Uploaded February 2023 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
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This recipe is a classic which we know primarily as Tarte au Citron from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck. We make it with a regular pie crust rather than the sweet crust their recipe calls for because we are lazy and we had homemade pie crust already made in the freezer. The key is to ensure that the crust is adequately blind-baked, about halfway or even two-thirds, because the lemon filling does not take long to bake, and it bakes at a low temperature, and so the crust is not going to get too much more cooking once it goes in with the filling. The original recipe warned against browning it too much; I did not brown it enough in the video we made.
Briefly, to blind bake: line the pie crust with parchment or foil. In restaurants we used to use a layer of food wrap inside the parchment to hold the beans; home food wrap is not really wide enough normally to do this. Bake the crust weighted with beans in a 425F oven for 15 to 20 minutes. The shell should be cooked, and slightly browned. It may be blind-baked in advance of use; it is not necessary to try to fill the shell while it is hot from its first baking.
The pie is made by folding lemon curd made from the yolks into meringue whipped up from the whites. That mixture goes into the pie shell and bakes for half an hour. It is incredibly poofy and tall when it’s done baking, so if it is possible to bring it out of the oven and allow guests to see it before cutting and serving, that would be very impressive. The pie is delicious hot, or at room temperature, or cold.
Makes one 9” pie.
Equipment:
• 9” pie tin (or tart pan) with blind-baked crust (whether pie crust or sweet crust is up to you)
• electric mixer is recommended for whipping the egg whites
• large mixing bowl, whisk, and pan of simmering water for making lemon curd
• optional sheet pan to put under the pie to catch any overflow
Ingredients:
1 ea lemon zest and juice
3/4 cup sugar divided 1/3 - 2/3
4 ea eggs separated
pinch salt
Procedure:
1. Make sure that your blind-baked crust is done and ready.
2. Set the saucepan to simmer while getting everything else ready so that it will be hot when needed a little later on.
3. Preheat the oven to 325F.
4. Beat the egg yolks to the ribbon.
5. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and the lemon juice and zest to the egg yolks and place the mixing bowl over the simmering pan to gently heat them until they thicken, reaching a temperature of 165F.
6. With the mixer, beat the egg whites with the salt. Once they are a bit fluffy, sprinkle over the last 1/4 cup of sugar and continue beating the egg whites to stiff peaks.
7. Carefully fold the whites into the thickened yolk mixture. I like to do this in 2-4 additions, and stirring carefully to try to disturb the foam as little as possible. It is okay to have unmixed portions. (In our video we managed to cut the first, demo slice from right where a huge, bright-white blob of unmixed meringue was present, but the flavor was not noticeably different.)
8. Turn the (mostly?) mixed lemony egg-white foam into the blind-baked crust and place it into the center of the oven at 325F for about 30 minutes, which worked perfectly for us.
9. Child et al. suggest sprinkling the top of the finished tart with powdered sugar, which might be quite attractive; we prefer our desserts less-sweet and we find its tartness just right without added sugar.
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
Check our our Patreon!
patreon.com/loveyourfood
Need a kitchen thermometer? Check out ChefsTemp! Use code LoveYourFood for 15% off a meat thermometer!
shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=2084649&u=3322095&m=111859&urllink=&afftrack=
This recipe is a classic which we know primarily as Tarte au Citron from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck. We make it with a regular pie crust rather than the sweet crust their recipe calls for because we are lazy and we had homemade pie crust already made in the freezer. The key is to ensure that the crust is adequately blind-baked, about halfway or even two-thirds, because the lemon filling does not take long to bake, and it bakes at a low temperature, and so the crust is not going to get too much more cooking once it goes in with the filling. The original recipe warned against browning it too much; I did not brown it enough in the video we made.
Briefly, to blind bake: line the pie crust with parchment or foil. In restaurants we used to use a layer of food wrap inside the parchment to hold the beans; home food wrap is not really wide enough normally to do this. Bake the crust weighted with beans in a 425F oven for 15 to 20 minutes. The shell should be cooked, and slightly browned. It may be blind-baked in advance of use; it is not necessary to try to fill the shell while it is hot from its first baking.
The pie is made by folding lemon curd made from the yolks into meringue whipped up from the whites. That mixture goes into the pie shell and bakes for half an hour. It is incredibly poofy and tall when it’s done baking, so if it is possible to bring it out of the oven and allow guests to see it before cutting and serving, that would be very impressive. The pie is delicious hot, or at room temperature, or cold.
Makes one 9” pie.
Equipment:
• 9” pie tin (or tart pan) with blind-baked crust (whether pie crust or sweet crust is up to you)
• electric mixer is recommended for whipping the egg whites
• large mixing bowl, whisk, and pan of simmering water for making lemon curd
• optional sheet pan to put under the pie to catch any overflow
Ingredients:
1 ea lemon zest and juice
3/4 cup sugar divided 1/3 - 2/3
4 ea eggs separated
pinch salt
Procedure:
1. Make sure that your blind-baked crust is done and ready.
2. Set the saucepan to simmer while getting everything else ready so that it will be hot when needed a little later on.
3. Preheat the oven to 325F.
4. Beat the egg yolks to the ribbon.
5. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and the lemon juice and zest to the egg yolks and place the mixing bowl over the simmering pan to gently heat them until they thicken, reaching a temperature of 165F.
6. With the mixer, beat the egg whites with the salt. Once they are a bit fluffy, sprinkle over the last 1/4 cup of sugar and continue beating the egg whites to stiff peaks.
7. Carefully fold the whites into the thickened yolk mixture. I like to do this in 2-4 additions, and stirring carefully to try to disturb the foam as little as possible. It is okay to have unmixed portions. (In our video we managed to cut the first, demo slice from right where a huge, bright-white blob of unmixed meringue was present, but the flavor was not noticeably different.)
8. Turn the (mostly?) mixed lemony egg-white foam into the blind-baked crust and place it into the center of the oven at 325F for about 30 minutes, which worked perfectly for us.
9. Child et al. suggest sprinkling the top of the finished tart with powdered sugar, which might be quite attractive; we prefer our desserts less-sweet and we find its tartness just right without added sugar.
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
