Classic Lemon Tart

By Melissa Clark

Updated Oct. 12, 2023

Classic Lemon Tart
Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.
Total Time
2 hours, plus at least 2 hours’ cooling
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour 50 minutes
Rating
4(340)
Notes
Read community notes

This classic lemon tart has a buttery, shortbread crust and a soft, dense lemon curd filling that barely holds its shape when you cut a slice. The textures should be a combination of crunchy and velvety; the flavor, sharp and tangy, with just enough sugar to take the edge off the citrus. This version has all of that, with one tweak for ease. Instead of making a traditional dough that needs to be shaped with a rolling pin, this one has a simple press-in-the-pan cookie crust made with melted butter. For a nutty-scented brown butter crust, let the butter cook until it turns golden. This tart is at its best when served on the day it’s baked, but it’s still delightful a day or two later (though the crust will lose some of its crispness). Store it in the refrigerator and serve it cold or at room temperature.

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Ingredients

Yield:8 servings

    For the Crust

    • 8tablespoons/113 grams unsalted butter
    • 1¼cups/173 grams all-purpose flour
    • ½cup/73 grams confectioners’ sugar
    • ½teaspoon fine sea salt

    For the Curd

    • 12tablespoons/170 grams unsalted butter
    • 2teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
    • 1cup/237 milliliters freshly squeezed lemon juice (5 to 7 lemons)
    • 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar, more to taste
    • 3large eggs
    • 3egg yolks
    • Large pinch fine sea or table salt
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

516 calories; 32 grams fat; 19 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 54 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 35 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 203 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Make the crust: In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. (If you like, you can let the butter cook until it browns and smells nutty, 2 to 4 minutes longer.)

  2. Step 2

    Whisk together flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Drizzle in melted butter and, using a spatula, mix until well combined. Press this into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch tart pan, using a measuring cup if you like to flatten the tart shell and make sure it’s even. Place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 months (wrap in plastic if storing for more than 4 hours).

  3. Step 3

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line tart dough with a piece of foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights, dry beans or rice. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and weights and continue to bake until the crust is very lightly golden at the edges and baked through on the bottom, 10 to 15 minutes longer. Transfer to a rack to cool. (Tart shell can be made up to 1 day ahead and kept at room temperature.)

  4. Step 4

    Make the curd: Put butter, lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Cook until butter is melted and mixture is hot, 4 to 5 minutes.

  5. Step 5

    In a medium bowl, beat together eggs, yolks and salt. Whisk the hot mixture gradually into the eggs to temper them. Then pour everything back into the saucepan and return to medium-low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon (170 degrees; do not overcook, or it will curdle), about 5 minutes. Pour through a fine-meshed sieve into a bowl. Taste and add a bit more sugar if you like. It should taste tart but balanced.

  6. Step 6

    Spread the curd (it’s OK if it’s still warm) into the tart shell, spreading it evenly with a small offset spatula or butter knife. Return to the oven to bake until the curd is just set along the edges but still jiggly in the center, about 7 to 15 minutes. (It will continue to firm up as it cools.) Transfer back to the wire rack to cool completely, at least 2 hours, before serving. If the curd still looks a little loose after cooling, you can chill the tart for an hour or two before serving. Note that it’s a soft curd but shouldn’t be runny.

Ratings

4 out of 5
340 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

Carolyn S.

The recipe sounds wonderfully simple. However, ever since my husband and I lived in Eugene, Oregon several decades ago we have had fond memories of a tart lemon tart that included a layer of dark chocolate under the lemon curd. Could that be incorporated into this recipe?

Julie

I think that combo would be great. I love the flavors of lemon and chocolate together. I would paint on a thin-ish layer of chocolate on the crust after it has completely cooled . I would allow the chocolate to set up before you add the lemon curd. And I would cool the curd somewhat to ensure you don't remelt the coholate and make a smear.

Sue Fisher

I use a large coffee filter when blind baking and it never sticks.

Suzanne F

The recipe is written for a metal tart pan (as shown in the article), which conducts heat differently from glass. If using a glass pie plate, you need to make need an adjustment to the oven heat, because you get both conduction from the air in the oven and radiant heat energy coming through the glass. That cooks the crust more, esp. if you leave it in for the full time at that heat level. Try lowering the temperature by 25ºF, and check it more often.

