Crowd pleasing lemon tart

This simple lemony dessert was originally a recipe for popular lemon squares.

Yesterday we visited Mikael, Maria, Jonas and newborn little Emil – probably for the last time in Berlin, because they are moving to Dresden next month. They wanted to make us dinner: they need to clear their freezer.

It's somehow very sad even if we don't see them so often, because we've lived in the same city with them ever since we were flatmates in Dublin, in 2006. It's the end of an era.

To not come empty handed, I offered to bring dessert. This lemon pie was served as lemon squares at our Easter brunch (double batch, baked in a square pan) and gathered a lot of praise. Again last night it was devoured down to the very last little crumb: little Jonas ate three pieces!

It's an easy dessert to make because no expensive or hard-to-find ingredients are needed.

Lemon tart

Pie crust:
100g organic butter, cold
4 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
225ml organic wheat flour

Turn the oven to 175°C. Mix the flour and sugar, pinch in the butter until the pastry dough is even. Butter your pie dish to prevent the pie from sticking. Using your fingers, press the dough evenly to fill the dish – make sure to have a tight rim and a bit of pastry around the edge – the first time I made this dish the lemon filling was able to slip in under the crust and it made for a terrible mess! Bake for about 20 minutes, until barely golden. Let it cool while you prepare the filling.

Filling:
150ml organic lemon juice + 1 tbsp grated lemon peel (2-3 organic lemons)
250ml fair trade sugar
3 tbsp organic wheat flour
3 organic eggs

Wash the lemons, grate the peel and squeeze the juice through a sieve. In a bowl, combine lemons, sugar, then add the eggs and flour – mix gently to not make the eggs foam: that will leave a foamy surface on the tart. Pour the mixture over the pre-baked crust and bake the pie in 175°C for another 20 minutes, until the filling is stale. Let the pie cool before serving and sprinkle it with icing sugar.


Recipe adapted from the Finnish food blog Otetaan ensin puoli kiloa voita...