Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
My 11 year old, Sapphire, has really taken to baking – all the kids help out in various degrees in the kitchen, of course, Lincoln, 7, for eg, makes his own omelette/scrambled eggs with someone just standing by and watching because of the hot stove. The girls bake bread every weekend, it started off with me showing them how, now I’m not involved in the process at all. Sapphire has taken that a step further with always wanting to bake something sweet. Which is quite great really, with all the packing going on at the moment!
I’ve woken up a couple of Sundays to the aroma of our Butter Cookies in the oven; both times she and Lincoln decided to bake at 7am on a Sunday morning!
So today’s recipe and images, while it might have been in my head to begin with, were executed and styled by my 11 year old! I’ve been wanting to add passionfruit to our regular lemon tart for ages now and we finally did yesterday! So, the pastry here is the same Pâte Sucrèe or Sweet Shortcrust Pastry that we use for our Lemon Tart. The filling is a little different, of course.
I use Anchor Butter for all my baking, always preferring salted butter to unsalted, which is probably the opposite of what most professionals like to do.
Making the pastry is a little time consuming because of the 2 chilling times of 30 minutes but the result is so much better than shop bought, it’s well worth the effort and time! And you know, it’s not like you have to sit there and wait, go off and do stuff – wash up, have lunch, do some abs!
If it’s summer time or you live in the tropics, increase the flour by about 30g/1oz to combat the heat. If you have a marble slab that you work on and if it’s small enough, place that in the fridge too – it really helps! It’s been a very warm few days here in the UK, so we did go down this route.
If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!
And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Lin xx
Lemon and Passionfruit Tart
Ingredients
Sweet crust pastry
- 120 g butter softened
- 100 g icing sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk beaten, for glazing
- 250 g plain flour
- 2-3 tbsp cold water if needed
*Filling:*
- 4 large free range eggs
- 120 g caster sugar
- 125 ml double cream
- Juice of 3 lemons – about 125ml / half cup
- 2 ripe passionfruit
- zest of 1 lemon optional, I prefer without
- You’ll need a 9″/22cm loose bottomed tart tin
Instructions
- For the pastry, with a wooden spoon, beat butter and icing sugar till mixed and there are no sugar lumps. Shouldn’t take more than a minute.
- Then beat in in the eggs, still with the wooden spoon. Don’t worry if you can’t/don’t get a smooth liquid.
- Add the flour and and fold in with the wooden spoon.
- When you have gone as far as you can with the spoon, work the pastry with your fingertips till the mix comes together and is relatively smooth.
- If needed, add water, 1 tbsp at a time as needed and lightly bring it all together. Knead it very slightly and gently to smooth it all out (do not overwork the pastry).
- Flatten it, wrap in clingfilm, and chill for 30 mins.
- Lightly flour a work surface, a chilled marble or granite slab would be perfect, to keep the pastry cold. Roll the pastry out to about 2-3cm/1″ thickness.
- Lift the dough and place it in a 23cm (9″) loose bottomed tart tin. This is easier done if you roll part of of the dough onto the rolling pin first and lift it up with the pin. Make sure the pastry is neatly tucked in all around. Long nails, be careful!
- Cut off the overhanging pastry, leaving a slight hang for shrinkage if you want. Prick the pastry all over and chill again for 30 mins. I know this is time consuming but you can go off and do stuff in that 30 mins.
- Turn oven on to 180˚/375˚F and place a baking sheet on the middle shelf. This is to ensure the bottom of the pastry cooks evenly too. After 30 mins, line pastry with baking paper, fill with beans/rice (ceramic baking beans are perfect) and bake on the hot baking sheet for about 12-15 mins. You need to check this as all ovens are different.
- Remove the baking paper & beans and bake for another 3 mins. Brush the pastry all over with the beaten egg yolk & bake again for 2 mins. this forms a seal & stops the bottom of the pastry getting soggy from the filling.
- Leave to cool for at least half an hour before removing from the tin. Remember hot pastry is soft.
- For the filling, turn oven up to 190˚C/375˚F. This is the easy part!
- Gently hand whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl (over whisking will result in too many bubbles/foam, you don’t want that).
- Add the cream, whisk, then add the lemon juice. Some people like to add lemon zest but I don’t like bits in my tart!
- Carefully pour the mix into the case & bake for about 20-25 mins. Serve at room temperature, dusted with icing sugar.
This is a very pretty tart! I can’t believe that your 11 year old made this, really amazing! And she took the photos too!
Haha, right? Thank you!
Wow, very impressive. If only my kids were that industrious! You are so lucky, I like the combination.
Haha, thank you!