Our third and final recipe from The Food52 Cookbook review was a sweet surprise considering there is and entire lemon in the mix. Yes, that’s right, no zesting or juicing required—remove the seeds, trim the ends, and you are ready to go. Lemon lovers that we are, we used regular lemon in place of the Meyer lemon indicated in the recipe (our grocery store seemed to always be sold out) without any “intrusive acidity” alluded to in the recipe intro.
Just five ingredients and a blender is all you need for this refreshing dessert once your favorite crust is secured.
Unless, of course, you take the approach of Culinista Annouchka, from the Food52 community who said, “I actually put the mixture into ramekins and in a water bath—it was a superb crustless lemon tart!” I have to agree; crust or no crust, the simplicity and straightforward lemon in this tart is wonderful, if not a bit lazy. Remarkably, it was even better the second day, though amazing it lasted that long.
We used our favorite gluten-free pie crust, which has more ingredients than the tart filling, but with a food processor is a snap to make from scratch. The great thing about scratch pie crust is making extra for a cinnamon-sugar crusts treat for the kids (and the kid in me). Usually, I cut them into strips, but this time my daughter wanted to make a dinosaur shape, velociraptor, specifically (made famous by the Jurassic Park movies). Artist that she is, she did a fair job with it—besides, it’s always good to have a little fun in the kitchen!
BY DYMNYNO A&M: People who taste this smooth, fragrant tart won’t believe that it contains a whole lemon, rind and all. Nor will they understand how you got it to be so fragrant and light and not at all gummy the way lemon curd tarts can sometimes be. In our view “Mary” wasn’t lazy at all, she was brilliant. She has you whiz the filling together in a blender, then simply pour it into a blind-baked tart shell. Dymnyno, who lives in the Napa Valley, said, “Versions of this simple, quick dessert have circulated around the valley for years.” She gave the tart her own touch—a Meyer lemon—which lends it fragrance and finesse and none of the intrusive acidity found in regular lemons.
Ingredients
- 1 large Meyer lemon, cut into 8 pieces
- 11/2 cups superfine sugar
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- Your favorite 9-inch tart shell, blind-baked
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Put all the ingredients—except the tart shell—into a blender and whirl like crazy!
- Pour into the tart shell.
- Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. (Watch that the top does not burn.) Cool on a wire rack before serving.
Notes
To blind bake the tart shell, we lined a 9-inch fluted tart pan with the pastry dough, pricked it with a fork, lined it with parchment, filled it with pie weights, and baked it at 375°F for 15 minutes, then removed the weights and baked it for another 10 minutes. Once the tart shell cooled, we added the lemon filling and sent it back for one last turn in the oven. Start checking it at 35 minutes.
ABOUT THE COOK
Mary Fairbanks Constant owns Constant Winery in Napa Valley, California, where she also serves as the winery cook. Here’s her blog: Current Vintage www.current‑vintage.com
WHAT THE COMMUNITY SAID
Aargersi: “Made this for a dinner party Saturday night and it was a hit! I used a pecan maple crust recipe that is super easy and it all came together perfectly. Bless you, Lazy Mary! This appears to be one of the most popular recipes on Food52!!!”
Posted on the following Blog Hops:
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This delicious recipe and over a hundred others can be found in The Food52 Cookbook —we are giving away not just one, but 2 of them.
This drawing ended December 13, 2011
Follow this link to enter to win one:
The Food52 Cookbook Giveaway: 5 Days, 2 Winners
I don’t want to sound TOO lazy, but you don’t even have to seed the lemon or cut off the ends. The blender pulverizes everything.
Hi Mary, so glad you stopped by! I am so glad to be able to share your delicious recipe with my readers, it is wonderful. I just assumed the seeds would have to go, didn’t imagine throwing it all in there. Thanks so much for taking time to comment and letting me know
What a great sounding tart. My refrigerator is always full of lemons. Now where is my blender hiding.
Five ingredients and a blender? I’m in! I love lemon tarts!
My good friend’s son is crazy about food and dinosaurs and would flip for that T-Rex.
This Lemon Tart is just absolutely amazing looking. I can just imagine myself enjoying this any day of the week. Amazing recipe
You must be kidding me – from such a wonderfully simply recipe the return is not meant to be do decadent!
Yum and bookmarked
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
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