Classic Lemon Tart

For the Pastry:
250g flour
190g cold butter, diced
75g caster sugar
pinch salt
grated rind of 1/2 lemon
50g ground almonds
1/2 egg
1 egg yolk
1.5 tbsp dark rum

For the Filling:
4 eggs
200g caster sugar
3 lemons (zest of 1 and juice of all)
125mL cream
icing sugar to brûlée tart

Method:
To begin, make the lemon almond pastry. With metal blade in food processor, place flour, butter, sugar, salt, lemon rind and almonds into food processor bowl. With food processor running, add egg, egg yolks and rum through feed tube. Continue to process until pastry forms a ball (this will be a soft pastry, so do not over-process). Mould pastry into a disc shape, wrap in gladwrap and refrigerate overnight.

To make the tart, preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface to a size just large enough to fill the tart tin. Gently ease pastry into corners of tart tin, ensuring a good 1cm overhang (do not cut this off).

Line tart with tin foil and fill with baking beans to ensure that the sides as well as the base are weighted (this helps give a good finished tart shape). Rest in fridge for 20 minutes.

Bake tart base in oven for 15-20 minutes or until pastry is cooked. Remove baking beans and tinfoil from tart tin and trim off pastry edge with a knife. Return to oven for 5 minutes to slightly brown pastry.

To make the filling, whisk together eggs, sugar and lemon zest in a bowl. Stir in lemon juice and fold in cream. Pour into tart tin and bake in oven for 30 minutes or until just set. Serve hot, warm or cold.

As an optional finishing touch, when you are ready to serve, dust with icing sugar and caramelize sugar with a brûlée torch if you have one.