Lemon and blueberry tart

Alright guys, a bit more of an involved bake for today's recipe. This is a lemon and blueberry tart, consisting of a shortcrust pastry, almond cream with some blueberries, lemon curd, vanilla whipped white chocolate ganache and some blueberry confit/jam. Theres quite a few elements here so take your time if making it and enjoy the process!

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Make pastry by; beating icing sugar, butter and salt together until it forms a nice smooth paste.

Step 2

Then add the egg yolks (3) and mix until combined (may look a bit curdled)

Step 3

Then add the plain flour (225 g) and incorporate it to form a crumbly chunky dough that sticks together.

Step 4

Form a disk with the dough. Then place dough between two pieces of parchment/baking paper floured and roll it out nice and thin. Refrigerate the thinned pastry till hardened (around 20-30 minutes).

Step 5

Remove from the fridge and cut the desired shapes from the pastry, place these into the tart pan (or pans) and freeze for 20-30 minutes until solid.

Step 6

Preheat oven to 175 °C, then line tart with parchment/baking paper and add pie weights or dried beans and blind bake for 12 minutes. After the time, remove baking paper and weights, add an egg wash and then return to oven and bake for a further 4 minutes (should be light in colour not too golden brown as its going to cook again)

Step 7

Remove from the oven and leave to cool before continuing

Step 8

Preheat oven to 175 °C and prepare tart cases by glazing them with egg wash

Step 9

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Mix in the ground almonds till combined. Whisk in the eggs and egg yolks and almond extract till combined. Finally mix in the flour till combined and a thick paste is formed.

Step 10

(Optional) place into clingfilm or piping bag and leave to rest in the fridge for 6-12 hours before using.

Step 11

Pipe into desired tart cases and top with blueberries. Bake for 15 – 18 minutes till golden brown and springy. Remove from the oven and leave to cool

Step 12

Make curd; Place lemon zest, lemon juice, butter, sugar and salt into a saucepan and place onto the hob on a med-low heat

Step 13

Whisk the mixture until the butter has melted and combined. Take off the heat and leave for a minute or two to cool while casually stirring.

Step 14

Beat the egg whites and egg yolks together using a fork. Then add the eggs to the mixture and whisk to combine it all.

Step 15

Heat up the mixture again over the hob while constantly whisking (medium heat). Let the curd cook for around 5-10 minutes until it becomes thick and like a custard. Curd will be done when it passes the spoon test or reaches 85 °C

Step 16

Remove from the heat then sieve mixture into the bowl. Cover skin with clingfilm until it’s cooled to room temperature before placing to chill in fridge for 2-3 hours before removing and using on top of the tarts to add a curd layer.

Step 17

Make stabilised whipped ganache: Put 300 ml cream into a pan and heat it up until it starts to simmer

Step 18

Chop the 100 g chocolate into small fine pieces and place into a bowl with butter, salt and set gelatine. Add the cream and let it sit for 1-2 minutes before slowly mixing to fully combine the ingredients (optionally emulsify using an immersion blender after letting it sit)

Step 19

Cover the ganache with clingfilm, making sure it touches the skin and leave to fully cool overnight. Then whip to soft/firm peaks before piping onto the tart case

Step 20

Finally, add a blob of blueberry Jam into the centre of the tart to finish, Enjoy!