Sour cream lemon tart

A rapid succession of events with family and friends has meant plenty more baking this week - yay! I found this sour cream lemon tart recipe in the newspaper a few weeks ago and thought I'd wait for a special occasion to try it out. Created by Alison and Simon Holst, it is really easy to make with a food processor and kitchen mixer.

Sour cream lemon tart

Ingredients

• 250 g sweet short pastry (1 sheet pre-rolled or see recipe below to make your own)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• thinly peeled or grated ring of 1/2 lemon (see below)
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup (250 g) sour cream
• 2 teaspoons custard powder or cornflour
• 3 large eggs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Spray a 20 cm pie or flan dish (with a removable base and fluted sides) with non-stick spray. Gently press the sheet of pastry into the pan and trim any excess.
2. Measure the sugar into a food processor.
3. Using a potato peeler, thinly peel the rind from the lemon or grate it finely. Vary the quantity according to taste.
4. Add the rind to the sugar then process until the rind is cut finely through the sugar.
5. Mix the lemon juice with the custard powder (or cornflour).
6. Add the sour cream and lemon juice mixture to the sugar then process until smooth and the sugar has dissolved.
7. Add the eggs one at a time with the processor running.
8. Pour the filling mixture into the pastry base. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the top is beginning to brown around the edges. (The middle may still jiggle a bit, but this is ok.)
9. Remove tart from the oven and allow to cool. (The middle will probably sink a little and become firmer.) Cut into wedges to serve.

Sweet short pastry

Ingredients

• 100 g butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup self-raising flour

Method

1. Soften (but do not melt) butter. Add the sugar and egg then beat until well combined. [I used a dough hook but probably didn't need to - the paddle attachment would have been fine.]
2. Add the unsifted flours and mix well to form a dough. If too dry, add a little milk (teaspoon by teaspoon). If too soft to work with, refrigerate rather than adding more flour.
3. Roll out the pastry onto a lightly floured board before trimming to a round 3-4 cm larger than the baking tin.

Note: this will make more pastry than is required. The extra can be frozen or refrigerated for later use.

Serve with lightly whipped cream or creme fraiche. We had it cold with ice cream but it would probably taste great warm, too.

Sour cream lemon tart