As it turns out, hubby’s favorite dessert ever is lemon pie. Being the devoted wife I am (sometimes), I’m searching for the ultimate lemon pie recipe.

A couple of weeks ago I tried Fanny’s recipe, it tasted really nice, however the texture of the lemon curd turned quite runny and neither hubby or I were really fond of the meringue. That is why that version never made it to the blog

Today I made my second attempt. I used Fanny’s pâte sucrée, as I had frozen what was left over, and the lemon curd recipe from StoneSoup, which is extremely easy and extremely fast to prepare.  Finally, I decided to omit the meringue.

The result was absolutely delicious! And the curd has a really nice, firm texture.

Ingredients for the pâte sucrée:

- 300g – 10.5 ounces butter

- 190g – 1.5 cup icing sugar

- 60g – 1/2 cup ground almonds

- seeds from 1 vanilla bean

- 2 eggs

- 500g – 4 cups flour

- 1tsp fleur de sel

Ingredients for the lemon curd:

- 1 400g – 9.4 fl oz. can of sweet condensed milk (Nestlé’s)

- 1/2 cup – 125ml lemon juice

- 3 egg yolks

Cooking instructions:

Cream the butter until soft. Then mix in the icing sugar, ground almonds and vanilla seeds. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the flour and salt, to obtain a crumbly texture.

Form 3 balls with the dough, each weighting approx. 365g (13 oz.), press them down, wrap with cling film and either freeze or refrigerate them overnight (or do what I did: use one ball and freeze the other two).  Line the baking tin with the dough, prick the bottom with a fork to avoid irregular swelling while in the oven.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 175°C – 345°F.

Mix all the ingredients for the lemon curd together.

Top the tart crust with the lemon curd, bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Let cool and enjoy!