an heirloom recipe of the digital age.

(really good citrus tart).

Did your parents or grandparents bake? Do you have memories of certain smells coming from their kitchens, or things you bake whose nostalgia wafts you right back to childhood? Those recipes passed down, handed on, collected and used over and over?

I don’t, really. My mum was (and is) a great cook, but I don’t recall her baking much when we were kids. And this could be a failure of recall on my part, but she was also a working mum of two little kids so maybe she just didn’t have that much time for baking. I do remember a walnut and date cake (baked in those cylindrical cake tins that aren’t commonly available anymore for some reason, even though I’m pretty sure every 90’s kid would buy them purely for the nostalgia) that we used to eat sliced, spread thickly with butter, often.

My maternal grandma was chicken noodle soup queen (instant noodles, grated carrot and a little parsley and a bit of chicken, heaps of salt- it was great), and I also remember eating roast chicken with her and my grandpa on Sundays when we lived at their farm for a little while. Eaten at the table in their kitchen, where the voices of talkback radio were the background sounds to every day. But her baking? Not so much.

Childhood memories of my paternal grandparents feature stone fruit (white peaches especially) heavily, and also home made pasties eaten in their dark kitchen with the old-fashioned wood stove and all those grandma kitchen smells. They lived - and continue to live- in the riverland and have an impressive orchard and veggie garden that is very productive. You can tell when they have visited us because when they leave our kitchen benches and table are laden with boxes of garden goodies.

My great-grandma used to make scones when we would visit. We would play yahtzee while sitting at her kitchen table, our scones washed down with milos topped with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Or, if not scones, her tin of ANZACs would be passed around the table for dipping into tea and milo. She also made a walnut torte which is probably the only recipe I have that I consider an heirloom that has been passed down through the generations. I remember it making appearances at lots of family events, and I was lucky enough to score the special tin my great-grandma used to bake it in (I actually don’t know how this happened?) The recipe involves a packet of Sao biscuits (remember those?) so I wonder if it was one of those recipes that was printed on the back of a packet of something once upon a time? They always seem to end up as family favourites.

So I don’t really have a collection of heirloom bakes that take me on a rose-tinted journey back to childhood. Although if I ever come across a cylindrical cake tin, rest assured I will be buying it to make walnut and date cake for my kids to eat, spread thickly with butter.

But I do have this citrus tart. This is my ‘heirloom recipe of the digital age’. This is a tart I have been making for over a decade. I have made it to sell in cafes, for countless gatherings, in miniature to sell at market stalls… And the other day, just because. This is a recipe I came across years ago, on a lovely old blog (sadly no longer around) called Trotsky and Ash, written by two women in Melbourne. Back in the golden era of blogs (so you know it was a while ago). Their original recipe called for Meyer lemons, but I have made this with all different types of citrus and it is always a stand out hit. This is an heirloom recipe- easy, few ingredients, comes together quickly, doesn’t require any fancy equipment, and is even more delicious on day two. I have tried a few other lemon tart recipes over the years, this is the one I always come back to. (And I am recording it here for you, and also for me so I always have a copy of the recipe, for when I inevitably misplace the scrap of paper the quantities are noted down on).

*A note on pastry: Use your favourite sweet shortcrust pastry for this tart, or buy it! If you use readymade, this tart will come together in about 5 minutes. Tempting, right? Otherwise, last time I made this tart I used this recipe, but I didn’t use a stand mixer to combine the butter and sugar- I just used really soft butter (but not melted) and a silicone spatula to beat the sugar into it.

Citrus Tart

So, you need:

4 eggs + 2 egg yolks + 275g caster sugar + zest of 3 lemons (or 2 lemons and 1 orange, or a mixture of lemon/orange/grapefruit) + 190ml pure cream + 180ml citrus juice (whatever combo you like- but not all orange as it will be too sweet) + half recipe of pastry (if using linked recipe). And a 25cm deep tart tin (preferably with a removable base).

Once you have gathered your ingredients, start with the pastry. Preheat the oven to 180c. Grease your tin with butter and dust with flour, then roll out your pastry to about 5mm thick and line the tin. (The pastry in these pictures didn’t actually roll out at all- it was very crumbly. So I just went with it and crumbled it into the tin and pressed it into place- it worked fine! Don’t be stressed about pastry!) To blind bake the pastry, scrunch up a large piece of baking paper then open it out and lay it over the pastry. Fill it with baking beads (or dried beans, lentiles etc) and blind bake for about 15 minutes - when the pastry starts to look like it is drying out on the surface, take the baking paper off the pastry and continue baking it for another 10ish minutes, until it starts to look slightly golden. Then take it out of the oven and turn the temperature down to 160c.

While the pastry is baking, make the filling. Pour the sugar into a large bowl and tip in your citrus zest (I zest directly into the sugar bowl). Rub the zest into the sugar until it smells wonderful and fresh and citrussy. Add the eggs and yolks, and use a balloon whisk to combine. Keep whisking for a minute or so until the mixture is lighter in colour and foamier. Add the cream and whisk to combine, then add the citrus juice and whisk briefly to combine. That’s it! Filling is done! Pour it into your slightly cooled tart case and VERY carefully put it back in the oven to bake for about 25-30 minutes - but check after 20 minutes. It is done when there is no jiggle in the centre when you gently wobble the tin. It should look pale yellow on top. (Also, if you had extra filling- which I always do- you can tip it into individual cups/ramekins/oven proof containers and bake it for 10-15 minutes for delicious little citrus curd treats).

Wait for the tart to cool completely before attempting to slice, unfortunately. Then eat it with cream and be happy.