your cooled (or slightly warm) tart shell and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until the filling has set. To test, gently jiggle the tart pan- if the centre of the tart jiggles slightly, the tart is done.

Starch thickens pastry cream. Most recipes incorporate flour, cornstarch, or a mix of the two. I found that flour produced a thicker, heavier texture and imparted an undesirable “floury” taste.

Can you leave a lemon tart out overnight? It's best to refrigerate your lemon tart after serving to prevent the filling from going bad. Leaving it out overnight could spoil the tart and make it unsafe to eat.

Why does my lemon tart taste eggy? ›

Although lemon curd uses egg yolks and/or egg whites, the final product shouldn't taste eggy. If it does, it may mean that you've overcooked your eggs. In saying that, traditional lemon curd does have a distinct after taste which doesn't sit well with some.

When dough doesn't have enough water, or if it's not properly hydrated (more on that below), it will feel and look dry and be prone to cracking.

However, if they are overheated, too many bonds form and the proteins clump. To find a fix for lumps, we overcooked a simple custard to 205 degrees (the recommended temperature is 175 to 180 degrees), at which point it was full of large lumps. Rescuing the custard turned out to be a cinch with an immersion blender.

She starts by mixing some flour and water in a bowl—just enough to make a small amount of paste, the consistency of spackle. She then uses a spatula or the back of a spoon to spread the paste across the line of damage in the crust. Next, she places the crust in the oven and bakes it just until the paste has dried.

Eggs start to coagulate (turn solid) at 160°F (which is how they thicken the filling); but the longer they cook, the more they tighten up. Those cracks you see in your pie are the result of overcooked eggs, eggs that have tightened up so much, in an uneven way, that they've created fissures in the filling.

If the filling is runny and flowing out of the tart when you cut into it, then it is likely that the curd was not cooked for quite long enough. You need to be patient when cooking citrus curds as if you heat the mixture too quickly then it can curdle and become lumpy. You need to keep a low heat and stir constatntly.