Why does my lemon tart filling sometimes curdle?
My recipe, which is wonderful when it goes well is:
- grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
- 142 mL double cream
- 6 oz castor sugar
- 4 large eggs
Whisk all ingredients together, then pour into pastry shell and top with a lemon and gin glaze..
The mixture sometimes curdles at the whisking stage and looks like scrambled egg, and looks as though the mixture is "cooking" in the lemon juice.
Why does this happen and what can I do about it?
Best Answer
RockyFord's comment has the heart of the matter, I think--the acid in lemon juice will begin to denature or curdle to the proteins in the eggs if it comes into direct, undiluted contact with them.
You can minimize this effect by beating together all of the ingredients except the lemon juice prior to mixing in the lemon juice. This will add a lot of sugar and milkfat which will buffer the interaction between the citric acid in the lemon juice with the egg proteins.
You can then bake your tart as normal.
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Why does my lemon tart curdle?
The most common reason why your tart cracked is because the oven was too hot (350\xbaF is as hot as your oven should be) or the tart was baked too long and overbaked. It's best to pull your lemon tart from the oven when its center is still slightly jiggly when the pan is gently shaken.How do you keep lemon curd from curdling?
I like to cook the curd in a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water (a double boiler) as this helps prevent the eggs from curdling. That is, where you get little specks of cooked egg in the lemon curd.Why is my lemon bar filling runny?
Runny Lemon Bars are most likely caused from under baking. Make sure the filling no longer jiggles before taking it out of the oven. If your lemon bars are runny put them in the fridge to firm up as much as possible, keeping them cold will keep them firm.How do you know if a tart filling is set?
Bake it at a low temperature, checking and rotating it halfway through cooking to ensure it cooks evenly, until it's set but still has a bit of a wobble in the centre. The best way to check this is to nudge the pan gently.Classic Lemon Tart Recipe
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