World’s best classic french lemon pie

Prep time :

About 30 minutes 

Servings :

8 servings 

Cook time :

About 20 minutes 

Yeild :

28cm Pie

Total time:

About 50 minutes 

This is the classic tarte citron and the world’s best lemon pie. France is known to be very rich in food culture, which Ihave found to be amazing and i have discovered so many recipes so far. 

This classic french lemon pie is probably the first pie baked after arriving in France. This pie is also so very special in our household as it is my french born husband’s favorite dessert. He could eat this pie almost everyday. 

I have made this classic pie so very often now that i have found my own littletricks to get it the way we like. This recipe calls for making your own pie crust from the scratch. Butyou can also decide to get a readymade pie crust if you prefer. I love creating everything, as much as possible, by myself when it comes to cooking and baking.  

Why should you try this classic french lemon pie?

    • It is quite easy to make from the scratch
    • It is delicious and creamy
    • You can easily make it more or less sweet according to your choice.
    • You don’t need a mixer
    • The filling is simple

Key steps of making this lemon pie

    1. Creating the crust
    2. Preparing the filling 
    3. Topping with a meringue (Optional)

Does lemon pie need to be refrigerated ?

I prefer making my pie 4 to 5 hours before se’rving. I think it is just a personal preference but the classic lemon pie is srved cold. And specially to let the crust be soaked a bit with the filling , I put my tarte citron in the refrigerator for at least four hours. 

Making the pie crust :

Ingedients:

  1. 100 grams sugar
  2. 200 grams flour
  3. One egg
  4. 80 grams butter
    1.  
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Making the Pie step by step:

  1. First, gather all the ingedients in a large bowl and start mixing with your hands. Keeping the butter at the room temperature ahead of time might be helpful but i don’t really feel the need. 
  2. Once you have a nice dough you can just flatten it and refrigerate the dough for about an hour. This process helps the dough hold better when we start rolling it. This process is very important if you don’t want to end upcreating a mess in the kitchen as the dough will be very sticky otherwise.
  3. After an hour take the dough out and start rolling it on the kitchen countertop. It does not have to be perfectly round as you can always add the dough pieces to create the mold if nedded later. 
  4. Place it on your pie pan, mine is about 30cm. But a smaller pan should be even better. My old pan wa broken , so i have to use this for now. Poke little holes with a fork all around the pie crust.
  5. Usually when we bake these kind of crusts we need to put a little weight over the pie so that it does not create those uneven bubbles on the pie. I didn’t have those little ceramic balls we find these days, so I just went for the beans i had in my kitchen. I have also tried rice befor and that works perfect as well. 
  6. Bake the pie for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees and remove the weight. Put it back and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes till the pie is slightly brown.
    1.  
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French lemon pie, tarte citron, saru's not so secret diary, sarus diary, lemon pie with meringue, swiss meringue, recipe, french desserts, french classic, french classic dessert
French lemon pie, tarte citron, saru's not so secret diary, sarus diary, lemon pie with meringue, swiss meringue, recipe, french desserts, french classic, french classic dessert

Making the creamy filling

Ingredients : 

  1. About a tablespoon of lzmon zest
  2. Juice of 3 large lemons 
  3. 4 eggs 
  4. 20 grams cornstarch
  5. 150 grams sugar (brown sugar can also be a good option)
  6. 70 grams butter
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Making the filling step by step :

  1. Once you put your pie crust in the oven to bake, you can start with your filling. For this grate some lemon  zest before squeezing the lemons you have. I have taken 3 large lemons but if your lemons are smaller you might need four of them. 
  2. Sqeeze all the lemons and in a large bowl, add the juice extracted. Add in the sugar, eggs, cornstarch and the zest and mix properly.
  3. Now pour everything in a saucepan and start heating up the mixture on a medium high heat. This mix will start to thicken within few minutes. Keep mixing to avoid any lumps. Once you get a thick consitency, turn off the heat and add the butter.
  4. Mix everything properly and you shall see the creamy texture. Then add this filling to the pie you just baked. I decided to top it with some lemon zest but this is optional. 
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Your clasic french lemon pie is ready to be served (after cooling for few hours) and you could just leave it here and enjoy your lemon pie. This is what I also like to do sometimes. But if you want to add the meringue like I have done this time, you can find the recipe for the meringue on my blog here.  

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