Celebrate citrus and fall in love with the combination of lemon and sour cream. This beautiful refreshing lemon tart recipe combines fresh lemon juice, sour cream and egg yolks for a perfectly creamy sweet curd filling.
I fell in love with tarts during my time spent at Culinary School. Not only were we coached to hone our pie crust making skills, we also had access to every size and shape of tart pan you could imagine.
Somedays our lineup of tarts resembled a beauty pageant. Some crowned with peaks of whipped cream, and some dusted simply with confectioners sugar. Some irresistibly dense with deep dark chocolate.
Tarts are made with that same buttery pie crust that is used to make pie crusts, but the crinkly crisp uniform edge that a tart pan offers give a pie a more elegant look. In my humble opinion.
My latest tart project included some big beautiful lemons, a carton of sour cream and some fresh eggs. So if you’re looking for lemon tart recipes that are creamy and perfect, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s take a look.
How to make a sour cream lemon dessert
If you want to prepare this tart to serve on the same day, get a good head start. Especially if you’re using a homemade tart crust, which is officially called pate brisee, a pie crust made using butter.
Since this is a no-bake lemon tart recipe, you’ll need to bake the crust in advance, which is referred to as blind baking. You’ll find instructions in my in depth post on How To Make a Homemade Pie Crust.
- Prepare pie crust and place it in a nine-inch tart pan. Cover, the tart crust with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for three hours. Rest it overnight if you’re splitting this project into two steps.
- If you’re using a purchased pie crust, no need to refrigerate for three hours, but you’ll need to follow the dock and bake procedures in the next steps.
- Before starting the lemon tart curd process, remove the tart from the refrigerator and with a fork stab the pastry shell on the bottom and sides. This is called docking. This allows the steam to release while cooking so the pastry doesn’t bubble up.
- Place a sheet of parchment paper over the shell and fill the shell with beans. Another step to keep the crust from bubbling up while baking. Again, refer to my Step By Step Pie Crust post for more details.
- For the lemon tart curd: Separate eggs and place egg yolks in a bowl. Use a fork to lightly blend and beat the eggs.
- Combine sugar and cornstarch in a heavy saucepan and stir to combine.
- Whisk in milk and lemon juice to combine.
- Heat over medium high heat until the mixture starts to bubble, stirring constantly.
- Reduce heat to low and cook for two minutes. Remove from heat.
- Temper the eggs by adding a small amount of the hot mixture into the eggs and stir to combine.
- Then add the warm egg mixture back into the saucepan. This is called tempering. The purpose is to slightly heat the eggs, so when you add them to a hot mixture, they won’t scramble, but blend.
- Bring the mixture to a low boil and cook for two minutes.
- Stir in butter and lemon peel and stir just a couple of times to combine.
- Remove from heat and once it has cooled a bit, stir in the sour cream.
- Add the lemon tart filling to the baked pie crust.
- Cover the pie with plastic wrap with the wrap touching the lemon pie filling. This will keep it from forming a film.
- When you’re ready to serve top with whipped cream. Enjoy!
- This tart will keep in the refrigerator, covered for several days.
Sour Cream Lemon Tart Recipe
First and foremost, this lemon tart recipe is absolutely delicious. We love this creamy version of a classic lemon tart. And creamy gets even creamier topped with either homemade whipped cream.
This easy lemon dessert recipe will wow your crowd. And what a perfect recipe for Mother’s Day, Easter Brunch or to top off any Summer meal. From burgers to chicken, this is a dessert recipe that will compliment any main course.
I hope you give it a try, and if you do, please come back and give the recipe a star rating and leave a comment about your experience with the recipe.
And if you have a favorite tart recipe, let me know, I’d love to give it a try.
More Tart Recipes
- Strawberry Tart with Lemon Cream Cheese Filling An easy to make and perfect dessert recipe for fresh strawberry season.
- Super Easy Chocolate Tart Recipe This 4- ingredient Chocolate Tart Recipe is so easy and so creamy delicious you’ll want to make it all the time.
- Fresh Peach Curd Tart Curds have been made famous by lemons, but why not give peaches a chance.
And don’t miss the most popular tart recipe on my site, which is a savory tart recipe using Caramelized Onions and Gruyere Cheese.
If you’re looking for more dessert recipes, don’t miss my Dessert Category. You’ll find lots of sweet recipes including the most popular dessert recipe on my site for French Pear Tart Bourdaloue
Sour Cream Lemon Tart Recipe
Equipment
- 9 inch tart pan
Ingredients
- 1 Pie Crust (9 inches) Blind baked
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch Plus 1 ½ teaspoons
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup lemon juice fresh
- 3 large egg yolks lightly beaten
- ¼ cup butter cubed
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
- 1 cup sour cream 8 ounces, full fat
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream whipped, for topping
Instructions
- In a large heavy saucepan, mix sugar and cornstarch.
- In a small bowl, add eggs and with a fork mix until combined.
- Whisk in milk and lemon juice until smooth. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat to low; cook and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat.
- Whisk a small amount of hot mixture into egg yolks.
- Return all to the pan, whisking constantly. Bring to a gentle boil; cook and stir 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Stir in butter and grated lemon peel. Cool without stirring.
- When curd has cooled to room temperature, stir in sour cream.
- Add filling to baked crust. Top with whipped cream. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 8 servings.
Notes
- Prepare pie crust and place it in a nine-inch tart pan. Cover, the tart crust with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for three hours. Rest it overnight if you’re splitting this project into two steps.
- If you’re using a purchased pie crust, no need to refrigerate for three hours, but you’ll need to follow the dock and bake procedures in the next steps.
- Before starting the lemon tart curd process, remove the tart from the refrigerator and with a fork stab the pastry shell on the bottom and sides. This is called docking. This allows the steam to release while cooking so the pastry doesn’t bubble up.
- Place a sheet of parchment paper over the shell and fill the shell with beans to weight the paper. Another step to keep the crust from bubbling up while baking. Again, refer to my Step By Step Pie Crust post for more details.
Nutrition
Lemon Curd Recipe with Sour Cream … It’s Whats For A Spring Dessert
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
foodish says
I made this and it is excellent!
John / Kitchen Riffs says
Love lemon. LOVE IT!!! And really like pies. Or tarts — actually I think I like tarts more, simply because they look so nice. And this looks gorgeous. And it’s got lemon in it. 🙂 Really good stuff — thanks.
Scarlet says
I just love lemon recipes and this lemon tart sounds so delicious! I am pinning to try soon!
Vickie Hemphill says
I’ve been dying to see this post since the FaceBook preview! Love lemon pie and this tart sounds over the top.
Pat says
I’ve been waiting to see this recipe on your blog ever since you posted it on facebook. It looks fabulous and I can’t wait to try it when I can get out to buy some sour cream. It looks perfect to enjoy as a special treat during the summer.
Larry says
Looks delicious and I can almost taste it.