Lemon Cake and Earl Grey Tarts
These tarts were one of my favourite creations from Citrus Week on The Great Australian Bake Off. I really wanted to push myself and move away from a traditional lemon tart for this challenge on the show. You can’t mess with a classic, so I figured I’d just throw the rule book in the bin and start from scratch.
And so these zingy tarts were born! They’re a bit odd, full of zing, a little bit fabulous and featured:
Shortcrust earl grey pastry
Caramelised lemon jam
Zesty lemon sponge
Whipped earl grey ganache
I loved how these tarts turned out and was glad my risk paid off with Rachel Khoo and Darren Purchese embracing these strange, beautiful and (thankfully!) delicious tarts. And now you can make these at home!
NOTES
Give yourself two days to make these tarts. Start the ganache, lemon jam and your pastry dough the day (or several days) before your plan to serve the tarts.
I used eight 7cm perforated tart rings for these tarts. Using these types of tart rings means you don’t have to line and weight the tart shells when you blind bake them. You can use fluted, loose bottomed tart tins but when you blind bake them, make sure you line them and use baking weights, raw rice, or sugar to weigh them down. Remove the weights and baking paper half-way through the blind baking time.
INGREDIENTS
Whipped Earl Grey Ganache
330g thickened cream
2 tsp glucose syrup
6 earl grey tea bags
100g white chocolate bits
3 lemons
140g caster sugar
100 ml water
Early Grey Tart Shells
375g plain flour
80g icing sugar
200g unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1cm cubes
3 earl grey tea bags, tea leaves removed
1 whole egg, room temperature
1 egg yolk, room temperature
Pinch of salt
Lemon cake
90g caster sugar
80g unsalted butter, cubed, room temperature
Zest of 3 lemons
50g egg (about 1 and a half eggs)
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
40g fresh lemon juice
40g full cream milk
Syrup for the lemon cake
60g caster sugar
60ml lemon juice
20ml water
METHOD
Whipped earl grey ganache (watch my how-to whipped ganache video on Instagram)
Place the chocolate in a medium heat-proof bowl and set aside.
Pour the cream and glucose syrup into a small saucepan and on a medium heat slowly bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.
Once the cream comes to a simmer turn off the heat and put in the six tea bags. Push them down so they are fully emersed and cover with a lid for 5-10 minutes to steap,
Remove the team bags, squeezing out any excess cream. Put the cream back on on medium/low heat. Stir until it comes to a simmer and then immediately take off the heat.
Pour the earl grey cream over the white chocolate and let it sit for 3-5 minutes. Gently whisk the cream and chocolate to combine.
Once combined, cover with plastic wrap on the surface (to prevent a skin forming) and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
Once the ganache is chilled, use hand beaters with a whisk attachment to gently whip the ganache into a light, fluffy consistency.
Transfer the ganache to a piping bag fitted with your favourite piping tip and place in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.
Lemon Jam (watch my how-to video on Instagram)
Cut off the ends of the lemon and then use a lemon zester to peel the lemon. Finely chop the strips. If you don’t have a zester, use a standard peeler and the thinly slice the zest, then finely chop.
Cut away as much of remaining rind (the bitter, white layer) from the lemon as possible and then segment the lemon flesh, removing any pips that may be hiding in there.
Add the lemon zest and segments along with the sugar to a small saucepan. Mash the lemon with a fork to encourage all the juice out of the segments.
Cook on medium, stirring occasionally, until it is golden and caramelized – about 25 mins.
Turn off the heat and add the water to the saucepan, mixing well to remove any bits that have stuck to the bottom of the saucepan.
Pour the jam into a bowl or jar and let it to cool to room temperature. Once cool, it’s ready to use or store in the fridge.
Prepare the tart shells
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees
Remove the tea leaves from the tea bags and grind in a mortar and pestle.
Mix the flour, sugar, butter, salt and tea in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on low until it starts to look sandy.
Whisk the egg and egg yolk together and pour slowly into the bowl and mix until the dough comes together.
Pour the dough onto a lightly floured bench and knead gently to finish bringing the dough together.
Divide into two discs, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least and hour, or overnight.
When you’re ready to bake your tart shells, pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees (fan forced). Remove your prepared dough from the fridge at least 20-30 minutes before rolling.
Gently roll out the dough to a 5mm thickness. Cut 8 circles large enough to line your tart rings. Gently line the tart shells on a baking tray lined with baking tray. Once the shells are lined, place back into the freezer for 5 mins.
Blind bake the tart shells for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown (see note 2). Set aside on the baking tray to cool until needed.
Lemon cake
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (fan forced).
Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside. Line a 20cm x 30cm baking tray with baking paper and set aside.
Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar, butter and lemon zest until light and creamy, scraping the bowl with a spatula at least once.
Add the egg to the butter mixture and beat to combine.
Once the egg is mixed, alternate adding a couple of spoonfuls of the flour followed by some of the lemon juice and milk, mixing between each addition. Continue this alternating until all the ingredients are added and the batter is just combined. Be careful not to over mix.
Spread over lined baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes, until the cake is lightly golden, bounces back when gently pressed in the centre and you only hear a few bubbles when you listen to the cake.
While the cake is baking, make the syrup by putting the syrup ingredients in a small saucepan. On a low heat, whisk until the sugar dissolved. Once the syrup comes to the boil, take off the heat.
Once the cake is out of the oven brush the surface with all of the lemon syrup.
Assemble
Spread a thin layer of the lemon jam on the base of the tart shells.
Use a circle cutter to cut rings of the soaked lemon cake and place in the tart shells.
Pipe swirls of the whipped earl ganache on top of the cake.
Zest some lemon over the top and top with the dried flowers.
