Lemon mousse and berry Tart! Here she is! This is a simple tart crust filled with lemon mousse (lemon curd combined with whipped cream), and topped with fresh berries. Perfect for spring or Easter. A few notes: you can make the curd and dough a day ahead, but bake the tart and assemble everything day of. You can use an 8”-10” tart pan. If you want a short cut, you can buy a jar of prepared lemon curd. Whip the cream until it’s very stiff - this will help keep the mousse stiff so when you cut the tart the filling doesn’t run. You can cut and place the berries neatly, or just pile them on.
You will need:
1 tart shell (recipe below)
Lemon curd mousse (recipe below)
4 cups mixed berries of choice
Lemon Curd
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 Tbs lemon zest
Pinch of salt
4 Tbs (half stick) of butter, cut into 4 pieces
Place all ingredients aside from butter in the top of a double boiler. A glass bowl is preferable to a metal bowl. Whisk ingredients over medium heat until mixture becomes thick and will coat the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Transfer to jar or bowl, place plastic wrap directly on top so a skin doesn’t form and refrigerate. Curd will continue to set as it cools.
Lemon Curd Mousse
12 oz (1.5 cups) lemon curd
1 pint of heavy cream
Whip heavy cream until very stiff peaks. Whisk in 1/4 of lemon curd and then gently fold in remaining curd. Refrigerate mousse until ready to use.
Tart Crust (Pate Brisee) To assemble tart
1 1/4 c all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar
1/2 c cold, unsalted butter, cut in to 1" chunks
3-4 tbs ice water
Put the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand (about 15 seconds.)
Pour 3 tablespoons water through the opening and mix until the mixture will hold together when pinched (you may need to add the remaining water.) Remove the dough and work it into a ball. Pat it down into a disc, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate one hour.
After an hour, unwrap the dough, let it soften a few minutes, and roll it out on a floured surface until it's 1/8" thick. The best way to transfer it to your tart pan (mine was is to roll the dough around your rolling pin and then unroll it over the tart pan. Use your fingers and push the corners in and neaten up the edges.
Prick the bottom a dozen or so times with a fork and then chill the whole thing for 5 min in the freezer. Instead of using pie weights, I use a double layer of aluminum foil slightly larger than the tart pan and when the dough is chilled from the freezer, I cover the dough with the foil and push it in to the sides to keep them from sagging as the tart crust bakes.
Bake it for ten minutes at 350 F and then remove the foil and bake another 15 minutes, or until pale gold in color and looks cooked through (you won’t be baking it any more.)
Assemble Tart
Assemble tart within two hours of serving for best results. Once tart is cool, spread lemon mousse in tart crust. An offset spatula is helpful for this. Then arrange berries on top. You can slice the strawberries and fan them out decoratively or pile them on. I like a mix of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries or blackberries. Keep refrigerated until ready to cut. A serrated bread knife works best.
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