Conventional lemon tart, or tarte au citron, is loaded with double cream and eggs. These simple vegan lemon tarts use cashews for their creamy filling. They’re a lot lower in fat and cholesterol while still being rich and smooth like the classic version of this dessert.
Anyone who’s put creamed cashews to use in a bechamel sauce will know how effective they are in recreating the rich, slightly sweet quality of dairy. In tarte au citron, they are a mild backdrop to the intense, tangy flavour of lemons.
The pastry shells are made with a foolproof vegan sweet shortcrust flavoured with a little lemon zest. They are blind baked to ensure a crispy base – which you can hopefully see in the picture below. This does mean cutting out tiny disks of baking parchment, but it only takes a minute and is well worth it.
A small pinch of turmeric gives the custard its yellow colour. The flavour is undetectable, but be careful not to overdo it unless you want a high viz tart!
The recipe is for twelve to fourteen tarts around 7 cm in diameter. They will store for a few days in an airtight tin but are best eaten on day one.
vegan lemon tarts…
ingredients
for the pastry shells
- 45 g coconut oil (preferably the flavourless kind)
- 45 g vegan margarine
- 160 g plain white/unbleached flour
- 30 g icing (confectioner’s) sugar
- a little lemon zest
for the lemon filling
- 60 g cashew nuts
- zest of a large unwaxed lemon plus 70 ml juice
- 80 g caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 level tbsp cornflour (corn starch)
- pinch of turmeric
method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F. You will need (at least) a 12-hole shallow bun/pie tin.
- Cover the cashews in boiling water and set aside. You could use the jug of a mini blender for this as you will need it later to blend the cashews.
- Cut twelve (or more) disks of baking paper. You will also need either baking beads or a suitable alternative such as rice or dried pulses.
- Soften the coconut oil in a medium-sized bowl unless it is already at warm room temperature. It should be of a similar softness to the margarine.
- Add the margarine to the coconut oil, followed by the other pastry ingredients, using a little of the zest from the lemon you will use for the filling.
- Blend with a pastry blender or rub with your fingers until crumbly and well combined. Check there are no little lumps of coconut oil visible – blend some more if there are.
- Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of cold water to the pastry and mix with a fork until the mixture comes together. Use your hands only at the very last minute to form a ball and transfer to a board dusted with flour.
- Roll the pastry to a thickness of not more than 2 mm and use a cookie cutter or a glass to cut circles around 8 cm in diameter. Try to re-roll as little as possible – each time will result in less crispy pastry. Transfer the disks to the baking tin, pressing very gently into the moulds.
- Place the disks of baking paper and a few baking beads in the base of each pastry case before baking for around ten minutes. The pastry should be just beginning to colour at the edges but not yet golden.
- Remove from the oven. As soon as they are cool enough, tip out the beads, remove the paper disks and lift the cases out of the tin to allow them to dry out as much as possible. (This last step is not essential, but minimises the risk of a soggy base.)
- Drain the liquid off the cashews and replace with 100 ml of fresh water. Blend in a mini-processor until smooth. This may take a couple of minutes.
- Add the other filling ingredients to the cashew cream, reserving a little of the lemon zest for decoration, and blend again until smooth and completely combined. The colour should be paler than you want the finished tarts to be – it will intensify during baking.
- Warm the filling mixture very gently, stirring frequently, until it is just beginning to thicken but is still the consistency of runny custard. You can do this in the microwave, but keep the temperature low and check/stir every ten to fifteen seconds. (The reason for par-cooking the filling in this way is, again, to minimise the risk of a soggy bottom.)
- Replace the pastry shells in the tin and spoon or pour in the lemon custard until it is just a few millimetres shy of the rim.
- Return to the oven for another ten to twelve minutes until the filling has set and the edges of the cases are golden.
- Allow to cool before dusting with icing sugar and decorating each tart with a few strands of lemon zest.
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