Love the Metric ingredient list

As European I love that the recipe has notes in metric. Honestly I have no idea what a cup even is ; )

Lurlene

Miyoko's brand cultured vegan butter apparently is able to be browned. There are youtube demos with top chefs using the butter and browning it.

Kc

Fresh raspberries circled on top make this a delicious summer dessert

Richard

Make this recipe if you want a tart. Make the lemon bar recipe if you want bars. It's like the layer cake vs cupcake "debate."

Mary

I made the lemon curd in my Vitamix. Incredible. And, so darn easy!

Izzy

I have used Melissa Clark's lemon curd with olive oil and Miyoko's butter sub and many crumb crusts using Miyoko's with great success.

mercedes

i made a tart crust vegan by using margarine and added nutritional yeast (to taste) to give it some umami. it was a huge hit at the party i brought it to.

Marianna

It says 9 inch in the instructions :-)

Helen Cz

Decadent lemon pie. I always fiddle - less sugar & butter, but great.

Nancy S.

made it last night and definitely yes! In fact, while i liked it, I felt like it needed a little something extra - strawberries would have been perfect

Sharon B

If you don't have a 9" tart pan, an 8x8" square will work. Now you're making lemon bars, which is hardly a bad thing.

Lucy

Super tasty tart, highly recommend making this for someone in your life who loves lemons. Here’s a few things I did that deviated from the recipe: I fully browned the butter for the base of the tart. It was insanely good that way. For the lemon curd, I decreased the sugar to 175g and through it was perfect. Any more sugar would have been too sweet. Finally, the tart took more like 20 min for the curd to set in the oven.

Anna.

What is the consistency of the crust supposed to be? I subbed a gf flour blend and made a few adjustments, but I find the crust difficult to press into the tart pan as it is quite wet? Even upped the flour...

Zoe

This tart was a huge hit! Made it twice over the weekend, once with this shell recipe and once with a more traditional tart shell. The shell in this recipe was super hard, especially on day 2, and I preferred the look of the Pretty Sweet Simple shell. I did decrease the baking temp because I was using a ceramic dish. I struggled to figure out when it was done and overbaked it (still tasted great!) Round 2 I baked it for about 16 minutes at 325--it came out perfect and got rave reviews.

Bridget Bakes

Does anybody know how a ceramic tart pan would affect this recipe? I don’t think there would be a large change, but also not aware of any vast differences when baking like glass vs metal. Thank you!

Ben

Metric - but temperature for curd is in degrees F

Angela W.

I recommend using the tart crust instructions from the NYT Meyer Lemon Tart recipe. It is delicious and I haven't had a problem with sticking.

Irish

The curd is taking much longer to set. It is sort of boiling. What am I doing wrong?

Ann O’Neill

This sounds like a recipe that could easily be adapted to individual-sized tarts cooked in smaller tart pans or ramekins. I could spend time Googling how to adapt cook times but no result would be specific to this recipe. If anyone has already done this, and is willing to share, I’d appreciate the head start!

susieQ

Made this for New Years!!!! Disaster!!! Curd never gelled. Spent hours waiting for it to thicken and when it reached 170 degrees it poured i to the baked shell!! Uh oh!!!!

Tia

For those of you having trouble with sticking, the recipe does not call for parchment or foil. Use a tart pan with a removable bottom and press right into the pan. The foil was for the top of the tart on the blind bake of the crust.

Tia

This turned out great. I browned the butter for the crust. I also cooked the lemon curd in a double boiler and I had to bake it for an extra 4 minutes before it was properly set. Otherwise perfection.

vineyridge

I've always made lemon curd in a double boiler. Would this recipe work doing that?

Zoe K

Could this possibly be frozen? I made a bunch of small ones that are a serving each and was wondering if I could chuck them in the freezer for a later date during the summer

Nancy

The crust stuck to the tart pan. No way to get the pie out of the pan without just scraping it adn serving piles of crust and lemon filling. Used a different filling recipe so can't comment on that. But the crust was a total bust.

Quinton R.

This recipe is a delight, my only recommendation if you like super tart lemon desserts is to cut 1/4 cup of the sugar

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