Lemon Lavender Tart
A refreshing treat to get you excited for spring after all that winter baking, this lemon lavender tart blends sour, sweet, and floral in the most perfect way. Lavender tart shell filled with tangy lavender lemon curd and topped with a sweet honey meringue, an excellent dessert to get you thinking about warmer weather.
All About This Lavender Lemon Tart
A wonderful winter bake, this lemon lavender tart recipe uses tart dough, curd, and meringue. The lemon curd is steeped with lavender and utilizes the double boiler method which is my favorite method for making curd. As for the dough, I do make it with dried lavender buds in it to make the lavender more prevalent. But don’t worry, it’s just enough to know it’s there but not taste like soap. If you want to skip the effort in making the dough, you can always buy it. However, it will not come with the added lavender.
Love citrus bakes? Try some of my other citrus focused desserts!
The Origin of Lemon Curd
Curd in its earliest form came from the English in the 1800s and was lemon. Lemon curd then was actually just taking lemon juice to help form curds from cream. That evolved into lemon cheese for baking where you would ‘rasp hard pieces of sugar’ against the lemon skin since zesters weren’t a thing yet. Obviously curd has come a long way since then now that we have microplanes and added eggs and butter to it. Read all about it here!
Lemon Lavender Tart Ingredients
- Lemon juice: Fresh or bottled is fine for this citrus based dessert! If you want to get real crazy, you can use Meyer lemons.
- Dried Lavender Buds: The lavender is what gives this dessert a floral taste without the soap. You can find dried lavender easily found in grocery stores or online.
- Egg yolks: Curd takes a lot of eggs and egg yolks, and you can’t buy just the yolks like you can with the whites. However, to use up the rest of those egg whites, try one of my egg white heavy bakes!
- Pie dough: Instead of making the tart dough, you can buy premade pie dough. Just keep in mind you need enough for an 11″ tart and it will not have the additional lavender flavor.
Major Allergens Present: Gluten, dairy (butter), eggs
About the Equipment
- 11″ Tart Tin: Used to bake the tart in. Alternatively you can use this recipe to make eight 4″ tarts.
- Rolling pin: Used to roll out the tart dough. Alternatively, you can use any long cylindrical object.
- Piping bag: Optional for decorating if you choose to pipe the meringue.
- Blowtorch: Optional (but definitely worth it) if you choose to torch the decorative meringue.
- Hand or stand mixer: Used to whip the Swiss meringue to stiff peaks. I do not recommend doing the meringue by hand. For a hand mixer you will use the beaters and the whip attachment for the stand mixer.
How to Make this Lemon Lavender Tart Recipe:
What is a Lemon Lavender Tart? What is it Made Out Of?
This lemon lavender tart uses a fully baked tart shell filled with lemon curd with that floral flavor coming from both the tart shell and curd which creates a classic twist on the regular lemon meringue pie. The curd has the essence of lavender through a steeping method, while the dough has actual lavender buds in it. It is then topped with a sweet honey meringue and torched. How you top the tart is your choice. You can leave naked, use the meringue, or top with whipped cream. I always prefer my sour fruit based tarts topped with a sweet meringue to balance out the tartness.
Make the Lavender Tart Dough
If you are using store bought pie dough then you can skip this section! However, if you’re home making, the tart dough is a basic pate sucree dough which is a sweetened dough. Between the three major doughs (brisee, sucree, and sablee) the sweetness level is in the middle. It is essential not to overwork the dough (particularly the gluten) too much during making or rolling or else it will shrink when baking.
When making the dough, ensure that a dough does not form before you add the eggs. Once you add the eggs, mix just enough for the dough to form then give it a 30 minute rest before rolling it out. You can make the dough a week in advanced if storing in the fridge, and I will usually make a double or triple batch of the recipe to freeze in separate portions for months. However, make sure to defrost the dough and that it’s of a temperature between room and fridge temp.
Roll, Shape, and Bake the Lavender Tart Dough
If you’ve never rolled out dough before it can be tricky the first time to get a feel for it. Start with a floured surface. With a rolling pin or similar object, roll by pushing out on all sides to form a rough circle, and frequently move or turn the dough to prevent sticking. If it does start to stick, sprinkle a little more flour. Roll to a quarter inch thick (store bought included!), even, and larger than your tart tin. Run your hand over the dough and try to feel if any sections are thicker or thinner than ideal. Again, we don’t want to overwork the dough; you can only roll it out twice before needing to toss it.
Either by rolling up around your rolling pin or using your arms, transfer the dough to your tart tin. When forming into the tin make sure to press into the corners. Use a knife to trim off any excess, and poke holes in the bottom (also known as docking) to help prevent any bubbles forming and freeze. Freezing is essential because when you go to bake it, the flour in the tart dough will start to bake and solidify before the butter has time to melt preventing your sides from falling down. Freeze for at least 2 hours, but preferably 6 or more.
