Italian Lemon Almond Tarts
A wonderfully mouth-watering burst of lemon fills this Italian influenced tart base, made a part-almond pate sucree crust, along with flaked almonds on top. Makes 12-15 mini tarts, or one 9-10 inch full size tart. The tartness of a French Tarte au Citron meets the sandy & buttery Italian style crust!
Equipment
- 3-4 inch mini tart tins or one 9-10 inch tart tin
Ingredients
Pate Sucree Tart Shell
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cold and diced
- 1½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup almond flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 egg yolks, beaten with 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-3 tbsp cold water
Lemon Filling
- Rind of 4 lemons
- 1 cup lemon juice
- ¾ - 1 cup granulated sugar (the tart is, well, tart, so I use closer to the maximum of sugar, but do as you like best)
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, diced
- 4 eggs
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Garnish
- 1 cup flaked almonds
- confectioners sugar for serving
Instructions
For the Pate Sucree Tart Shell
- To a food processor, add the butter, flours, sugar, and salt. Pulse 10-12 times until the mixture resembles fine grains of sand.
- Add in the egg/lemon mixture, vanilla extract, and 1 tbsp of the cold water. Process until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides. If it remains a little dry, add a second tbsp of cold water, and so forth.
- Knead the dough a few times on a floured surface and shape into a disk. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 30 minutes, or until ready to roll out.
- Grease your tart tin or tins.
- When rolling out, allow the dough 10 minutes to come to room temperature if taking from the freezer after an extended time. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick or so, cut out the area you need if making smaller tarts, and fold the dough over your rolling pin.
- Gently lay the dough over the greased tart tin and unfold. Gently tuck the dough into the sides and bottom of the tin. Roll the rolling pin over the top of the tin and trim the edges. While turning the tin around, gently tuck the dough again into the bottom sides and start pressing up the dough slightly above each side groove as you create a little lip of dough over the top. It doesn't have to be huge, just a little extra to make up for blind baking shrinkage!
- Wrap the tart/s in plastic wrap and freeze until ready. If blind baking right away, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Gingerly add a double layer of aluminum foil to the tart tin/s, making sure to cover the top edges of the tart dough. Add pie weights or baking beans into the center of the foil and blind bake for 30 minutes if a full sized tart, or 10 minutes if mini tarts.
- After the baking time has elapsed, remove the foil and weights/beans and continue to bake for 5-10 minutes if a full sized tart, and 5 minutes if a mini tart.
- If saving the blind baked tart shells, leave in the tins and refrigerate.
For the Lemon Filling
- Into a medium sized saucepan, add the sugar and zest of the lemons. Whisk the sugar and lemons together until a fragrant lemon sugar is created. This step is crucial - it makes all the difference in the blooming of the oils of the lemon zest into the granules of sugar that are just waiting to soak it up.
- Add the other ingredients to the pan, now over medium-low heat. Stir until the butter dissolves and then start whisking.
- Keep whisking until the mixture thickens and you can see trails when lifting up your whisk. If the mixture starts to bubble, remove from the heat and keep whisking until the heat is lower.
- Pass the lemon filling through a sieve into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap onto the top of the filling so a skin doesn't form. Refrigerate until set, at least 2 hours.
- Separately, toast the flaked almonds over medium-low heat until they give off that toasted almond smell and are a nice mixture of light and darker golden tones. Set aside.
To Assemble / Bake
- Preheat oven or leave on if baking right away to 350 degrees.
- Spoon the chilled lemon mixture (which you have whisked up to soften) into the blind baked tart shell/s. Top with toasted almonds and bake on a baking sheet just until the lemon filling has set, about 10-15 minutes tops for a larger tart, and 5-7 minutes for smaller tarts.
- Allow the tart/s to cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire rack, and then pop out the side and bottom of the tart tin/s. I place the larger tart on a canister and loosen the sides until it comes free, or, if small tarts, remove each tart with oven mits on. Allow the tart/s to cool completely. Refrigerate until serving. You can also freeze the tart/s for up to a week.
- When serving, dust with confectioners sugar and enjoy!
