Tarte au Citron (French Lemon Tart)

Why Tarte au Citron is France's Most Popular Tart

Tarte au citron isn't just another French pastry - it's officially France's best-selling tart. At the Pâtisserie Exhibition at the Cité Gastronomique in Dijon, we discovered just how devoted the French are to their pastries:

• 40% of French people buy a pâtisserie at least once a week.
• France's favourite N°1 pastry is tarts - from the classic lemon tart all year round to seasonal apple tarts, strawberry tarts to the famous tarte Bourdaloue.
• What's N°2? Chocolate cakes - such as chocolate fondant, Moelleux aux chocolat (lava cake) or l'Opéra.
• French men buy the most pastry compared with French women! (although the statistic was neck and neck).

What's in a Traditional Tarte au Citron?

A classic French lemon tart filling contains:

• Fresh lemon juice and zest - important to choose organic, unwaxed
• Whole eggs - organic, free-range
• Sugar
• Butter - use European style butter with 82% fat.
• A little gelatine - for clean slicing

Unlike lemon meringue pie, tarte au citron contains no cream and is not baked once poured into the shell.

Easy Recipe for French Lemon Tart

First, bake your sweet pastry shell until golden and completely cool. French tarte au citron always has a relatively thin base - about 2cm high - with the filling right to the top.

Prepare everything at the ready before you start ('mise en place'). Zest directly into your saucepan and soak the gelatine if using sheets. Then squeeze and strain the lemon and lime juice, weighing it precisely - accuracy matters here.

Whisk the juice, zest, sugar and eggs together before turning on the heat. Once on medium heat, keep whisking steadily. The mixture will thicken and turn glossy in about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter and gelatine until smooth and silky. At this stage it should coat the back of a spoon.

Pour immediately into the cooled tart shell. Then chill for at least an hour until cleanly set and beautifully shiny.

My Top Tips for the Best Lemon Tart

Here are my top tips for making the lemon filling. See separate tips for baking the sweet shortcrust pastry base (it has a little salt to give it the best flavour):

• If your lemons are not that great and not unwaxed, then I'd say don't make it! Although, if it absolutely has to be on your dessert menu, adding the juice of a lime helps make it extra special
• Juicing lemons are easier if left out at room temperature
• Weigh your ingredients precisely using scales in either grams or ounces
• Lemon zest: grate only the unwaxed outer yellow zest, never the underlying bitter white pith
• Pre-bake the tart crust first and leave to cool completely so that the filling cools and sets well
• Keep the tart in the fridge for at least an hour to ensure the filling is perfectly set. This makes it easy to cut slices at the table.

Best Tarte au Citron in Paris

After tasting dozens (OK - I confess it's more) of French lemon tarts across Paris, I based this recipe on the best of them - clean citrus flavour with lemon juice, low sugar, no cream and a perfectly thin pastry shell. Here are just a few of our best bakery picks in Paris:

There are more (Pierre Hermé, Carette, Gerard Mulot) but before I digress further, let's return to the recipe. Un, deux, trois - on y va !

Tarte au Citron Decoration Ideas

It's funny. For such a popular dessert in Parisian pastry shops, most French lemon tarts are pretty naked, barely decorated or served with anything at all.

Jacques Genin, the French pastry chef renowned for his tarte au citron, decorates his with just a light dusting of lime zest. Many pastry shops have followed suit - and so I finely grate on both lemon and lime zest.

To decorate for special occasions, add some creative and seasonal toppings:

• fresh berries: strawberries, raspberries or blueberries or cape gooseberries;
• mint leaves or thin lemon slices
• edible flowers: e.g. pansies, borage, even strawberry flowers - ensure they are from an organic source, not sprayed
• candied Easter eggs - as Menton lemon season falls around Spring and Easter, this is a fun Easter dessert
• mini French macaron shells - from your stock in the freezer
• Mendiants - traditional French chocolate disks are great with the citron's tartness

How to Serve - Some Pairings

As lemon tart needs to be refrigerated to set properly, most people think it should be served really chilled. Wrong.

Like most French tarts or pastries we enjoy from our pâtisseries, take it out of the fridge about 15 minutes before serving. This helps bring out the natural citrus flavours better. In France we serve as is without any cream or coulis sauce to enjoy its simplicity.

Serve with a demi-sec Champagne or a light tea to compliment the fragrant lemon: Russian Caravan or Darjeeling, the Champagne of teas.

If you love citrus, try my orange cheesecake.

From My CookBook, Inspired by Paris

This recipe evolved from the lemon and passion fruit tartlets in my book Teatime in Paris. After years of tasting some of the best tarte au citron in Paris - from Jacques Genin to Pierre Hermé - I refined it into this pure lemon and lime version.

It remains one of my most requested desserts.