Lemon Tart

Ingredients

• 1 cup lemon zest, julienned
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup crème fraîche
• 2 large eggs
• 3 large egg yolks
• 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Directions

1. For the candied citrus zest, add the lemon zest to a saucepan, then pour in enough water to rise 1/2 inch above it. Bring it up to a boil, take the pan off the heat, and pour off the water. Cover it with fresh water and do the same thing again: boil, pull from the heat, and drain.
2. Refill the pan with water, this time stirring in the sugar too. Keep it at a simmer for 30 minutes, then drain it.
3. To dry the candied zest, scatter the strands across parchment paper and leave them at room temperature overnight; don’t tuck them into the refrigerator. If you want curls, wind the strands around a chopstick while they dry, and when you take them off the next day, they’ll keep that shape.
4. The next day, give the zest a toss with a little more sugar. For the tart dough, combine the flour, salt, and powdered sugar with a whisk in a bowl. Drop in the butter, then work it through with clean fingertips or a pastry blender until the mixture looks like uneven flakes and little clumps. You’re aiming to get butter on all of the flour.
5. Using a wooden spoon, blend in the beaten egg. Add the almond extract, 1/4 teaspoon, plus 1 teaspoon lemon zest, and keep stirring until the dough gathers into clumps.
6. Form the dough into a ball, pat it down into a disk, wrap it in plastic, and slide it into the refrigerator. Give it at least an hour there; if planning ahead, make it up to 2 days in advance.
7. Set your oven to 350 degrees F so it can heat.
8. If the dough has been in the refrigerator overnight, leave it at room temperature for at least 10-15 minutes before you start rolling; it needs to loosen up so it can bend a bit instead of fighting you. To roll, dust the dough and work surface with a little flour, or sandwich the dough between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll until the round is 2 inches larger across than your tart pan, which should be about a 12-inch round.
9. Settle the dough into the tart pan, pressing it into place. Run your rolling pin across the rim so the dough is even with the pan edges. Freeze it for 30 minutes.
10. To pre-bake, cover the shaped dough with aluminum foil and ease the foil down against it. Weight it with whatever you use for pies: dried beans are fine, and so are sugar, rice, or ceramic pie weights.
11. Put the crust in the 350 degrees F oven for 20 minutes. Take it out, use the foil edges to lift away the weights, and leave the crust to cool.
12. For the lemon curd filling, warm the butter and crème fraîche over a double boiler until melted, stirring so they come together. If you are improvising a double boiler, keep a couple inches of water gently simmering in a saucepan and set a stainless steel or pyrex bowl above it, with the bowl’s bottom clear of the water. Take the upper pan off the heat and put it aside.
13. Set a second bowl over the double boiler and whisk the eggs with the egg yolks only until they’re warmed through. Move that bowl off the heat, whisk in the butter mixture, and then add the lemon juice.
14. Pass the mixture through a sieve into a fresh bowl, then set that bowl over the simmering water. Whisk in the sugar and zest, and keep going until the curd feels warm when you touch it, about 4 minutes.
15. Assemble and bake the tart by adding the lemon filling to the crust, then returning it to the 350 degrees F oven for 25 minutes, until the center is set.
16. Let the tart cool on a rack, then chill it in the refrigerator. Before serving, finish the top with the candied lemon zest.