With beautiful piping, this matcha-lemon tart is first layered with an almond frangipane filling. The filling sits in a beautifully earthy matcha tart dough. The whole thing is topped with bursts of sweet-tart lemon curd and airy meringue. Finish off the stunning dessert with fresh, edible flowers for a perfect spring treat.
Matcha-Lemon Tart
- Yield: 0 makes a 10 x 25 cm rectangular tart 1x
Ingredients
Scale
For the tart dough:
- 120 cake flour
- 10 grams almond meal
- 5 grams matcha powder
- pinch of salt
- 75 grams unsalted butter (softened)
- 50 grams sugar
- 1 egg yolk
For the almond frangipane filling:
- 60 grams unsalted butter (softened)
- 60 grams icing sugar
- 7 grams cornflour
- 60 grams almond meal
- 1 egg
- 100 grams pastry cream (I used leftovers from this post but you can refer to this link for a different recipe)
- 15 ml dark rum
For the lemon cream:
- 66 grams sugar
- finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 125 grams unsalted butter (cubed and softened at room temperature (see comment in instructions))
For decoration:
- 100 ml heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon icing sugar
- edible flowers
Instructions
Make the tart dough:
- Combine the flour, almond meal, matcha powder and salt in a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture has lightened. Mix in the egg yolk. Incorporate the flour mixture in two additions.
- If the dough is stiff enough, evenly press it into the prepared tart pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. If not, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to roll out and transfer into the tart pan.
Make the almond frangipane filling:
- Beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the icing sugar and corn flour, then the almond meal. Add in the egg and mix to combine. Whisk in the prepared pastry cream. Stir in the rum.
- Scrape filling into the chilled tart shell. Bake in an oven preheated at 170C for about 35 minutes, until the surface is lightly browned. Let the tart cool before decorating.
Make the lemon curd:
- Rub the lemon zest into the sugar until the sugar has moistened. Whisk in the egg, egg yolk and lemon juice. Heat over a pot of simmering water, whisking constantly, until the mixture has thickened and reaches 180F. Strain into a food processor or blender and let cool to room temperature.
- With the food processor or blender turned out, gradually add the cubes of butter. When all the butter has been incorporated, continue to whisk the cream for about a minute or so until it’s light and airy. Transfer to a bowl, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface and refrigerate overnight. When I followed the original recipe I found that it doesn’t yield a cream that’s of a pipe-able consistency (as you may tell from the pictures, the lemon cream was slightly oozy and structurally lacking even when thoroughly chilled) so I think increasing the amount of butter from the original amount of 100 grams to 125 grams would solve that issue.
Decorate the tart:
- Whip the heavy cream and icing sugar until stiff peaks. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe generous blobs of cream onto the surface of the tart, leaving alternating spaces for the lemon cream. Transfer the chilled lemon cream to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip of the same size as used for the whipped cream and fill in the gaps. Decorate with edible flowers (which I highly recommend trying out – they make such a difference to the tart’s appearance). Chill the tart until the cream layer has firmed up; serve.
Notes
Recipe for tart dough adapted with modifications from ????????????, recipe for almond frangipane adapted with modifications from this link, recipe for lemon cream adapted with modifications from Pierre Hermé.
- Category: Dessert
