To make this graceful dessert, you’ll need a 9 1/2-inch flan pan, which is a shallow, round pan with fluted sides and a removable bottom. (Be sure to hold the pan from the sides, and not the bottom, or your tart will be “left hanging”!) If you don’t have a flan pan, use a shallow pie pan of approximately the same size.
To gild the lily, serve this with lightly sweetened whipped Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream.
1. To bake tart dough: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 1/2-inch-round flan pan with removable bottom. Roll out the dough on a floured work surface so that it is about 1/2 inch larger than the pan all around. Line the pan with the dough, folding excess dough back into the pan and pressing it into the sides. Line the dough with aluminum foil and then fill the pan with uncooked dried beans (metal pie weights may be substituted).
2. Bake the tart crust 10 minutes. Remove the foil and beans. Bake until the crust looks dry, another 3-4 minutes. (If crust puffs a bit, pierce it gently with a toothpick.) Remove pan from oven, but leave the oven on while the crust cools.
3. To make the filling: Combine grated lemon peel, lemon juice, ground almonds and melted butter in a bowl. Set aside.
4. Separate eggs into 2 clean, dry bowls. Beat egg yolks on high speed with electric beaters, slowly adding all but 1 tablespoon of the sugar as you beat. Continue beating yolks until they thicken, become pale yellow and form a ribbon over the surface when you lift a beater out. Stir in the lemon mixture and set aside.
5. Clean and thoroughly dry the beaters. Beat egg whites on high speed. As they begin to thicken, gradually add the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar. Continue beating for a minute or two, until egg whites round up when you lift out a beater. (Don’t let them get to the “stiff peak” stage, however.) Using a rubber spatula, gently stir 1/4 of the whipped egg whites into the egg yolk batter. Then fold in the remaining whites: gently “cut” with the spatula into the egg whites and batter, then fold the batter up and over the egg whites. Turn the bowl a little and repeat the same cutting and folding motion. Keep folding the egg whites into the batter until the egg whites are mixed into the batter. (A few white streaks of egg white may still be showing—this is okay.) Now gently spread batter into the cooled tart shell.
6. Bake the tart until an indentation is left when you press it with a finger, about 20-25 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
From The Ovens of Brittany Cookbook, by Terese Allen