This blueberry and lemon curd tart is perhaps my favorite summertime dessert. Flaky pastry is topped with creamy, sweet tart lemon curd and shimmering glazed blueberries. While blueberries are at their peak, I love serving this easy to make but especially pretty dessert when I’m entertaining friends.
During my years living in New England, I used to pick tiny blueberries from bushes that grew wild around the edge of our apple orchard and it became a tradition to make a blueberry and lemon curd tart at least once each summer. Now that I’m living in Florida, if I want to make this tart I buy blueberries from our local market. Of course, they are not the same as those tiny wild berries but they are sweet and delicious nonetheless. This pretty tart is a wonderful combination of creamy, sweet and slightly tart lemon curd that is topped with glazed fresh blueberries. I originally found the recipe in my cookbook, “The Pie and Pastry Bible” by Rose Levy, but I’ve made it so often that I can make it from memory. It is easy to prepare but if you don’t have lots of time, you can make the tart using a store bought pie crust and your favorite jarred lemon curd. It will be a little different from one you make from scratch but either way, you will love it.
Blueberry Tart With Lemon Curd
Preheat the oven 425 degrees
- Your favorite homemade pastry crust to fit a 9 – 10 inch tart pan or a store bought refrigerated single pie crust
- 1 egg white, beaten
- 1 c., more or less, lemon curd (recipe below) or 1 jar of your favorite store bought curd
- 1 pint of fresh blueberries, washed and any stems removed
- 1/3 c. sugar
- 1 Tbsp. cornstarch
- 1/2 c. water
- 1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Place the pie crust in a tart pan (I use a 9 inch) with a removable bottom. Turn under any overlap and press to the inside of the pan. Line the crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, carefully lift the parchment and pie weights out and prick the bottom of the crust with a fork. Return to the oven and bake another 5 to 10 minutes until the crust is pale golden brown.
Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. While warm, brush with beaten egg white and let cool. Reduce oven heat to 300 degrees. Spread lemon curd evenly over the bottom of the crust and bake an additional 7-10 minutes but do not let the curd begin to color. When done, it should barely jiggle when the pan is moved gently from side to side. Place the tart on a wire rack and cool.
Blue Berry Topping
In a saucepan, combine the sugar and cornstarch, stir well to break up any lumps. Add the lemon juice and water. Heat, stirring constantly until clear and thickened. Remove from the heat, add the blueberries, stir until they turn bright blue and are well to coated. Pour into a colander or sieve placed over a bowl to drain, reserving the glaze. Spoon the berries evenly over the cooled tart. Touch up any berries that are not coated with reserved glaze. Let rest until the tart is completely cool and the berries have set firmly. Remove tart pan sides, slice and serve at room temperature.
Lemon Curd
- 2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
- 4 egg yolks
- 3/4 c. sugar
- 7 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 – 3 lemons)
- 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- pinch of salt
Add the yolks and sugar to a sauce pan and whisk until blended then stir in the lemon juice, butter and salt. Cook the mixture over medium low heat, stirring constantly, scraping down the sides of the pan often. When steam appears, remove the pan briefly from the heat, stirring constantly to keep the mixture from boiling. Cook until thickened and reached 196 degrees on a thermometer. Pour the curd into a strainer over a bowl to remove any little bits for a perfectly smooth filling. Stir the zest into the curd and cool.
To help prevent the tart crust from shrinking as it bakes, you can freeze the tart shell 30 minutes before baking.
Pie weights are suggested to keep the pie crust from puffing. If you don’t have any, you can use dried beans.
When making the curd, do not let the mixture boil or it will curdle.
The blueberries are not cooked but instead stirred briefly into a hot glaze and turn bright blue. This insures an intense blueberry flavor.
Any leftover tart may be refrigerated loosely covered for up to 2 days. The crust will soften the longer it sits.
Notes From The Kitchen
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The delicious flavor combination of creamy sweet and tart lemon curd and glazed fresh plump blueberries on a flaky, buttery crust is like a slice of summer on a plate. This is one of the first recipes I shared on my blog and ten years later it is still one of my favorite desserts. I do hope you will give the blueberry and lemon curd tart a try.
What a delicious treat!
I know after we had spent time in Maine, I longed for those plentiful yet tiny New England blueberries different than our fat southern berries — soooo, I found that our grocery store in georgia actually sold frozen Maine blueberries — now frozen is a far cry from fresh but they were great to cook with…
When we recently moved, I left behind 4 giant blueberry bushes— so I will be planting a few new bushes where we are now—I can’t wait to give this tart a try!! Thank you for sharing Karen!
Blueberry and lemon are such a wonderful combination in summer desserts. Your tart looks fabulous, Karen.
angiesrecipes
http://angiesrecipes.blogspot.com
This recipe has such a delicious combination of ingredients. Thanks for sharing.
Looks delicious Karen! 😃
Blueberries and lemon go so well together. This recipe sounds delicious!
What a beautiful presentation with the water in the background! A few years back when we were still in Kansas, our neighbor who was originally from Maine would bring me jars of blueberry pie filling every time he went back home. I loved those Maine blueberries, they were so tiny and sweet! I Wish I had a jar right now, that would taste so good with your tart.
