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.
- 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! 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. 🙂
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Lemon 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 (190g) fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw)
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
Shortbread Crust
- 1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spoon & 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.
- 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.
Keywords: lemon blueberry tart
I struggled with the crust shrinking after the first bake, and then I tried pressing it down again which was probably not the best method (I see Sally recommend chilling before baking). But it’s still delicious!
★★★★★
AH-MAZING! I actually made a strawberry lemon tart since I didn’t have blueberries on hand. Used frozen strawberries without issues. I do agree with a previous review – a little more berry sauce would’ve been nice. It’s easy to double up the recipe for the sauce if you wish, though! Overall this was great: fruity, sweet, lemon-y, and so easy to make. I think we could all use something to cheer us up during these difficult times, and this beautiful tart did just that!
Thank you Sally for another wonderful recipe!
★★★★★
Crust is amazing, doesn’t seem like it would come together since there’s so much butter but it’s really tasty with the creamy lemon filling! I would strain the blueberry sauce next time because I thought the chunks of blueberry detracted from the lemon filling. Definitely a keeper, so good!
★★★★★
Absolutely delicious and a breeze to make. I substituted 1/3 of the AP flour with almond flour that I briefly toasted at 350 degrees for an added depth of flavor. Easy, bright and springy!
★★★★★
Decided to try the baking challenge for the first time as I wanted to use my rectangular tart tin for the first time as well. I only had 150g frozen blueberries, so used that with golden caster sugar- no problems. I increased the ingredients for the crust by a 1/4 of everything, I put some lemon zest in the crust too. This amount fitted my tin perfectly but after baking the crust had shrunk, so I quickly but gently used the back of a spoon to push the crust down & up the sides again and baked it for another 10minutes- worked very well. I used zest of 2 lemons in the filling & the whole egg, with light brown sugar, I swirled in all the blueberry sauce. Placed tart on another shallow baking tray as the crust does leak like Sally said. I baked for 18 minutes at 160°c in my Fan oven, on the lower shelf, turned it around halfway, turned oven off after 18mins, left tart in the oven for 10 more mins. Cooled in tin & now it’s in the fridge- leaving it overnight- can’t wait to try it!!
★★★★★
I made individual mini tarts for Easter Sunday dinner. The recipe is so easy to follow and it is beyond yummy! Hurry up and bake this delight!
This was a perfect ending to our outdoor Easter lunch! I made little meringues with the leftover egg white to put on top and candied some lemons for decoration too. Everyone loved the balance of sweet and tart! It was super easy to make as well – I will definitely make this again.
★★★★★
Thank you so much for this amazing recipe!! I just made the lemon tart for Easter and used blackberries because we have a blueberry hater in the house. It was gorgeous and tasted wonderful. Thanks again. Happy Easter from California!!
This was so much fun to make. Love a short crust! Cant wait to dig in! Happy Easter and Passover to all!
I loved this recipe. I thought the taste was similar to a lemon curd, but quicker and easier to make. I used a rectangular tart pan and doubled the filling. I used a mesh sieve with the blueberry sauce and I’m glad I did.
★★★★★
This was absolutely delicious, and easy to make. It’s not tart at all, so if you like the sour flavor of desserts like lemon bars, look elsewhere. This is more creamy and balanced. Every bite delicious!
★★★★★
Thank you for this challenge! An easy and delicious recipe! I used raspberries instead of blueberries but it was a perfect match!
★★★★★
This tart was delicious and very easy to make. I usually have a hard time with crusts, but this one came out perfectly.
★★★★★
Oh my, this tart was like Spring on a plate! LOVED it. The recipe was easy to follow and I happen to have all the ingredients on hand, so I made it for Easter brunch. It was delicious. The crust was a breeze to make, the lemon filling had just the right amount of lemony-goodness, which was offset perfectly by the sweet blueberry topping. Perfection. I think I’ll have another slice…
★★★★★
Thanks so much for this recipe!!! It was the easiest tart I ever made. Perfect amount of sweetness and tartness. This may be my favorite go to recipe this summer. This one is definitely a keeper!!
★★★★★
This tart is fantastic, not overly complicated to pull together and the flavors are absolutely perfect for Spring. I weighed my ingredients according to the amounts shared and didn’t make any substitutions and it came out perfectly (twice)!
