Lemon Lavender Tart
With Easter on Sunday, now’s the time for festive tables and bright colored desserts. Sure, chocolate is always a winner, but with those Easter baskets full of chocolate bunnies and eggs, a fruity dessert seems like the perfect choice to don your table. While strawberries are starting to appear at local farmers markets, Meyer lemons are still in season and a wonderful choice.
Slightly sweeter than your standard Eureka Lemon, Meyers are great for lemon curds, lemon tarts and the very popular lemon bar. I love a good lemon dessert. Don’t get me wrong, I will never turn down a chocolate anything (even a milk chocolate bunny). But a fruit dessert… those just make my heart sing. I love strawberries, cherries, peaches… but lemon… that tang adds the perfect finishing touch to any table. Not only is the color amazing, the flavor tends to be great as well.
There’s just one thing I don’t like about lemon desserts, especially the curds and bars: the process it takes to make them. If you’ve ever made lemon curd or lemon bars before, you know there’s a lot of stirring involved. The standard way to make lemon curd is to add all the ingredients to a small sauce pan and stir and stir over low heat until it gets nice and thick. While we can all do this, it takes forever and, I don’t know about you, but by the end my wrist feels like it’s going to fall off. But this lemon tart is different!
This tart requires no stirring! It doesn’t even require zesting or juicing! Thanks to Food & Wine Magazine and Lazy Mary, this tart only requires a lemon and a blender. That’s right, all you have to do is chop up a whole lemon, add it to your blender with all the other filling ingredients and turn on it on. No more cramped arms and aching wrists. Once everything is blended, you just pour it into the prepared crust and stick it in the oven. It couldn’t be easier. If you’re skeptical that the tart won’t be as good or have the same velvety texture as other lemon bars that were stirred for hours, I’m here to tell you, there’s no difference. All your guests will still believe you slaved away over a hot stove, stirring the night away, when in reality you simply hit a button and scrolled through Instagram. Sorry, that’s what I did.
While the easiness of this tart makes it my new favorite dessert, what I really love about lemon desserts is the fact that they’re a blank canvas to which you can add so many other flavors. Lemon melds really well with most berries, but it also works with herbs like thyme and rosemary. Then there are the flavors you don’t usually think of: the floral ones; flowers like hibiscus and lavender. I know flowers and fruit seem like an odd combo, but when you put them together you get something that’s delightfully floral. Something that just screams spring! I mean, don’t flowers just say spring to you? They do to me. Now is the time when lilies, Gerber Daisies, Freesia, tulips and a variety of other flowers line market shelves. All those smells and bright colors automatically bring a smile to my face.
So, since flowers are currently blooming everywhere, and as you know I’m never satisfied with the basic, I took this easy lemon tart and flowered it up. I added some dried lavender to the crust and then sprinkled it on top as soon as it came out of the oven. Now, you have a lovely lemon tart with subtle lavender undertones, and a colorful dessert that looks absolutely stunning on your Easter table.
Notes
Adapted from Food & Wine Magazine.
Ingredients
For the crust
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons dried lavender
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
- 4 tablespoons lard
- 1/4 cup ice cold water
For the filling
- 1 large Meyer lemon, chopped
- 1 cup fine sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 eggs
- 2 tablespoons dried lavender (optional)
Instructions
Make the crust
- Place the sugar and lavender in a food processor and pulse until the lavender is broken up and combined with the sugar.
- Combine the lavender sugar with the flour and salt. Add the lard and chilled butter.
- Using your fingers, rub the lard and butter into the flour and sugar mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Drizzle with ice water, a teaspoon at a time, until the dough comes together. Shape the dough into a flat disc, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
- On a floured work surface, roll out the dough into a large 14-inch circle about 1/8-inch thick. Ease the dough into a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and trim the overhang. Prick the dough all over with a fork and freeze for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line the frozen pie shell with parchment paper and dried beans or pie weights. Bake for 20 minutes until the edges are lightly golden. Remove the weights and paper and bake for another 15 minutes or until the whole shell is golden. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
Make the filling
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Combine the lemon, sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs in a blender and puree until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into a the prepared tart shell and bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until the filling is set.
- Transfer the tart to a wire rack and let cool for 2 - 3 hours. Sprinkle the rim of the tart with dried lavender, slice and serve.