We will be fully baking these tart shells before adding the curd. Bake at 350*F until the edges start to turn brown. The holes of the dough is usually enough to prevent any bubbles, but you can also use pie weights or a saran wrap bag of rice. If you do notice any bubbles forming poke a small hole on top and push out the air. Be careful though because that is hot steam!
Make the Lemon Lavender Curd
For this curd, we are using the double boiler method that uses eggs to thicken instead of cornstarch, and it’s super easy. Simply, whisk together all the ingredients, except for the butter, and place over a double boiler. With double boilers, you never want the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Whisk occasionally until it has thickened then whisk in the butter. This method produces a thick and droopy curd, but not stiff, and the double boiler allows the steam to heat the bottom of the bowl which causes the curd to cook evenly at lower, indirect temperature. A lower, steadier temperature means a slower coagulation of the egg proteins which produces better flavors.
Once your curd is thick enough to roughly hold its shape you can opt to push through a strainer. Don’t skip this step if you just dumped dried lavender buds in with the rest of the ingredients without some sort of container like a tea steeper or cheesecloth. Straining is also helpful if you have little bits of cooked egg whites. Those aren’t harmful or make it taste any different, but they do look a little bit weird.
Make the Honey Meringue
Decorating with meringue is of course optional but highly recommended. There are three types of meringues: American, Swiss, and Italian. Each one is cooked differently. American style is not cooked at all and is the least stable. Swiss style has the egg whites and sugar cooked until the sugar dissolves and has a medium stability. And Italian style cooks the sugar to 250*F and is the most stable. Depending on what you’re making depends on what stye of meringue you should use. Since we are just decorating, Swiss works well here. See my post on how to make meringue for more info.
You simply cook the whites with the sugar and honey over a double boiler until the sugar dissolves whisking minimally. Then add the cream of tartar to help stabilize and whip on high speed until stiff peaks form. Done. You can’t over-whip meringue, but it does need to stay in motion until you’re ready to use it otherwise it gets weird and chunky instead of smooth and flowy. I usually keep mine on low until I’m ready. When decorating, how you pipe and decorate is your choice. Also, don’t forget to bust out the blowtorch if you are equipped (the best part).
Love making meringue? Try these other desserts with meringue!
Finish the Lemon Lavender Tart
If you choose to go the meringue route (naked or whipped cream are also options) you can either pipe it on top in a design of your choosing your can scoop and spread on top for a more rustic look. Torch the meringue by turning the flame to medium and torch with swift, even strokes with the flame an inch or two away from the meringue. Don’t let the flame settle on one spot or else it will burn. Top with dried lavender buds or lemon zest or candied lemon and enjoy your refreshing lemon lavender tart.
Extra Tips and Tricks For a Successful Lemon Lavender Tart
How to Roll Out Tart Dough
- Use dough that is in between room temperature and fridge temperature. After making the dough I will let it rest for those 30 minutes in the fridge. But do not let it chill for longer than those 30 minute otherwise you will have a hard time rolling.
- Use a well floured surface and don’t be shy to add more flour as you see fit especially when you start rolling. Sprinkle flour on the top of the dough as well, and flatten the dough with your hands.
- The dough is going to stick to the table no matter what. Make sure to be continuously moving the dough, running your arm under it, or simply turning it. While you’re rolling, if your dough doesn’t move it means it is stuck to the table. Get it unstuck, and dust some more flour to the table.
- Move the rolling pin in all directions and roll evenly which means don’t put pressure too much on one side of the pin. You want a rough circle so you have to make it that way with the rolling pin. Also, make sure you have the space to roll.
- To know if your dough is even, run your hands on top of the dough and feel which ares are thinner or thicker. If thinner, try to push the surrounding dough into (not onto) itself. If thicker, roll a little more.
- To move the dough from the table to the tin, you can either pick it up with your hands, or you can roll it up around your rolling pin and unroll it over the tin. I usually prefer the first option.
How to Make Swiss Meringue
- For more detailed information on how to make meringue, see this post.
- Use fresh egg whites as opposed to carton egg whites. Fresh will always whip up better; in fact, sometimes carton egg whites don’t whip up at all.
- Make sure no fat gets in the bowl or on your whip attachment! Fat (such as cream, butter, or egg yolks) will always destroy a beautifully whipped meringue. You can wipe the bowl and attachment with a vinegar dampened paper towel.
- You can’t over-whip Swiss or Italian meringue so turn that mixer on high and let it rip! However, once you have it going it must be kept in constant motion or else it will be less smooth and more chunky. If I’m not quite ready for it yet, I’ll turn my mixer down to 1-2 speed (low) until I am.
