Cool, creamy, and refreshing lemon blueberry tart comes together with 10 ingredients. The simple lemon filling sits in a flaky shortbread crust and is swirled with homemade blueberry sauce. After the first bite of this sweet, tangy, and buttery tart, it’s impossible to put your fork down. Enjoy this beautiful dessert for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, spring or summer celebrations, and more.
I knew a tart or pie version of our beloved lemon blueberry cake would be a hit in my household AND with many of you reading this. I’m always dreaming up ways to use this unbeatable flavor combination such as lemon blueberry muffins or lemon blueberry cupcakes. A beautiful tart with tons of fresh flavor was definitely my imagination’s top choice. I cannot wait for you to try this one.
Lemon Blueberry Tart Details
- Texture: I went back and forth about which type of crust to use for this lemon tart, but shortbread seemed most fitting. It’s pleasantly crumbly with a flaky texture that melts in your mouth. The crust contrasts perfectly with the creamy and lush filling on top, making this one of our favorite spring dessert recipes and Easter brunch recipes.
- Flavor: If I were to describe the taste of pure sunshine, it would definitely be this lemon blueberry tart. The lemon flavor is delightfully fresh and bright, and there’s just enough tang to complement all the sweetness. You really only need a small slice since there’s such a strong punch of flavor, but honestly I’ve never witnessed anyone stopping at 1 serving. (HA!)
- Ease: There are 3 components to the tart and each must be prepared separately, but there’s nothing really complicated about the entire process. Take your time and read through the recipe before you start.
- Time: It only takes about an hour to prep and bake the tart. But you’ll want to cool and chill it before serving, so set aside a few hours to complete the entire recipe. It’s wonderful when made the day ahead, too! Oatmeal lemon crumble bars are another excellent option for an even quicker lemony treat.
3 Parts to This Recipe
- Buttery Shortbread Crust: I make this shortbread crust with a lot of different desserts and it always reminds me of pie crust, but it’s so much easier. There’s no food processor or pastry cutter needed—instead simply combine melted butter with sugar, vanilla, salt, and flour and press into a tart pan or pie dish. You don’t even need to chill the dough before using. You’ll notice we use the same crust for our raspberry streusel bars, apple pie bars, and we double the recipe for our lemon bars. Keep in mind that these other desserts may require different oven temperatures and that’s because the desserts take longer, overall, to bake through. We bake the crust at 350°F (177°C) for this particular tart recipe.
- Lemon Filling: A lot of lemon tarts are prepared with a curd filling, but this one is thick, creamy, and rich. I use a similar lemon filling for our creamy lemon pie. I halved it for this tart, then cut down on the egg yolks. The egg yolks help the filling set, but I wanted the finished tart to remain soft. I think you’ll really love it. We’ll use only 1 egg yolk.
- Blueberry Sauce Swirl: You’ll enjoy pure blueberries without much else in the way. We hardly add any sugar to the blueberry sauce (some is needed to help them break down), so the natural flavor can really shine. Cook it on the stovetop for a few minutes, let it cool a little bit, then swirl some into the lemon filling. Feel free to strain it if you don’t want any blueberry lumps. You can use a toothpick or knife to swirl.
Can I Use a Graham Cracker Crust Instead?
A graham cracker crust will fall apart and crumble under this wet filling, so I suggest sticking with the shortbread crust for this recipe. If you wish to use a graham cracker crust, make these lemon blueberry cheesecake bars instead.
The shortbread crust dough is thick and a little greasy—don’t be nervous if it looks a little wet. Press it tightly into your pan and pre-bake it before adding the filling.
Creamy Lemon Tart Filling
You need one 14 ounce (weight) can of full-fat sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice and zest, and 1 egg yolk. That’s it. Fresh lemon juice is best. Here is a wonderful juicer if you don’t have one and if you need a recommendation for a zester, I use and love this one.
Spread the filling into the pre-baked crust.
I recommend making the blueberry sauce first so it’s ready when you need it. The recipe moves pretty quickly once you begin pre-baking the crust.
How to Make Mini Lemon Blueberry Tarts
Try using this recipe for about 10 mini tarts in mini tart pans. I don’t recommend a muffin pan for turning this recipe into mini tarts. Divide crust mixture between each mini tart pan (bake these in batches if you have less than 10), press firmly into the bottom, and bake for 8 minutes to help set the crust. It’s usually easiest to bake mini tart pans on a larger baking sheet. No need to poke holes in the crust before adding the filling as directed for the full size tart below. Pour filling into warm crusts, drop a few tiny spoonfuls of blueberry sauce on each, then swirl as directed below. Bake for 9-10 minutes or just until the centers no longer jiggle. Cool completely, then chill for at least 1 hour before removing from tart pans and serving. (Or serve in tart pans.)
