Caramelised Lime Tart

This Caramelised lime tart is based on a recipe I published in my first book Plates, Real Food for Fast People in 1995 for a lemon tart. It’s timeless but here I have added a bit more excitement by caramelising the top!

Ingredients

1¼ cups (200g) plain flour
½ cup (90g) icing sugar
90g cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg
1 tbsp cold water (optional)
Icing sugar, to dust

Filling

4 eggs
1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar
300ml cream
1/3 cup (80ml) fresh lime juice (3-4 limes)

Instructions

Put flour and icing sugar in food processor and combine for a few seconds. Add butter and process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add egg. Pulse and stop as soon as the dough starts to form into balls. If this doesn’t happen, add a little cold water, a tsp at a time, until it does. Remove, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 200ºC or 180ºC fan. Roll out dough on a lightly floured board to line either a 26cm high-sided round or a shallow 28cm flan tin (extra care will be needed for wider flan tin as pastry is very short or buttery). Press pastry gently into tin and use rolling pin to trim the excess. Prick base gently with a fork. Chill 20 minutes.
Line pastry case with baking paper and fill with beans or rice. Bake for 10 mins, then remove paper and beans. Return to oven and bake for another 5 minutes, until pastry case is lightly golden. Remove and reduce oven temperature to 170ºC or 150ºC fan.
For Filling, whisk eggs and sugar together until pale. Whisk in cream and finally, juice. Pour immediately into prepared pastry base and bake until just set (about 15-20 minutes for the shallow tin and 25-30 mins for the deeper one). Cool and chill for 2-3 hours before caramelising.
Just prior to serving, dust surface with an even layer of icing sugar. Use a kitchen blow-torch to melt and caramelise sugar. Cool for 5 minutes until caramel becomes crisp. Serve with cream, ice-cream or thick yoghurt. (Alternatively, pack your tart in ice in a grill tray and place under pre-heated griller to caramelise.)