Eggs, cream, butter, lemons…yellow is a good colour for January. As rain falls and grey afternoons stretch away, I find it easy to lose myself in colour. Lemon juice, sugar and eggs are transformed into creamy waves of subtle colours under whirling whisks. Spoonfuls of thickly drooping cream ache to be tasted, tested. The light glowing through the oven door filters out the gloom of too early arriving evening whilst the crisp biscuit coloured pastry case, that has been cooling on the wire rack, waits to be filled to over flowing with sweetly tart lemon cream. A slice of this by the fire after supper will afford us a taste of summer citrus wrapped in a blanket of creamy comfort….enough to banish wintry thoughts for another day.
This particular tart comes from Patricia W ells’ “Bistro Cooking”which is so often my companion in the kitchen. I have printed the whole page from the book as Patricia Wells’ words add the extra atmosphere that this recipe deserves.
Food, Photography & France 
Fabulous, I’m going to make this one soon! 🙂
Can’t be soon enough:)
Tomorrow, I think!
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One of my very favorite desserts, Roger.
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It always cheers me up. My craving for lemons is verging on addiction and a tart (and a tart tart at that) is the best way to eat them in my book. Will try this recipe.
It’s even better eaten with a home made meringue and cream:)
I love tarte au citron, and your recipe looks perfect.
Patricia Wells’ recipe…not mine….but certainly my favourite version of this dessert:)
Roger your timing couldn’t be better – I decided to make a tarte au citron tomorrow to take to a friends house (it’s my annual Savoyard fondue fix) and needed a recipe. Perfect and thank you, all I need to pick up is the creme fraiche and deal with the bloody minded oven!
Bloody minded ovens are a pain…we’ve recently replaced our troublesome oven and I’m enjoying a honeymoon period:)
The recipe works a treat – well it looks good enough to take as a present to dinner and the oven behaved itself (cooking with a crap oven at Altitude seems a little reckless to me!) Thanks for the recipe
Thank Patricia Wells…..I have yet to have one of her recipes fail:)
This looks incredible. I may have to try and pull this off over the weekend. Thanks for sharing your lovely photos and the recipe!
It’s an easy recipe…just make sure the pastry is good:)
Mother of pearl: this looks divine. That last photo makes me want to dive in face first…
Oh how I so agree!!!
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Excellent….tarte au citron as custard pie:)
Looks simply perfect – you have mastered this recipe!
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Lovely intro to the recipe! Can I have two slices please? 😀
None left…sorry:)
Yummy. Glad to see I’m not the only one who tidies up the crust with a knife. Amused to see that you are still hooked on lemons 🙂
I’m just a very mean shopper….as long as the lemons last, I’m into them:)
Patricia Wells’ words are so romantic. So is this tarte au citron.
She’s good, isn’t she.
Disgusting, absolutely disgusting. I purposefully did NOT bake anything today in order to not be tempted, and here you come with this….the crumbs alone make me drool! 🙂
It’s easy to resist anything but temptation, Christian:)
We love everything ‘lemon’ in our family as we always had a large lemon tree (as we were growing up). If I wasn’t on a strict grain free/dairy free regime at the moment, I would love to try making your lemon tart – maybe a special occasion will come up when I can indulge in your recipe.
Thanks for sharing.
I think that we need a lemon tree.
I completely agree. These flavor combinations – one could eat them, uncooked, with a spoon and smile. Just lovely! Send me a slice!
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I love the crustiness of your shell. Impressive.
Many thanks, Yummy:)
Crumbs and so much Yumminess, though it doesn’t fit into my diet plan of loosing the rings around my waist, I will make it for a friends birthday, it’s all about sharing, but also a good excuse for me to have a slight of it, to have it melt in my mouth. The Joy of a diet???
It’s not fair, Cornelia….but we know that:)
Gorgeous, we must all be deficient in Vit C the way we are all drooling over this and adding Lemons to the grocery list!
I’ve been battling a cough and cold for about 3 weeks now….the Vitamin C overdose isn’t doing much to get rid of it….I’ll just keep at it:)
The perfect antidote to swooning over sausage and mash. Nicely done.
One after the other is ideal:)
This is such a great recipe and the perfect cure for a rainy day blue…:). Your photography, as always, is stunning.
Thanks for sharing!
G
Many thanks…enjoy:)
I can only say … orgasmic!
Glad the earth moved for you:)
This is the first recipe on my to do list for this year 🙂
Good choice:)
That would definitely cheer me up -how delicious 😉
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“As rain falls and grey afternoons stretch away, I find it easy to lose myself in colour. ” Gorgeous sentence. Lemon and grey are perfect color combos. 😉
As long as the lemon outweighs the grey:)
I love this, a must make one soon!
Glad to hear it…get cooking:)
Perfect – probably my favourite dessert! But do tell Roger, had you been doing some DIY with your lovely knife (perhaps using it as a screwdriver) to break the point off?!
Denial would be as pointless as the knife….however, I can’t bear to chuck it away and, although pointless, it still does a good job 🙂
A sharp and incisive reply Mr S!
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Oh, yes, let’s banish those wintry thoughts! I love that cookbook. Mine is falling apart. I ran across a totally unused copy in an antique (!) store a year or so ago and am still kicking myself for not buying it.
I’m in the process of replacing my Elizabeth David books…:)
That would certainly cheer me up, too, Roger. It looks fantastic!
Cheers, Nate:)
Oh my, as soon as the lemons on my little plant ripen, I’m making this. Looks so divine.
I have to buy a lemon tree…
It is divine, Roger! Made it today, and enjoyed it hugely! Interesting recipe, it was very liquid when it went into the tart case, and would say it took twice the time given,,,,but it looks EXACTLY like your photo, and taste and texture are, to my mind,spot on….
Looks yummy! One of my favourite desserts! Thanks for including the recipe! Will definitely try it too. 🙂
Hi there…good to hear from you…glad you liked it:)
Your lovely yellow tart certainly will brighten the dreariest day. I might like to add a little meringue topping to it. 🙂
We ate slices of it with home made meringue and it was wonderful:)
I have lemons, and I just learned to make crème fraîche so this is on my list.
I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for visiting my blog:)
Roger, I love all the gorgeous baked goods you’ve been making. Wow! I’ll have to try these out. Thanks for these.
I’m just making what I hope will be a delicious walnut and banana cake:)
Amazing. I just did one last week. Such a comforting tea time snack.
Absolutely…I love it:)