Tarte au Citron – Au my god!

Since launching this blog I've been inundated with requests (ok, only one, so here you are, Alex) for the recipe to the tarte au citron that adorns the homepage banner. It comes courtesy of that foxy little home-baking minx, Mary Berry, and featured in the recent series of the Great British Bake Off. It was my first attempt at making a tart of any kind and used shortcrust pastry. The end result was unbelievably delicious, with melt in the mouth sweet pastry and moreish lemon curd-style filling. The edges of my tart were a little scruffy, but this is all a steep leaning curve for me and is something I can work on next time (oh, there will definitely be a next time). I added the raspberries as a decoration because I had some lying around (as you do). Serves 8 (yeah, right, I had about half of it)

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
175g plain flour
100g cold butter, cut into small cubes
25g icing sugar, sifted
1 large free-range egg yolk
1 tbsp icy water

For the filling:
5 large free-range eggs
125ml double cream
225g caster sugar
finely grated zest and juice of 4 medium lemons (you need 150ml juice)

To finish:
Icing sugar, for dusting

1x23cm fluted, deep loose-based tart tin; non-stick baking paper, baking sheet

Method:
1. To make the pastry, put the flour, butter and icing sugar into a food processor. Pulse briefly until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and water and process until the ingredients stick together in clumps.
2. Tip the mixture onto a lightly floured worktop and gather it into a ball with your hands. Knead 2 or 3 times, wrap in greaseproof paper and chill for 15 minutes.
3. Roll out the chilled pastry on a lightly floured worktop to a neat round that is the diameter of the pie dish plus twice its height including the rim.
4. Roll the pastry around the pin and carefully drape over the tin. With floured fingers, gently press the dough on the base and up the sides, into the flutes, so there are no air pockets or wrinkles. Avoid stretching the pastry. Prick the base with a fork, cover loosely with clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes before baking.
5. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6. Remove the clingfilm from the pastry and line with non-stick baking paper. Fill with baking beans and blind bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Lift out the beans and carefully trim the excess pastry from the sides using a sharp knife.
6. Return the empty case back to the oven for a further 10 to 12 minutes or until pale gold and completely dry. Remove to a wire rack to cool and reduce the oven to 160C/325F/gas 3.
7. For the filling, break the eggs into a large bowl and whisk. Add the rest of the filling ingredients and whisk until well combined. Transfer to a jug. Pour into the cooled pastry case and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the filling is just set, but with a slight wobble in the centre. Leave to cool slightly then remove the tart from the tin and transfer to a serving plate. Dust with sifted icing sugar before serving.