As a rule, every dough you make should contain salt—it complements the sweetness in your filling—and this buttery shortbread is no exception. Using salt in the crust and the filling helps create balance among the sweet, the bitter (from the lemon peel), and the acidic notes (from the fresh lemon juice).
Ingredients
Makes 8 to 10 servings
Crust:
Filling and assembly:
Special Equipment
For crust:
Step 1
Coat springform pan with nonstick spray. Whisk flour, cornstarch, and salt in a small bowl; set aside. Place butter and powdered sugar in a food processor. Pulse until mixture is smooth. Add dry ingredients to food processor and pulse until mixture resembles medium-size pebbles (dough will not come together completely). Transfer dough to prepared pan. Using your fingers, press dough evenly onto bottom and 1 1/2" up sides of pan. DO AHEAD: Crust can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.
For filling and assembly:
Step 2
Using a mandoline, slice lemon into paper-thin rounds. Remove seeds. (If using a regular lemon, blanch slices in boiling water for 4 minutes, drain, and let cool before proceeding). Mix sugar, honey, and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Add lemon slices and toss to coat. Let sit until lemon is softened and sugar is dissolved, 30-45 minutes. DO AHEAD: Lemon slice mixture can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.
Step 3
Place rack in upper third of oven; preheat to 325°F. Bake crust until center is firm to the touch and edges are beginning to turn golden brown, 30-35 minutes.
Step 4
When crust is almost done baking, whisk eggs and egg yolks in a medium bowl to blend. Whisk flour, cornstarch, and salt in a small bowl; add to egg mixture and whisk to combine. Whisk in lemon juice. Add lemon slice mixture; mix gently to combine.
Step 5
Reduce oven temperature to 300°F. Pour filling into hot crust. Bake until filling is set and slightly puffed around edges, 25-30 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack; let cool completely. Chill for at least 4 hours, then unmold. Serve cold. DO AHEAD: Tart can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and keep chilled.
How would you rate Lemon-Honey Tart with Salted Shortbread Crust?
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Reviews (25)
Back to TopI made this twice so I guess I liked it!!! First time in a 10” tarte pan and the second in six 4” tarte pans. I ‘mandolined’ one Meyer lemon for the bigger tarte and it wasn’t enough coverage. For the smaller tartes, I ‘mandolined’ two and that seemed to cover all of them nicely. Also, right before incorporating the lemon/sugar mixture with the egg mixture I separated the lemon rind from the sugar. After the mixture was poured into the shells I neatly placed the lemon rind overlapping. Time and temperatures were correct.
trebornos7851
New York, NY
2/21/2018
as a big fan of Cook's Illustrated / Amercia's Test Kitchen as my go-to for fool-proof recipes, I'm always skeptical about trying non-CI/ATK recipes out before trying them on guests. This recipe caused me to keep up my guard. I made this two weekends in a row for friends over for dinner. The first time the only thing I changed was swapping Agave for honey (sounded too much like cough drops, or a sore throat remedy). It DOES require longer baking time to set, and I found that the mandoline slices added to the body of the tart made for a stringy serving. Yesterday I made it again and added 1 1/2 Tbsp of zest , and maybe 1-2 Tbsp of added lemon juice- what would have been part of the sliced up Meyer lemon. I used honey this time and cut and served the tart very soon after taking it out of the refrigerator. It sliced beautifully. All 8 of us loved it. With these changes to the filling I will be making it again -- next year when the Meyer's come back in season!
brooklynboys
brooklyn, new york
2/12/2017
Oh, I also used someone else's tip and added about 2 Tbsp of cold water to the crust to make it come together, and that worked great.
dccook
Washington, DC
4/25/2016
This was an amazing tart! Like lemon meringue pie, but more tart and flavorful in a good way, less goopey and not the meringue on top, which I never appreciated anyway. And the crust is awesome. I used three small meyer lemons sliced instead of one (mine were about the size of my thumb and index finger placed together), and it seemed perfect. I served a little whipped cream on the side with a touch of orange flavoring in it, and it was delicious. Not necessary though as it was fine on its own. I also noticed that mine needed another 10-15 minutes in the oven.
dccook
Washington, DC
4/25/2016
Delicious. I used 3 small Meyer lemons, sliced, plus additional lemons for the juice. It's definitely important to slice them very thin, otherwise it is difficulty to cut through them when you cut the tart. Loved the crust. I ended up adding about 10mins extra to the cooking time. Will make again!
kbettega
Seattle, WA
2/9/2016
Good, not great. It was too tart. As one reviewer mentioned, it did take an entire bag of Meyer lemons.
