This fancy-looking but easy-to-make lemon tart is a great dinner party dessert

If “sweet and citrusy” defines your dream dessert, look no further than this beautiful Brûlée Lemon Tart. A staple on the menu at Toronto’s cozy new French bistro, The Senator Winebar, pastry chef Steven Song created a crowd-size version just for us — because you’re going to want to show off this standout sweet at your next dinner party. 

While the tart is inspired by the many pastries Song sampled on his first trip to Paris, he assures us that you don’t need to be classically trained to master it. He even gave us a few tips for getting the presentation perfect to really wow your guests: “Spoon a dollop of whipped cream on the tart and serve with a blueberry compote to add colour and [more] dimension of flavour.” But most importantly, “enjoy, and bon appetit!”

Brûlée Lemon Tart

By Steve Song

Ingredients

Sweet dough:

• 2 cups butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder

Lemon curd:

• 1 cup lemon juice
• 1 ¼ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cup butter, chilled and cubed

Preparation

For sweet dough:

In a mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add one egg at a time and scrape the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla extract. Add your dry ingredients.

Once your pastry dough comes together, wrap in saran wrap and chill in fridge for at least 2 hours.

Once the dough has set and chilled. On lightly floured table, roll out the dough to the desired size. Lift dough and place neatly into the tart shell and make sure you scrape the excess dough from the top of the tart shell.

Blind Baking: Preheat oven to 375 F, prick the bottom of the tart shell with a fork and line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper. Fill the liner with dried beans and place the shell on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges are just starting to colour. Remove parchment and return the shell to the oven for another 15 minutes.

Let cool and set aside. Now the time to make lemon curd!

For lemon curd:

Whisk all the ingredients except butter into a stainless bowl. Place the bowl over a double boiler and easily whisk the sides and bottom of the bowl.

Once the lemon curd has thickened, slowly add the chilled butter and whisk until all the butter has been fully incorporated into the curd.

Strain the curd through a strainer to get a smooth lemon curd.

For assembly:

Pour strained lemon curd into the blind baked tart shell and let the curd set in the fridge for 30 minutes before cutting and serving.