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Tarte au bergamot

Based on Pierre Hermés Tarte au citron recipe so use lemons if you can't get hold of bergamot. Heart shaped pie dish from Homesense in Brent Cross.
Course: Afternoon Tea, Afters, Dessert, Pudding, Teatime
Cuisine: French, Patisserie
Keyword: Bergamot, Carrot recipes, French Patisserie, Tarte au citron, Valentine's Day recipes

Equipment

  • A tart tin

Ingredients

For the pastry

  • 150 g plain flour
  • 75 g unsalted butter
  • 30 g almonds, ground
  • 50 g icing sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla paste
  • 1 egg yolk
  • pinch salt

For the curd

  • 1 bergamot zest plus juice
  • 2 lemon zest plus juice
  • 4 eggs
  • 300 g butter, room temperature
  • 240 g caster sugar

Instructions

For the pastry

  • Preheat the oven to 180ºC
  • Rub the flour and butter together until it forms breadcrumbs
  • Add almonds, icing sugar, vanilla, egg and salt.
  • Knead together, cover with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
  • Roll out the dough then press it into a prepared (greased and floured)tart tin.
  • Blind bake: line the pastry with a piece of parchment paper and pour in baking beans. Bake at 180ºC for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the beans and parchment paper and bake for another 10 minutes until golden. Leave to cool.

For the filling

  • Combine the sugar and citrus zest in a bowl which will fit over a saucepan/bain-marie without touching the water. Stir for a few minutes.
  • Add the juice and eggs. Stir constantly until the mixture reaches 82ºC or is thick and custar-like. Remove from the heat and let it cool to lukewarm.
  • Pour all of it into a blender, then add the butter while the blender is running cube by cube.
  • Pour the curd into the tart shell. Leave to chill then serve.
  • TLDR: a shortcut is buying ready-rolled shortcrust pastry, baking it as above, then adding store-bought lemon curd.