Anonymous
Eden Prairie, MN
2/4/2016
I am an experienced baker so this recipe was not difficult. That said, it wasn't worth my time or the expense of the Meyer lemons to achieve the disappointing results. There are much better tarts to be made!
BITTEROOT
billings, MT
2/2/2016
Lemon intense, rich, and elegant - this is the best dessert I have ever made - I like to bake AND have a serious sweet tooth AND love citrus anything. My husband was nuts about it also. I used Meyer lemons all the way and definitely recommend doing so. (In fact I prefer Meyer lemons in my kitchen.) I did increase the cooking times for both the crust and the whole pie. The other tiny change I made was to add ice water (1 - 2 tablespoons ) to the dough in the food processor, it helped it blend better. The shortbread crust is delicious and would be good with a lot of things or just by itself as a cookie with fresh marmalade. Hummm...think I need to go make some marmalade...
SandraJG
Snohomish, WA
3/22/2015
Fantastic intensive lemon flavor. I made the sugar/lemon slice mixture 2 days before making the tart so the rinds softened well because my mandolines made a mash out of the slices and could not find Meyers lemons nor those with particularly thin skin. I used a thin bladed knife and sliced the lemon as thinly and evenly as I could. I made also the tart a day ahead of serving it. So this means I started 3 days ahead of serving. It tasted great even 4 days after baking. I did leave it cook about 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for at 300 but I'm not sure I really needed to. I was careful to bake it in the top third of the oven and to have the filling ready to pour into the hot crust. The crust did not get soggy at all. I wonder how this would work with (key) limes or blood oranges?
dodgema
Florida
3/7/2015
Excellent crust and filling. Took 20 minutes longer to bake. Recommend doing whatever you can the day before. Will definitely make again. Good for friends with lactose intolerance.
Anonymous
Santa Barbara, CA
3/1/2015
#1: The baking times are spot on. The people who review with increased baking times need to get a gauge for their oven. #2: I paid attention to the person who commented about the whole lemon slices affecting the presentation. As an option, I included the zest from 6 Meyer lemons into the honey mixture. Bravo! GREAT recipe. PS: I used a removable bottom tart pan & put the left over crust & filling in a small ramekin. Delightful.
EmJayTee
Portland, Oregon
2/18/2015
I would agree that the time for cooking is insufficient to set the filling. I live at sea level. I increased the temp to 325 for an additional 10 minutes only. I, too, found the honey was difficult to incorporate. This could be helped by adding it to the lemon juice and not to the sugar and lemon zest. I think I was overly tough on the shortbread, pressing it in too hard into the pan; so be firm but not heavy handed. Delicious flavours overall!
Anonymous
Vancouver, Canada
2/14/2015
It was Blue_sky that commented on the baking time and temp for the filling...
frantastic13
2/4/2015
I, too, found the cooking time for the filling to be way short. After 30 minutes at 300 degrees the filling was still very loose. I raised the temp to 325 as KRobinson from Colorado suggested. After another 25 minutes the filling had set. In the end this is a delicious dessert but I'm not sure I will repeat it.
frantastic13
Avella, PA
2/4/2015
I have made this recipe multiple times and it has always turned out great. It's a consistent crowd pleaser, and I prefer using regular lemons over meyer--although if you make this choice the blanching step is very necessary to make the lemon rinds edible in the tart. This is a great, fresh dessert to follow any heavy or creamy meal.
RosieCotton
1/23/2015
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