How to Level Up Your Dessert Game with Bergamot Lemon Tart - A Tart Like No Other!

When it comes to desserts, a beautifully crafted tart has a special allure. Its crispy crust, luscious filling, and artistic presentation can turn an ordinary treat into an extraordinary one. If you want to elevate your dessert repertoire, try making a Bergamot Lemon Tart topped with delicate edible flowers. This dessert not only impresses with its flavour but also a good excuse to show off with the décor by adding edible flowers

What is Bergamot Lemon?

Before we start, it’s important to understand bergamot. This unique citrus fruit is often found in Earl Grey tea and is celebrated for its unforgettable aroma and flavour. Imagine a lemon, but with a subtle floral hint. Adding bergamot to your tart enhances the flavour while lending an aromatic touch. No where near as tart as lemons, I've added the juice of a couple of lemons, to give this more of zing, to create that mouth smucker that a lemon tart should give, but still allowing the gentler, more aromatic notes of the bergamot to shine through. Bergamot perfectly balances the tartness of lemon with gentle floral notes. Its zesty flavour brings a refreshing complexity that pairs beautifully with a sweet and buttery crust.

The Perfect Tart Crust for Your Bergamot Lemon Tart

Creating the perfect tart crust is essential. You want a crisp, buttery shell that will serve as a solid base for the filling. Follow this simple dough recipe for great results.

Ingredients:

Shortcrust Pastry

250g plain flour

pinch of salt

140g cold butter, cubed

3 tbsp caster sugar

2 eggs yolks

3-4 tbsp chilled water

Fillling

3 Bergamot Lemons (zest & juice)

2 lemons (juice)

150g caster sugar

225ml double cream

6 eggs

1 egg yolk

Instructions

Zest and squeeze the juice of the bergamot and squeeze the lemons. Add the eggs, yolk and the sugar in a large bowl and beat together. Add the cream, zest and about 125ml lemon juice and mix together. Cover and leave in the fridge whilst you prepare the dough.

For the pastry, combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse until combined and rough crumbs form. Beat the egg yolks and cold water with a fork and then add 2.5 tbsp of the liquid to the pastry. Keep pulsing until combined. If the mixture seems very dry add a little more liquid.

Tip the mixture onto a work surface and bring together with the hands and knead just a couple of times. Shape into a disk and cover in clingfilm. Leave to chill in the fridge for 30 min.

When chilled, ridge the pastry and then roll out to 3mm thick, butter your tart tin and lay out your pastry in the tin, pressing firmly into the sides. Cover with cling film and chill again until cold. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan.

When the pastry is cold to the touch line it carefully with baking paper and fill with baking beans. Make sure the beans are in every corner of the case and that the paper is hanging over the edges of the tart case.

Blind bake the pastry for 20min, then carefully remove the beans and keep baking for a few minutes. The pastry should be pale golden and sandy to the touch.

Take the pastry out of the oven and lower temperature to 140C/120C fan. Pour the filling into the tart case and bake for 50-60 min until it is just set. You should only see a soft wobble in the middle.

Remove tart from oven and let cool briefly, then remove tart case. Leave to cool completely before decorating.