Tarte au Citron — French Lemon Tart, Pâte Sucrée Shell

Make the pate sucree. In a food processor, pulse the flour, icing sugar, and salt together briefly. Add the cold cubed butter and pulse in short bursts until the mixture resembles fine, dry breadcrumbs with no visible butter pieces — 8–10 pulses. Add the egg yolks and pulse again until the dough just begins to clump into pea-sized pieces. Add cold water one teaspoon at a time only if it refuses to cohere. By hand: rub the butter into the flour mixture with fingertips until breadcrumb-like, then stir in the yolks with a fork. Press together into a flat disc — do not knead — wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes, or up to 24 hours.

Roll and line the tin. On a lightly floured surface, roll the chilled dough to 3 mm thickness and approximately 30 cm diameter. Drape the sheet loosely over the rolling pin and unroll it over a 23 cm loose-bottomed tart tin, letting it fall into the base and fluted sides under its own weight. Ease the dough into the flutes using a small ball of excess dough — do not use fingertips, which leave thin spots. Trim the excess by rolling the rolling pin across the rim. Prick the base all over with a fork. Freeze uncovered for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional.

Blind bake the shell. Line the frozen shell with baking paper large enough to overhang the sides, pressing it into the flutes. Fill completely with baking beans or dried rice — the weight must reach the top edge or the sides will slump. Bake for 18–20 minutes until the sides are set and pale gold. Remove the paper and beans carefully. Return the shell to the oven for 8–10 minutes until the base is uniformly golden and completely dry and matte. Reduce the oven temperature to 150°C.

Make the lemon curd. Whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, and caster sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan until just combined — a few strokes, not a vigorous whisk. Stir in the lemon juice and zest. Set over medium-low heat and cook, stirring continuously with a silicone spatula and scraping the base and lower sides, for 10–14 minutes. The curd is ready when it coats the back of the spatula thickly and a thermometer reads 75–78°C. Pull it from the heat before it reaches 82°C — above that the egg proteins tighten irreversibly and the curd will be grainy.

Enrich with butter and strain. Off the heat, add the cold butter a few cubes at a time, stirring each addition until fully melted and incorporated before adding the next. Once all the butter is in, strain the curd through a fine-mesh sieve into a jug, pressing gently with a spatula — this removes the zest strands and any threads of cooked egg.

Fill and bake. Set the baked tart shell on its baking sheet inside the oven before pouring. Fill the shell to the very brim; the filling will not puff or overflow. Bake at 150°C for 20–25 minutes. The tart is ready when the outer 4–5 cm is fully set and opaque, but the central 8–10 cm still has a distinct, slow wobble when you gently nudge the tin — it should move as a single unit, not ripple. Remove from the oven; carryover heat will complete the set as it cools.

Cool and unmould. Leave the tart to cool completely at room temperature — minimum 1 hour, ideally 2. Do not refrigerate while warm. Once fully cool, push the base upward through the tin ring and slide the tart off the metal disc onto a flat serving plate. Dust very lightly with icing sugar through a fine sieve immediately before serving.