I absolutely love everything about this dessert. It is sweet, tangy, light and fresh and beautiful too. The flaky crust combined with creamy filling and bright blueberry topping is about as good as dessert gets (unless it is chocolate). 🙂
This dessert looks impressive, but since it only has 3 components, it isn’t really that much work. It has a classic tart crust base, a layer of lemon curd, and a layer of blueberry topping. If you haven’t made fruit curd before, you have to give it a try. It is some of the most delicious stuff on the planet, and a great way to use up extra eggs too.
I almost always try to make my pie/tart crust the day before and let rest in the fridge overnight before using. This really allows the flour to hydrate and the dough to relax and helps make a great crust. You need to bake the crust and fully cool here before adding the fillings so plan for that too. You can use warm lemon curd since it bakes a bit more after adding it. The tart also needs 2 hours minimum to cool in the fridge before cutting, so pay attention to timing on this recipe.
Blueberry Lemon Tart
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 8 tbsp chilled unsalted butter cut into 1/4 inch pieces
For the lemon curd:
- 1/4 cup lemon zest
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1 large egg
- 5 large egg yolks
- 1/3 cup honey
- pinch of salt
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter cut into pieces
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
For the blueberry topping:
- 10 oz fresh or frozen blueberries
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp water
Instructions
For the crust:
- Whisk egg yolk, cream, and vanilla together in bowl. Whisk the flour, powdered sugar, and salt until combined. Scatter chilled butter over top and quickly work pieces into the flour with your hands, until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, You want to keep the butter cold to get flaky crust, so work fast and handle the butter as little as possible. Add egg yolk mixture and toss with fork until dough just comes together. Use a bench scraper to push stray flour and dough together into the mass and fold it over onto itself to build layers. Once you have a fairly cohesive dough with some visible butter chunks, stop there.
- Form dough into 6-inch disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour or better overnight.
- Let chilled dough sit on counter to soften slightly, about 10 minutes. Roll dough into 11-inch circle on lightly floured counter. Loosely roll dough around rolling pin and gently unroll it onto 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom, letting excess dough hang over edge. Ease dough into pan by gently lifting edge of dough with your hand while pressing into corners and fluted sides of pan with your other hand. Run rolling pin over top of pan to remove any excess dough.
- Wrap dough-lined pan loosely in plastic, place on large plate, and freeze until dough is chilled and firm, about 30 minutes.
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375ºF. Set dough-lined tart pan on baking sheet, line with double layer of aluminum foil or parchment, covering edges to prevent burning, and fill with pie weights or beans.
- Bake until crust is golden brown and set, about 30 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Remove weights and foil and let crust cool.
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350ºF.
For the lemon curd:
- Measure out 1 tablespoon lemon juice and set aside. Whisk remaining lemon juice, lemon zest, egg and yolks, ⅓ cup honey, and pinch salt in medium saucepan until smooth. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with rubber spatula, until mixture thickens slightly and registers 165ºF, about 5 minutes.
- Off heat, whisk in chilled butter until melted. Strain lemon curd through fine-mesh strainer into bowl, then gently stir in cream with rubber spatula.
- Pour warm lemon curd into cooled tart crust. Set tart on baking sheet and bake until filling is shiny and opaque and center jiggles slightly when shaken, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Transfer tart with baking sheet to wire rack and let cool slightly.
For the blueberry topping:
- Process blueberries in a food processor until smooth, about 2 minutes. Strain purée through clean fine-mesh strainer into medium saucepan, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible (you should have about ¾ cup); discard solids.
- Meanwhile, process blueberries in a food processor until smooth, about 2 minutes. Strain purée through clean fine-mesh strainer into medium saucepan, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible (you should have about ¾ cup); discard solids.
- Pour blueberry mixture evenly over cooled lemon filling. Tap pan lightly on counter to release any air bubbles, then refrigerate until blueberry mixture is set and shiny, about 2 hours.
- To serve, remove outer ring of tart pan, slide thin metal spatula between tart and tart pan bottom, and carefully slide tart onto serving patter or cutting board.