Citrus desserts don’t really get me too excited, but in the case of meyer lemons, I decided that a little investigation was required.

Meyer lemons join the long, long list of things I never knew existed before I started reading food blogs. I had a pretty serious case of fomo (h/t Nicole) that relates to this cute little fruit, which allegedly tastes like a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. I picked up a few at Whole Foods at the beginning of the month, and they sat around for a few days while I decided what to do with them.

First up, I made a batch of meyer lemon and cranberry scones, but they weren’t as good as the sour lemon ones I made for my birthday. Then I just decided to slice once up for my water, and I’m not really convinced that they taste that much different from regular lemons, although perhaps my citrus-stank-attitude doesn’t really help matters.

In any event, I decided to use up my last meyer lemon making a simple tart for my Dad’s birthday. This has to be the easiest tart filling in history. You slice up the lemon, poke out the seeds, and the whole thing goes into the food processor – pith and peel included. Toss in a bunch of sugar, a few eggs, a stick of butter and a bit of cornstarch, press the button to mix, and it’s done.

I also made this Great Unshrinkable Tart Shell recipe for the first time. I found the dough really soft and although it rolled out smoothly, I had trouble getting it into the pan. I think next time I would just flatten it into a disk and press the whole thing in.  I’m not really the best judge of the final result, because as I said, citrus desserts don’t really get me going. The most important thing is that Mom and Dad loved it, and I’ll never need to buy another meyer lemon again 😉

Meyer Lemon Tart

Source: Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

1 partially baked 9″ Great Unshrinkable Tart Shell or your fave frozen pie crust, or even a graham cracker crust would be good

1 lemon (meyer or regular), about 4.5 oz or 130 grams

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into chunks

4 eggs

2 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

Directions

  1. Thinly slice the lemon, poke out any seeds, and toss them into the food processor or blender with the sugar and butter. Process or blend until the lemon is thoroughly pureed, and scrape down the sides if needed. Add the eggs, cornstarch and salt and pulse until everything is smooth.
  2. Pour into tart shell, but don’t fill it past the top of your crust, or you’ll have issues later getting it out.
  3. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes until the filling is set, jiggles slightly, and is a little bit brown on the top. Let cool completely, or better yet, make this the day before you want to eat it, and let it chill in the fridge.