Easy Lemon Tart

This lemon tart does take some waiting time but it's super easy to put together. The tart dough is pretty awesome and is like a giant sugar cookie under the slightly sweet and tart lemon filling. My favorite part is the caramelized top so it's a little crunchy when you pick up a bite with your fork. I love the crunch. It's one of the reasons people love creme brulee, the sugar on top. 

My husband loves anything lemon for the most part so when he came home from work I surprised him with this lemon tart. His take was that he would pay $4 a slice in a restaurant for it. That's pretty good yes? Considering there wasn't whipped cream or anything on it (it's the caramelized topping). Be sure not to over bake this tart or it will crack a little bit (like mine did, oops). It was just as delicious though, so. good. 

I easily could have taken out half of this tart by myself, before he even got home. Then I would have had to deny it and say our three year old got into it and ate it all but then he would expect to see pieces of tart in a mound and not a nice and lovingly cut tart that was treated with care as each slice was served. So obviously that idea would not have worked. 

There was one time (before I had a child) that I had just baked chocolate cheesecake bars in a 9" x 13" pan and had them cooling on top of the oven and I left the room for a minute and came back and 3/4 of the pan was gone. My 80 pounds of fun dog was the culprit and it was very very sad. Well, I was very very sad. The vet said he would be okay after consuming all of that chocolate because he was so big (ha). We ended up getting a baby gate for the kitchen after that. Yes we did. I also became a little more paranoid about food on the counter. That dog (his sister is only 65 pounds but can't reach on the counter) ended up eating a whole loaf of bread, several avocados, some tomatoes, and other assorted desserts or whatever we put on top of the microwave thinking he couldn't reach it. Now we store stuff in the microwave. 

 Also known as "the big one"

We should probably get back to the recipe now though. :)

Easy Lemon Tart

Ingredients:
Crust:
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling:
- 3 whole eggs
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1-2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Directions:
1. Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in a large bowl, then add butter and vanilla. Stir the mixture until a soft dough is formed.
2. Transfer the dough to a 9” tart pan and press onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Chill the dough for 30 minutes. After about 20 minutes preheat the oven to 375F.
3. Line the tart shell with parchment paper and fill it with pie weights (I use a smaller empty cake pan sometimes because I don’t have pie weights. I’ve also used dried beans).
4. Bake about 20 minutes until the sides are golden brown then remove the parchment and pie weights. Prick the crust all over with a fork, then continue baking for 10-12 minutes.
5. While the crust is finishing baking make the filling: whisk together the eggs and sugar until smooth, then stir in the lemon juice and yogurt. Whisk all of the ingredients until they are thoroughly combined. When the crust is done then reduce the oven temperature to 250F.
6. Pour the filling into the hot crust then bake for 30-35 minutes (mine took 40 until it wasn’t liquid anymore but the original recipe says 30).
7. Remove from the oven and let the tart set for about one hour. Sprinkle a thin layer of sugar evenly over the tart and use a torch or an oven set at broil or 475F to caramelize the sugar. Watch the tart carefully if you caramelize it in the oven as it can burn very quickly and it will continue browning a little once it comes out of the oven. 

Printable recipe

The tart dough recipe is adapted from Cooking Light and the filling is adapted from Fage yogurt 

This recipe may be linked up to:

· Inside BruCrew Life - Trick or Treat Tuesday's 
· Fireflies and Jellybeans - Show Off Your Stuff Party

· Crazy For Crust - Crazy Sweet Tuesday’s
· Alli 'n Sons - Sweet Tooth Friday 
· DJ's Sugar Shack - Whatcha Whipped Up?

· Mrs. Fox's Sweets - Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party 

· Sweet as Sugar Cookies - Sweets for a Saturday 
· Mandy's Recipe Box - Totally Tasty Tuesday's

· A Pinch of Joy - Busy Monday Link Party 

· House of Hepworth's - Hookin up with HoH 

· Cups by Kim - Sweet & Simple Sunday  

· Couponing & Cooking - Mealtime Monday 

· What's Cooking, Love? - Showcase Your Talent Thursday 

· Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo - Anything Goes Linky
· Chef in training - Tuesday Talent Show

· Dwell on Joy - Dwell on Friday 

· Six Sister's Stuff - Strut Your Stuff Saturday

· Something Swanky: Desserts & Designs - Sweet Treats Thursday 

· A Slice of Southern - Southern Sundays 

· Me and My Sweets - My Sweet Party