Lemon Blueberry Tart Variations
If you want to switch up some flavors, be our guest! Here are the variations we tested. We’re unsure of the results outside of these listed changes, so let us know if you try anything else.
- Lime Tart: Switch the lemon juice and zest for lime juice and zest. Feel free to keep the blueberry swirl or skip it. You could also use the strawberry, raspberry, or blackberry swirl.
- Strawberry Swirl: Replace blueberries with 1 cup chopped fresh or frozen strawberries. You can’t really detect the strawberry seeds in the baked tart, but feel free to strain the sauce through a fine mesh sieve before swirling into the filling.
- Raspberry or Blackberry Swirl: Replace blueberries with 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries or blackberries and add 1 more teaspoon of sugar to the sauce (for a total of 3 teaspoons). Strain the finished sauce through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds before swirling into the filling.
- We haven’t tested other citrus besides lime or lemon. We do not recommend swapping the lemons for orange zest/juice because the tart will be very, very sweet. You really need the tang from lemons or limes. We haven’t tested this recipe with grapefruit.
See Your Lemon Blueberry Tarts!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂
PrintLemon Blueberry Tart
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours (includes chilling)
- Yield: serves 8-10
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
There are 3 parts to this creamy lemon blueberry tart and each are prepared separately before bringing them all together. For best success, take your time and read through the recipe before starting.
Ingredients
Blueberry Sauce
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice (or water)
- 1 cup (140g) fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw)
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
Shortbread Crust
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
Filling
- 1 (14 ounce weight) can full-fat sweetened condensed milk
- 6 Tablespoons (90ml) lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest (1 lemon)
- 1 large egg yolk
Optional Garnishes
- Lemon slices, blueberries, leftover blueberry sauce, whipped cream
Instructions
- Blueberry Sauce: Using a fork, mix the cornstarch and lemon juice together in a small bowl until the cornstarch has dissolved. Set aside. Warm the blueberries and sugar together in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally for 3 minutes, mashing the blueberries as best you can against the bottom and sides of the pan to help break them up. Stir in the cornstarch mixture. Cook for 2 more minutes as the sauce thickens, stirring and mashing the blueberries to break them up as desired. Remove sauce from heat and set aside at room temperature until step 6. Makes about 1/2 – 2/3 cup blueberry sauce and you’ll use about half for the swirl. (Reserve extra for garnish/serving.)
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Crust: Mix the melted butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the flour and stir to completely combine. The dough will be a little greasy and very thick. Using a rubber spatula or your hands, press dough firmly into a 9-inch tart pan (no need to grease it), making sure the layer of crust is even on the bottom and all around the sides. It may seem like it won’t fit, but it will. You can use the bottom of a measuring cup to pack the crust in too, but sometimes it sticks.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are very lightly browned. Remove from the oven. Using a fork, poke a few holes all over the top of the warm crust (not all the way through the crust). This helps the filling stick.
- Filling: Whisk all of the filling ingredients together until combined. Pour into warm crust. Stir up the blueberry sauce because it has likely thickened. It can still be warm when you use it in this step. If it’s too thick, warm it in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. Drop spoonfuls of blueberry sauce all over the top, using about half of the sauce. Reserve the rest of the sauce for serving. Using a toothpick or knife, gently swirl the sauce and filling together. Shimmy the pan back and forth 2-3 times to let the sauce and filling settle down into the crust a bit.
- Bake for 17-19 minutes, just until the center of the tart no longer jiggles when you give the pan a light tap. It will still be a little sticky on top. Avoid over-baking because the tart will taste rubbery. (Tip: Err on the side of under-baking because the filling also has a chance to set up in the refrigerator. You want a creamy soft filling.)
- Remove tart from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Cool completely at room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator uncovered for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day. If chilling for longer than 2 hours, cover it. After chilling, remove the sides of the tart pan if your pan has removable sides.
- Slice and serve with optional garnishes including any leftover blueberry sauce.
