Lemon tart or tarte au citron is a classic of French pastries. I often taste lemon tarts which are either too acid, or the lemon flavor disappears behind a too sweet lemon curd. You probably guess by now that I am rather demanding on my lemon tart. Now, the challenge today for me was to revisit the luscious lemon tart recipe, to make it not only gluten free, but dairy free and white sugar free. And that my friends, was the real challenge: while I start to master gluten free pie crusts, baking especially without white sugar can sometimes be tricky: how do you make a meringue without powder sugar? I am rather proud of the alternative I came up with.
Traditionally, the tarte au citron is composed of a pâte brisée pie crust, where butter is a key ingredient. I have been meaning for some time to try using organic ghee (or clarified butter) as a tastier and healthier substitute for margarine. While ghee is made from butter, so technically a dairy product, the process of making ghee removes all the moisture and milk proteins, leaving the healthy pure butterfat behind. This is why people with dairy intolerance can often thrive on ghee (if you can’t have ghee though, just replace it in my recipe by same quantity of margarine). The pie crust ended up just perfect with ghee, beyond my hopes!
Challenge #2: what sugar to use in the dough, the custard and in the meringue? I opted for coconut sugar in the dough, a sweetener I have used successfully in other baking recipes. For the custard and the meringue (here comes my secret ingredient) I used birch sugar, also known as ‘xylitol’. Birch sugar is made of Finnish birch trees, so a 100% natural sweetener with low glycemic index. We use it here in Finland mainly to keep healthy teeth, and you probably have been chewing xylitol gums yourself. Since I live in the birth country of birch sugar, I decided to bake with it! You know how xylitol leaves a slight cooling feeling on your tongue? Good news, there was no cooling or any kind of other aftertaste in my lemon curd.
Now let’s talk about the meringue: it is traditionally made of powder or confectioner sugar = super refined white sugar combined with starch to prevent caking. So I swapped white sugar with birch sugar powder, whipped it into my beaten egg whites, and voilà! The ultimate refined sugar free meringue.
The quantities I used are for about 6 mini lemon tarts, depending on the size you make.
Bon appétit!
- FOR THE DOUGH {pâte sablée}:
- 160g brown rice flour
- 60g potato starch
- 60g tapioca starch
- 40 g almond powder
- 30 g coconut sugar
- 60 g soft ghee (or clarified butter or butter)
- 1 egg
- Pinch of salt
- 6 Tbsp. of water
- FOR THE LEMON CURD:
- 3 organic lemons, zest of two lemons
- 3 eggs
- 120 g xylitol
- 60 g ghee (or clarified butter or margarine)
- 2 flat tbsp corn starch
- FOR THE MERINGUE:
- 1 egg yolk
- 100 g birch sugar (xylitol) + 4 grams arrow root (or corn starch)
- THE PIE CRUST: Mix the flours and almond powder in a large bowl.
- Rub the soften ghee into the flour with your fingers until you get a wet sand texture (hence its French name pâte sablée, or ‘sand dough’). Mix in the lightly beaten egg and the water. Knead the dough by hand until it gets smooth and doesn’t stick anymore. If the dough feels still too dry, add 1-2 extra tbsp. water.
- Roll into a ball, then flatten out the dough with your hands and wrap in a plastic film. Chill in refrigerator for about 1 hour. While the pastry is chilling, make the filling.
- THE LEMON CURD: In a saucepan over low heat, warm the lemon juice, zest, birch sugar, corn starch and eggs, whisking constantly. The mixture thickens, do not let it boil.
- Take away from the heat, pour in a bowl and let it cool down a bit. Then add the soft ghee butter, whisking vigorously to obtain a smooth mixture.
- Place a plastic film in contact and let it cool down in the refrigerator. (I personally prefer serving the lemon curd chilled rather than at room temperature)
- Preheat the oven to 190 ºC.
- Take the dough out from the fridge. The dough can quite hard, knead it first with hands to soften it
- Roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Tip: I use plastic film to avoid the dough to stick to my baking roller. Lift into your small tart tins and trim off excess pastry. Stab a few holes in the bottom with a fork and fill with ceramic pie weights or dried beans.
- Bake the crust until light golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove them from the oven and leave to cool, then remove from the tins.
- Pour the lemon filling into the pre-baked tart shells.
- THE MERINGUE: In a large bowl, whip the egg white with electric whisk until foamy. Blend birch sugar and starch together until you get a 'powdered' texture. Add it gradually to the egg white, continuing to whip until stiff peaks form. Spread the meringue over the pies.
- There are two ways you can brown meringue. Use a hand-held torch (my preferred method), or you can brown the meringue in the oven, using the broiler for 1-2 minutes maximum.
Your blog is really awesome! It is full of good recipes, beautiful and healthy dishes and pastries. Will you allow us to taste? I’d gladly buy few of these…yummy! Vraiment bravo!
What a lovely way to make a pie and meringue without refined sugar! Thanks so much for stopping by at Cabana de Empanadas today, it was lovely meeting you! Let’s keep in touch 😊