What a perfect summer dessert! I wish I had a slice for breakfast!
Jenna
How delicious and what a fantastic alternative (lemon curd) to crème pâtissière!
I love the combo of lemon and blueberries — they work wonderfully well together. This is a great looking tart, and a bonus is it’s pretty simple to make. Winner! 🙂 Good stuff — thanks.
Now this is a dessert for me! I love the tartness of lemon curd, and the berries are absolutely wonderful this year. Pretty too!
Fantastic recipe and what a coincidence. I made lemon curd yesterday with my Meyer Lemons.
I am definitely making this. Huby will love it.
Karen, I have always loved the combination of blueberries and lemon. I think I should make your tart this week. Thanks so much for sharing.
Your words describing this tart, its history and meaning, as well as the flavours, are beautiful, Karen. I can only imagine what it is like to see it for real and taste the flavours.
That is a beautiful dessert, and based on the ingredients I can only imagine how delicious it is. WOW, best recipe I’ve seen in a while. I’m scheduled to pick up an order of Maine wild blueberries this week. Thank you!
I am salivating over that. I don’t know if it’s the pandemic making us long for all things homey, but I am so into fruit pies this year. And this one looks exceptional.
Wow that looks awesome
I love the combination of blueberries and lemon…delicious!!……Abrazotes, Marcela
What a rich and tasty dessert, Karen. Everything about it tempts me. I look forward to giving it a try, believe me!
This is a winner, Karen. I eat blueberries everyday in my yogurt or with whipped cream as a dessert. Pies are one thing I can bake and little else!
Hope all is well with you. I plan to finally post this week now that I found out the problem with loading photos.
Be well,
Jane
When we visited Maine a few years ago… we picked wild blueberries with deer close by eating them! They were delicious but the actual memory is what I love so much. Thank you for reminding me of that memory…🥰
This tart looks delicious with all my favorite flavors. mmmm!
Have a lovely week my friend.
Looks and sounds delicious! I haven’t had any blueberries yet this year. Since the pandemic started, they’ve gotten quite expensive, almost 5 Euros per small punnet. But looking at your recipe, I think I’ll need to get some anyway 🙂
You had me at Lemon Curd. This one is definitely being saved and hopefully made before our blueberries (the fresh, local ones) are gone!
Wild berries are so delicious. Don’t you love picking them? So much fun. Lemon and blueberries are a match made in heaven. This delightful tart would be such a lovely for a tea time treat.
ooh yes this looks so beautiful and delicious! what a great combo. and we have the same plate! i have that yellow and green plate too. it’s such a pretty setting.
cheers
sherry
I love all things lemony and tart, and this lemon curd tart is right up my alley. I would probably add even more lemon / lime juice or zest for myself… or maybe even a little drizzle of limoncello 🙂 Anyway, this is a perfect summer treat!
Blueberries and lemon go so well together! I love the idea of a rich, creamy lemon curd as the base of this tart. Also, I’m a little bit jealous that you could pick wild blueberries at your place in New England! I’m sure you miss that, but then again Florida brings some pretty awesome advantages itself. 🙂
One of the things I miss most this time of year is the wild berries! Where I was growing up, we picked wild raspberries, but I would have been so happy to find blueberries, too. Your tart looks like the pure essence of summer. What a treat.
Fresh blueberries! Love these two combination. Thanks for the recipe, Karen!
This looks delightful! I’m having a birthday brunch for my mother this weekend and think this will be a wonderful addition to our menu.
Lovely looking tart! Now I need to wait for our summer here so I can make one too
The sweetness of the blueberries combined with the tartness of the lemon curd makes a great combo! Your suggestion of first placing the rolled out dough in the freezer for 30 minutes before baking is a good one- many times I have watched my pie dough ‘slump down’ in the pan after baking!
Are these real blueberries??? (I mean the tiny ones, with black flesh?). My favourite, by far! Combined with lemon curd, this must be one of the most delicious sweet tarts I’ve ever seen!
Lemon desserts are my favorite! This tart looks wonderful.
I love the blueberry and lemon combo. I would be going back for seconds of this tart!
I love the blueberry and lemon combo. I would be going back for seconds of this!
I thought the lemon curd might make it a little too sweet, Karen, but I’d certainly be happy to taste your version.
Oh this sounds divine! I have so many lemons, the curd will be very easy. Might have to replace the blueberries though … not a fresh one to be found 🙂
I love blueberry and this tart looks absolutely beautiful and perfect!! hugs
Blueberry and lemon go so nicely together. I’m excited to see that this recipe comes from the “The Pie and Pastry Bible.” I’ve been baking from Levy’s “Cake Bible” for years, and loving it.
I actually have some lemon curd left from my daughter’s wedding party. This just might be where it needs to go. Love lemon and blueberry toogether!
Blueberries and lemon are such natural partners – your tart is almost a health food! 🙂
What a lovely tart! I love lemon tart with blueberries! What a great combination they make.
Lemon and blueberry – always a good match. I always buy lemon curd – I should give your recipe a try!
How did we miss this recipe? This is an awesome blueberry and lemon tart! On my list to make soon!