- Cover leftovers tightly and refrigerate for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can bake, cool, and chill the tart 1 day in advance. See step 7. The filling must be poured on a warm crust so it will stick, so I don’t recommend pre-baking the crust ahead of time. You can prepare the filling and blueberry sauce in advance though. Cover both and refrigerate until ready to use. The blueberry filling will be quite solid after refrigerating, so warm it up on the stove or in the microwave until thinned out again. (It can be warm when you swirl it into the filling.) Baked and cooled tart freezes well up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Small Saucepan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | 9-inch Tart Pan | Cooling Rack
- Tart Pan: A 9-inch tart pan with or without removable sides (it doesn’t matter) is ideal for this recipe. If you use other size tart pans, the bake times and thickness of the tart will differ. You can also use a 9-inch pie dish, but slicing the tart isn’t quite as neat. The bake times are the same. For mini tart pans, see post above. I don’t recommend a springform pan because the crust leaks. We haven’t tested this recipe in a round cake pan or as bars.
- Blueberry Sauce: If you don’t want blueberry lumps in your tart, feel free to run the blueberry sauce through a fine mesh sieve.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk: Make sure you are using sweetened condensed milk, not evaporated milk. There are no successful replacements for sweetened condensed milk in this particular recipe– it’s really the key ingredient. (Sometimes half-and-half or heavy cream works as a substitution, but then you’ll have to test with varying amounts of sugar since both are unsweetened.) Use one 14 ounce can full-fat sweetened condensed milk. Do not use fat free because the tart will not set. Keep in mind that 14 ounces is the listed weight on the can. 1 standard 14 ounce can is a little over 1 liquid cup.
Loved this! I never would have thought to make any thing like this myself, but I tried it for the challenge, and it was delicious!
I loved this tart Sally!! I personally don’t like desserts that are too sweet so like someone else suggested, I added in some sour cream to help cut down on the sweetness and didn’t use the full can of sweetened condensed milk. It was perfect. Can’t wait for next month’s challenge!
This recipe was so quick and simple to make and it looks and tastes amazing! This will be great to make this summer and I want to try some of the different versions listed in this recipe. Thank you for another wonderful dessert!
Love this, especially the shortbread crust! This is the first tart I’ve ever made — but will not be my last!
The taste of this tart is delicious. Hard to believe how easily the recipe came together. Each of the three parts of the tart contribute to a perfect forkful.
This was my first time making this recipe and it turned out amazing! It is so easy to make! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, it was greatly enjoyed!
Very easy recipe, and love the flavor options. I made a raspberry sauce this time and look forward to trying it with blueberries next.
I love this recipe! It’s so easy and so delicious. I had no idea you could use sweetened condensed milk to make a tart filling like that. I made this recipe for the baking challenge.. it was my first time entering the challenge, and my first time making a tart, and my first time making a shortbread crust! (So many firsts!) I am pretty new to baking and still learning, but this was the perfect recipe to get me started. It was easy to follow with clear instructions and it turned out just perfect (plus it tastes amazing!) I accidentally added a whole egg instead of just the egg yolk because I wasn’t paying attention- but it still turned out great. I definitely will be making this recipe again. I’d love to try different flavors too, like key lime and coconut, or maybe even strawberry rhubarb!
Super easy and super good:) Love this site:) Thanks for sharing the great recipes and baking tips.
OMG. It was the perfect dessert. It tasted like high end restaurant quality. Everyone in our family loved it, we can’t wait to make this dessert again. It was straightforward and delicious.
I am absolutely OBSESSED with this recipe! It was so fun and relatively simple to make (which was a surprise as tarts always seem so unattainable!) The crust is gorgeous and flaky, the filing is such a nice contrast (with all of the tart flavors). I will definitely be making this again, as it would make a beautiful centerpiece! I also used a 10 inch pan like another commenter, and making another half-batch of the base works perfectly!! 🙂
The filling was incredibly easy to put together. I used a 10” tart pan because that is what I had and quickly realized I couldn’t “stretch” the dough to fit so I had to make another half batch (more crust is better anyways. I like how you can sub other berries or citrus juice to make different combinations. I feel like I was looking for more of a custard consistency, but it was a bit more firm then that. Still a good recipe though!
Sally does it matter the size of the tart pan. First time baker challenge and excited
Hi Evelyn! A 9-inch tart pan with or without removable sides (it doesn’t matter) is ideal for this recipe. If you use other size tart pans, the bake times and thickness of the tart will differ.
I am a fairly new baker/cook and I came across Sally’s website surfing the internet for recipes. I must say I discovered a gem!! Her site is full of all the information, instructions, and resources you need . My absolute favorite site for my baking journey. April is my second baking challenge and I really enjoyed making the Lemon Blueberry Tart challenge. It was pretty easy, made me feel like a professional baker.
