Lemon Yoghurt Tart

I wanted to come up with something reasonably healthy, fresh and light. The result is this crisp base with a lemon-yoghurt filling that will help you cool down on a hot summer day.

This recipe is quite time consuming, but worth the effort! Once you've made the shell the variations are endless. This recipe will make three 25 cm tart shells.

I've added an alternative for the base if you don't have the time to prepare this tart shell. So no more excuses now...

Ingredients:
For the base:
- 300 gr flour
- pinch of baking powder
- 100 gr icing sugar
- pinch of salt
- 8 gr vanilla sugar (1 sachet)*
- zest from 1/4 lemon or two drops lemon essence
- 1 egg
- 200 gr cold butter, cut up in small cubes

For the filling:
- 1 liter yoghurt
- zest and juice of 3 lemons
- 125 gr caster sugar
- gelatin

*If you can't find vanilla sugar you can easily make it yourself. Fill a glass (jam) jar with caster sugar and add a vanilla pod. Leave for at least one day and you have vanilla flavoured sugar. This keeps for years and you can use it for all your baking's, puddings, jams and even ice-cream if you like.

Preparation:
Mix flour, baking powder, the sugars and salt together. Make a well in the middle and add the lemon zest or essence, egg and butter. Mix and knead until all ingredients are combined and the butter is incorporated. Try not to over mix the dough as the butter will start to melt which will make the dough very difficult to handle. Shape into a ball. If the dough has become too warm wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for at least half an hour.
Grease and lightly dust a tart tin (preferably with a removable bottom) and roll out the pastry. You can do this either by dusting the bench top with flour and roll the pastry out on your bench top or roll the pastry out in the tin (this can be tricky!). Use your warm finger tips to spread the dough out and to neatly line the sides of your tin. When rolling the dough out on the bench top, gently wrap the dough around the rolling pin and let it drop into the tin. Make sure there is a bit of an overlap over the sides. This enables the pastry to 'sink' into the tin. Cut the edges off or shape it into a nice pattern if you feel creative. Prick the bottom with a fork and let the pastry rest in the fridge for at least half an hour. This will prevent the pastry from shrinking back when cooking.

Preheat the oven to 160ºC and bake the shell for 20-25 minutes or until golden. If you want to make sure the base will stay flat, put baking paper on top of the pastry and add uncooked rice, beans or weights on top of the baking paper. Bake for 15 minutes then remove the baking paper with the weights and bake for a further 10 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin. Once completely cooled you can fill the pastry shell with a cold filling.

For the filling combine the lemon zest, sugar and yoghurt in a big mixing bowl or food processor and mix thoroughly. Prepare the gelatin according to the instructions on the package. In New Zealand we only have access to the powdered gelatin instead of the leaves. If using powder, heat the lemon juice and dissolve the gelatin in the juice. When using the leaves, soak in water and dissolve in the warm juice. For both versions let the juice cool down before adding to the yoghurt. Taste. If you feel the mixture is too tart, add more sugar or add more lemon zest and or juice if it's too sweet for your liking. Pour the mixture into the tart shell and let it set in the fridge for about 4 hours.

If you have too much mixture, pour the excess into small glasses or ramekins and let it set in the fridge. They make a lovely dessert as well.

Decorate with fruit, berry coulis or whipped cream to your liking.


Tips & tricks:
- The dough keeps for eight days in the fridge. You can freeze the dough for later use or make several tart shells and freeze after baking.
- Try quark, Greek yoghurt or ricotta instead of yoghurt.
- For a more naughty version use 500 grams yoghurt, quark or ricotta and 250 ml cream.
- Mix different types of fruit through the yoghurt before transferring to the fridge such as berries, peaches, cherries. Tinned fruit will do just fine; add about 600 grams.
- Pour half of the mixture into the tart shell and decorate fruit on top of the mixture. Then slowly and carefully pour in the remaining mixture. By doing it this way the fruit will stay in place and gives a nice effect when cutting the tart.

- Alternative base; 1 packet of biscuits to your liking (plain tea biscuits will do the trick), 50 grams butter and 1 Tbsp jam. Heat butter in a sauce pan. Anger management: Whack the hell out of the biscuits by smashing them with your rolling pin or a wine bottle, preferably empty. Once butter is melted add the jam and stir until dissolved. Add the crumbled biscuits and mix until all butter is incorporated in the biscuits. Pour mixture into your baking tin and press down with your finger tips or the back of a spoon. Let cool before adding the yoghurt mixture.