★★★★★
Wow, another lovely recipe!
The sweetness of the condensed milk is perfect balance with the zingy lemon and slightly tart blueberry.
Nothing I would change, perfect the way it is and super easy to make!!
Made a nice Easter Sunday dessert
This was delicious and very easy to make. I bought a tart pan years ago that I never used and this was a great use for it! I made the blueberry sauce the day before and the tart came together very quickly the next day. We loved it and look forward to trying with lime and blackberries in the future!
★★★★★
Made this in a glass pie plate, I didn’t have to change a thing. It was simple and delicious. I already have requests to make it again.
★★★★★
Hi- With your traditional pie crust instructions you use pie weights when pre baking the crust. Do you not do this with the shortbread crust? Also, where do you place the rack when pre baking crust, I was taught the shelf should be low in the oven. Do you move it later when baking the pie?
Hi Ann, that’s correct– we do not need to use pie weights for this shortbread crust. With pie crusts, we use completely different methods such as using cold butter/fat, cutting it in, carefully rolling it out, etc. All of that is to preserve its flakiness. The pie weights help prevent a fat-heavy pie crust from losing shape and puffing up too much. We don’t have to worry about that with a denser shortbread style crust. I hope this helps. We bake this tart on the center oven rack.
Amazingly delicious! This recipe was super easy to follow and definitely one I will be making again. I could have eaten the crust alone it was that good, but of course the tangy, sweet lemon filling and mouthwatering blueberry sauce made it perfect. We garnished ours with some more fresh blueberries, the remaining blueberry sauce, and Sally’s lemon curd.
★★★★★
Love this recipe ! One question though, why does my crust melt when I bake it ? The edges don’t stay up they melt into the center and so I end up trying to push them up after baking the crust and it doesn’t look very pretty 🙁
Thank you so much for trying it! That’s completely normal and expected from a crust this buttery. Feel free to refrigerate the shaped crust in the tart pan before baking though. About 20 minutes will help firm it up before baking.
I just finished making my lemon blueberry tart! This is a fantastic recipe! It’s simple to follow and I love how beautiful the tart comes out! Perfect for Easter! I cannot wait to enjoy it with my family tomorrow! Thanks for another wonderful challenge Sally and Team!
Barbara
★★★★★
ABSOLUTELY AMAAAAZING recipe. Easy to make and bursting with flavor! This was sunshine and a big smile in a tart! This recipe will be on continuous repeat, FOR SURE!
★★★★★
Made this for Easter dessert and can hardly wait to taste it! I know it will be divine. It was so easy to make. The instructions are clear and well-written. However, I forgot to place the tart pan on a baking sheet when I baked the crust and got butter in the bottom of the oven. Cleaned that out, pulled out a baking sheet, and continued the bake. 🙂 Bonus – I finally got to use the tart pan that I’ve had for a couple of years!
★★★★★
Fantastic recipe for spring! Used gluten free flour for the crust (Bobs 1to1 baking flour). Added a Tbs more butter to keep it smooth, otherwise it gets a bit puffy and crumbly. Wanted it a bit more tart, so I added an extra half of lemon juice. Was a hit at the early Easter dinner! Thanks for yet another amazing recipe Sally!
★★★★★
So delicious!! Everyone at the table loved it! I will definitely make again!! Only problem- it was super hard to get out of the tart pan with the removable bottom. Should I have sprayed the pan?
★★★★★
So glad you tried this tart, thank you Ruth! Greasing the pan isn’t necessary, but you certainly can try it. Sometimes the center of the tart sticks to that removable bottom and you really have to dig your cake spatula server under there.
The bottom didn’t stick but the sides didn’t come out cleanly along the fluted edges. I ran a small knife around but couldn’t get it out without some breaking apart. Any suggestions?
★★★★★
This was a crowd pleaser for our Easter brunch today. The weather was perfect for this sunny, tangy, sweet tart. We garnished ours with lots of fresh whipped cream, lemon zest and dehydrated lemon slices. Gorgeous!
★★★★★
Delicious! Sweet and tart, really tasty and not challenging to make.
★★★★★
This was my first ever tart, and now lm sorry I didn’t try one sooner! As always, your instructions made it so easy and it is sooo good!