Looking forward to making May’s challenge.
Thank you so much for participating in this challenge, Valarie! We appreciate your positive feedback — we’re thrilled to hear you’ve been enjoying the site so far. Happy baking!
I love lemon and blueberry together, so I was excited to try this recipe. I took Sally’s advice and prepped all of my ingredients before I started baking, which helped everything come together easily! This was my first time making a crust for a pie or tart, and I made a small mistake: I didn’t realize that I should be pushing the crust up the sides of the pie pan I was using and not just pushing it into the bottom. So, I ended up with a thick shortbread crust on the bottom and none on the sides. Just a note for anyone else who might not realize and miss this step. Still turned out absolutely delicious!
This is absolutely delicious and wonderful recipe. I doubled lemon juice of filling and my clever mother in law made whipping cream and candied lemon peel on the top for garnish. It turned out so perfect match. We really love it! Definitely bake this lovely tart again. Thank you very much for giving us so much fun!
This Lemon Blueberry Tart recipe was incredible and a joy to make! The flavor was incredible and I loved the combination of Lemons and Blueberries.
Someone needs to stop me because I’m going to finish this whole tart almost by myself. I bake a lot and I thought I did have some self control but not in this case Sally, thank you so much for this amazing recipe, the flavors are very well balanced, I love the base and everything about this dessert
Wonderful recipe! While tarts might sound intimidating to a newer baker, this recipe eases you right in. It marries delicious spring flavors of lemon and blueberry in a buttery tart crust. Unbelievablely creamy after a night of setting up in the refrigerator. One thing I did notice was a bubble in the tart after blind baking. I wonder if docking (poking holes in the dough) before baking might remedy that? Still this was a hit, would make again!
This tart is so dreamy. It is fresh and bright and creamy and wonderful! And it was easy enough to make that I was able to get it all done during my baby’s nap which is a HUGE plus. I think my favorite part may have been the crust which is buttery with a little crunch – could not be better.
Super yummy! I used frozen blueberries and they weren’t very sweet so I got a double dose of tang but it was still delicious! My husband and I both really liked the crust, too.
Surprisingly easy to make and absolutely delicious! This tart is bursting with flavor and is so refreshing!
My four year old and I had fun baking this tart together. It was simple enough she could help me but had great flavor. We will definitely make this again!
This recipe was so easy to follow! I brought some in for my coworkers and everyone loved it! The owner even went back for seconds, and that isn’t something she does! I got to use my new tart pan that has been sitting in the plastic for about 2 years, and I’m glad this is the recipe I chose. I’ll definitely make it again!
I’d never attempted a tart before this, but I would definitely try again!! The recipe was so easy but I felt so accomplished making my own crust and blueberry sauce. Only iffy bits I want to point out, I had a lot of trouble getting enough zest, it ended up taking 3 lemons. Is there a trick I’m unaware of that you’d be willing to share in a future blog post? Also my crust shrank while baking (I used a pie pan), normal issue that my rookie self wasn’t aware of? Or maybe I did something wrong with the crust? Regardless, this recipe is another winner!!
Hi Caitlyn, I’m so glad that you tried this tart recipe! Shrinking is totally normal due to the amount of butter in shortbread. However, we notice it doesn’t shrink as much when using a tart pan if you ever get your hands on one and try the recipe again. If you make it in a pie dish again, try refrigerating the crust dough for 30 minutes after pressing it into the pie dish to help it “set” in that shape. Then pre-bake it as directed.
I love this recipe. Its tangy, sweet, and fairly easy to make. i would not recommend making this if you are on a time crunch, but the time it takes to cool is rewarding. Definitely a desert I would make again.
I had so much fun making this recipe. The combination of lemon and blueberry flavors was amazing. I made this tart for two friends. Both loved it! This was my first ever tart in my brand new tart pan. The directions were clear and easy to follow. This is a go-to recipe for sure!
This recipe is a winner. I’ve made it three times this month alone! So easy to make and a guaranteed crowd pleaser.
Super simple recipe that turned out delicious! I made candied lemon wheels and basil leaves as a garnish on top and the whole thing came out lovely. Looking forward to making this for friends in the future!
Upon tasting this, my roommate’s exact words were: “Feel free to make that any time!” This recipe was so simple and easy, and turned out very nicely. I particularly loved the blueberry sauce, which could be combined with so many other things as well.