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Tarte citron vert

Lime basil pie by Jacques Genin

This lime basil pie has a lovely creamy texture and beautifully balances the flavours of the lime and basil. Perfect for the summer.
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 6 people
Author Nathalie

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry:

  • 175 g (3/4 cups or 1.5 sticks) butter
  • 125 g (1 cup) icing sugar
  • 60 g (2/3 cup) powdered almonds
  • 60 g eggs 2 eggs
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 vanilla pod
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 310 g (2 1/2) cups flour

For the lime basil curd:

  • 180 g (3/4 cup) lime juice between 6-10 limes, depending on the limes
  • 6-10 limes for their zest use the same amount as for the juice
  • 170 g (3/4 cup) sugar
  • 20 g (1 1/2 cup) fresh basil
  • 3 eggs
  • 200 g (3/4 cup + 2 tbsp) butter cut into cubes
  • 1 gelatine leaf optional - the curd will hold better so that you could pipe it

Instructions

For the shortcrust pastry:

  1. Combine the butter, icing sugar and almonds in the mixer. Add the eggs, egg yolk, vanilla pod and salt and mix until homogenous. Add the flour in one go and then mix as little as possible, only enough to be able to shape the dough into a ball. Flatten slightly and refrigerate overnight (or at least 1h30).
  2. Roll out the dough so that it's 3mm thick (or 2mm for mini pies), place in the pie tin and refrigerate again for 1-1h30. This will prevent the dough from shrinking when baking. Blind bake for 20 minutes at 180°C and the let cool on a rack.

For the lime basil curd:

  1. Cook all the remaining ingredients (except the butter and the gelatine if you're going to use it) on a low heat. Keep an eye on the exact temperature - the mix should never exceed 85°C (185F) or the eggs might cook.
  2. When the mix starts to thicken, get ready to remove the pan from the heat. How do you know when it's ready? Use the whisk to create a whirl - if the whirl continues to spin for a bit before stopping, you will need to keep it on the heat for a bit longer. If on the other hand it stops immediately, it's ready - you can stop cooking and remove from the heat.
  3. If you want to add gelatine to the mix, do so now.
  4. Strain the lime curd to remove the zests and the basil leaves.
  5. Pour the lime curd into a beaker and let it cool until it reaches about 40-45°C (105-115F). This should take about 5 minutes.
  6. Using a hand-held blender, start mixing the curd at a low speed, then start dropping in the butter and continue to mix until smooth.

Assemble the pie:

  1. Pour the lime curd into the baked pastry and smooth out the mix with a spatula.
  2. Grate some lime zest over the curd and refrigerate for at least 3h if you used the gelatine and 5h if you did not.

Notes

Quantities for a 22cm (8.5 inches) pie or 8x10cm (4 inches) min pies