- When warming the whites and sugar together, just warm it until the sugar is dissolved. Help it along by whisking now and again. I will use my fingers to check for any remaining sugar crystals.
Enhancing This Lemon Lavender Tart Recipe:
- Use a different herb or flower! Thyme, basil, black tea, and rose all work really well with lemon.
- Replace half of the sugar with honey in the lemon lavender curd to make the curd less sour and more honey forward.
How to Store and Freeze Lemon Lavender Tart:
- You can freeze the whole tart (minus the meringue), dough, and curd for up to 4 months.
- Refrigerate the dough for up to 1 month, the curd for up to 2 weeks, and the composed tart for up to 1 week.
Troubleshooting This Lemon Lavender Tart:
- My tart shells shrunk! You overworked the dough. For now, you’ll just add less filling. Next time, try to work the dough less, and make sure a dough doesn’t form when you are just mixing the butter and flour. Sometimes, after I add the eggs, if it’s taking too long for the dough to form I will shape it together with my hands.
- My curd has little white chunks in it! Those are cooked egg white bits! Usually from not whisking enough but almost unavoidable. They’re harmless and don’t alter the taste, but if you don’t like seeing them, you can push through a strainer.
- My meringue did not whip up! There may be some fat in the bowl or you weren’t using fresh egg whites! We’ve got to start over here. Clean the bowl and attachment/whisk thoroughly and give it a wipe with vinegar.
Something else going wrong? Reach out and we will troubleshoot together!
Lemon Lander tart
Equipment
- 11" Tart Tin
- Rolling Pin
- Piping bags and tips optional
- Blowtorch
Ingredients
Lavender Tart Dough
- 226 g All purpose flour
- 57 g Powdered sugar
- 1 stick Butter, unsalted or 113g
- 1 tsp Dried lavender buds
- 1 pinch Kosher salt
- 1 ea Egg yolk
- 1 ea Egg
Lemon Lavender Curd
- 2 tsp Dried lavender
- 200 g Lemon juice
- 200 g Granulated sugar
- ½ tsp Kosher salt
- 6 ea Egg yolks
- 6 ea Whole eggs
- 2 sticks Butter, unsalted or 230g
Honey Meringue
- 2 ea Egg whites or 60g
- 90 g Granulated sugar
- 30 g Honey
- ½ tsp Cream of tartar
Instructions
To prepare the lavender tart dough
- Skip this section if using store bought pie dough.
- Combine the dry ingredients with the dried lavender and the cubed butter in a bowl. Using the beaters for your hand mixer or the paddle for your stand mixer, mix on low until small, quarter-pea sized butter chunks remain. DO NOT allow a dough to form at this stage.
- Add the egg and yolk, and continue to mix on medium speed until a dough forms. If it takes a while for the dough to form, turn off the mixer, and shape into a dough with your hands.
- Allow to rest, covered, in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Using a well floured surface, roll out the tart dough to about a 1/4 inch thick and about 13" in diameter, continuously moving the dough to prevent sticking. Transfer rolled dough to your 11" tart tin and shape into it cutting off any excess dough. Dock (or poke small holes) in the bottom and place in the freezer for at least an hour (preferably 2). Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Once frozen bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown rotating halfway through baking. If any bubbles form during the first half of baking, carefully pop with a knife and push out the steam.
To prepare the lemon lavender curd
- Place the dried lavender in a tea steeper or cheesecloth to contain.
- Whisk together the lemon juice, eggs, sugar, and the lavender pouch. Cook over a double until thick stirring occasionally. It should loosely hold its shape when spooned.
- Remove from the double boiler and remove and toss the lavender. Whisk in the butter until smooth. Push through a strainer if desired.
- Immediately pour into the tart shell and allow to set in the fridge for at least 2 hours. If short on time, you can place in the freezer for 30-60 minutes.
To prepare the honey meringue and finish
- Whisk together the three ingredients in your mixer bowl.
- Cook over a double boiler until the sugar dissolves whisking occasionally.
- Using the whip attachment for your stand mixer or beaters for your hand mixer, whip on high speed until stiff peaks form.
- Decorate the top of the tart with the meringue and lightly torch with your blowtorch. Decorate further with lemon zest, candied lemon, and/or lavender as desired.
Nutrition
Love lavender and lemon together! Especially loved the lavender in the tart shell
Thank you for making my lovely tart!
I’m literally so obsessed with lemon, this was a fantastic tart!
Is there anyone NOT obsessed with lemon! Thank you for making it 🙂
This was such a wonderful treat. Not too sweet and not too tart. Love the smooth lemony flavor and appreciate the easy to follow recipe. This will quickly become a favorite.
I’m so happy to hear it!!
This was absolutely delicious! Not overly sweet which I love. The lavender offered a great balance to the tartness of the lemon. Can’t wait to serve this at my next dinner party!
Thank you so much for your kind words!