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)Â 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.
This recipe is delicious! I didn’t have a tart pan (I was too impatient to find one) and was excited to try the recipe so I bought mini ceramic quiche pans and they worked great. The tarts came out easier than I expected. The crust mixture seemed a little more oily than I expected but once I let it sit for about 10 minutes it got to a consistency that was easy to spread in the pans. Definitely give this recipe a try and enjoy!
First time ever making something like this. It was very easy, thanks to the easy to follow directions.
It turned out absolutely delicious!! I agree, you can’t really taste the blueberry but it doesn’t bother me. I don’t have a tart pan and apparently I don’t have a pie dish either (I thought I did), so I used a cake pan. Worked fine, just a bit more difficult to cut.
My crust was pretty hard, is that normal? I liked it that way, but I’m curious.
Hi Annie! Thank you so much for giving this recipe a try! It should be a sturdy shortbread curst, but not hard. You could try reducing the bake time on the crust slightly next time.
Although my family found the flavor to be too tart, we really enjoyed the taste of the shortbread crust! I’ve never made one before, and it was so easy! Even when I realized my pan was too large and had to make another half recipe to get the coverage I wanted, there was no rush or obvious shows. We ended up using a whipped cream topping to cut the tartness, and because of the pan size goof and recipe increase, it took us a few days to finish eating the tart. We finished the last slice over a week ago, and I will admit to craving another slice of it last night, but not enough to make a whole tart again.
This is AMAZING. My husband after one bite said – keep this recipe and he usually doesn’t say much about new recipes. My kids wanted to eat the whole thing!
I used a pie pan because that’s what I had and it turned out great.
Hi sally, the lemon blueberry tart is fantastic. Your directions are easy to follow and came out perfect!! My husband was so sweet and wanted me to make this dessert that he bought me a tart pan. Funny direction – you say it can be refrigerated for up to one week. This pie was so loved by my family it didn’t even last 12 hours! thank you again for another great recipe. Took a photo of my pie for the April challenge before my family cut into it. Can’t wait for the May challenge. Sandy
What a great recipe! I made it with strawberries instead of blueberries and still loved it – the sweetness of the fruit balances the tartness of the lemon well. I had extra strawberry sauce that tasted great warmed up and spooned on top of the finished tart. Make sure you use the pan size she specifies for this one, mine was just half an inch too big and the top edges of the crust didn’t quite cover it. Overall, one of the best recipes I’ve tried from Sally’s in a while (and I gave some to my friends, even those who don’t like sweets, and they LOVED it too)!
never had the chance to decorate it! My family ate it up so quickly.
This was a great easy recipe! I don’t have a tart pan so I decided to try and use a springform cake pan, which worked great! The side didn’t look as nice as it would with a tart pan, but I was able to take off the side which made it easy to cut.
Thank you for this idea. I was thinking of using a pie pan but then it would be too deep. I’m gonna try the springform pan. Thank you!
Absolutely delicious! Quick and easy recipe and perfect for Spring/Summer. I will definitely make this again.
Easy and delicious! Reminded me of another favorite Sally recipe, her lemon blueberry cake, in tart form!
The taste was truly delicious! My partner was even eating the leftover crumbs. If I make it again, I might not start the blueberries until after I put the shortbread crust into the oven b/c they got pretty thick and hard to mix by the time we added it to the filling.
Decided to stray from my usual chocolate recipes and I’m so glad I did! This tart is delicious and it was super easy to make. I thought the crust was especially good as well.
The crust is to die for! So buttery! I ended up using all the sauce so nothing to serve as a garnish but we loved it that way! I could see using this recipe in lots of different ways.
Great recipe – straightforward even with the multiple steps. I thought the blueberry was pretty, but didn’t feel like it added much flavor. I think I will try with red raspberries next time. I tend to assume most pies are better with whipped cream – in this case it detracted from the wonderfully fresh lemon taste. This is a keeper and will be made again!
I’m only 12 so I find some recipes really hard but this was so simple I can’t thank you enough sally! These tart was AMAZING my dad who usually never tries my recipes ( half of the time they are a disaster ) actually decided to try some of it which is a big thing for me . The tart was refreshing and was gone in less than an hour again I can’t thank you enough 🙂
The tart was delicious and beautiful but a bit on the sweet side for me. My husband loved it.
This was so quick, easy, and yummy! It was perfect for a Sunday night dinner. Next time I’m going to be more careful and use the correct measuring cup for the crust… I accidentally used a 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup… But it still turned out yummy!
Made this fresh dessert for Easter Sunday and it was simply devine! The beautiful, fresh colors and flavors of the tart itself made it the perfect dessert for the occasion. This is the first baking challenge I’ve participated in and am so glad I did! If you are trying to decide whether to make this, worry no more and hurry up and make it! You will not be disappointed! 🙂
Very easy to make and it looks beautiful. I didn’t have a tart pan so I used a pie pan. My coworkers loved it. Will definitely make again.
My husband liked this overall, but said that the lemon flavor very much dominated the blueberry flavor…even with the extra blueberry sauce. Still good, just not exactly what he expected. I had some issues with making the crust fit, but I’m sure that is more “user error” than an issue with the recipe.
Looking forward to the May challenge!
Happy Spring!
This was absolutely delicious – creamy and tart filling, perfectly balanced by the shortbread crust. It also came together SO quickly. This tart is a hit!
This recipe is so delicious – easy to make, straight forward ingredients and so so yummy
Oh, hello spring! This Lemon Blueberry Tart recipe was just absolutely delicious. I am so happy with the way it turned out, it tasted absolutely divine and was perfect for a spring dessert. This was my first time making a tart but I found the instructions super clear and easy to follow. Thanks for another wonderful recipe and baking challenge.
A delicious summer treat – everyone enjoyed the contrast of the lemon with the sweet blueberry sauce. I look forward to trying it with other berries . Thank you for this quick and easy dessert!
Loved this recipe! Once again, a fantastic flavored recipe. This was my first time making a tart! And it was defintely a lot easier than I thought. Well, that it because for the clear and detailed instructions! I used a a regular 9 inch pan because I didn’t have a tart pan at hand. Other than the aesthetics, the tart tasted wonderful! My husband loved it as well!
I’m not a fan of blueberries but I decided to try it out anyway because I love anything lemon, and it was very much worth it. The shortbread crust, the lemon filling, and the blueberry sauce, simply delicious. If I didn’t have any self-control, I would’ve finished the whole thing that night.
A delicious and beautiful tart! I was worried that it would be too sweet, but the flavors are perfectly balanced. It all came together quickly too so yay!
This was the first tart I’ve ever made.., and it was amazing! Who can resist the lemon blueberry combination. The crust was crisp and flaky. The family gave it rave reviews. Just wish I had a tart Pan instead of a pie dish, but it worked.
This recipe is a breeze and the tart is a creamy, citrus dream! I made a lime tart with blackberry swirl and my family devoured it in one sitting. Pair this with some fresh homemade whip cream and you’ll be all set. This dessert presents as complicated but is very easy and approachable.
This recipe is sooo delicious! Thank you!
Much easier than I anticipated, and the shortbread was a nice touch and definitely set this apart from regular pie/tart crust.
I added an additional lemon for both juice and zest and the level of tartness was perfect.