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, glazed lemon blueberry scones, lemon blueberry babka, 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.
One reader, Judy, commented: “Loved this recipe. It was creamy, tangy, and not too sweet. The shortbread crust was easy to make and came out perfectly. Looks fancy, even though it is a pretty easy recipe. I loved the extra blueberry sauce, so I will make extra next time. Definitely a keeper! ★★★★★”
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. 🙂
Print
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 (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 silicone 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): Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Easy to make! Thanks for another great dessert, Sally!
This tart was so easy and delicious! I only had a rectangular tart pan, but it ended up working just fine! For anyone else who wants to make it in a longer rectangular pan, just know that you’ll have some extra filling. You could probably make some tartlets with it, though you’ll have to make more crust for that. Hope that helps anyone in the same situation as I was! Thanks Sally for this amazing recipe!
I’m a long time baker and this recipe produces a dessert that fulfills every goal we bakers are seeking: a tart that is as beautiful as it is delicious. I’ve now made it twice and for the first tart, as a tribute to my late mother in law, baked it in a square tart pan in order to serve it on her square ruby glass pedestal cake stand, and the second time in a traditional 9” round tart pan. Both times, perfecto!
This was a perfect treat for a warm spring Sunday afternoon. The lemony custard was delicious and you can’t go wrong with blueberries and lemon. This recipe was the first recipe I’ve made in my new tart pan, I have a 7in one and thought I’d have leftover crust but I used it all and it was perfect. A little thicker but we love the shortbread crust in this house. I did have a bit of the custard leftover so I put it in the oven in a bain marie for 20min and had a little lemony custard!
This is one of the best desserts I have ever baked!
The extra blueberry sauce used to top the tart is spot on and I just loved it.
If I saw this at a high-end bakery I would have gladly had a slice.
My tart pan is 11 inch wide so I decided to bake the tart in a 9-inch spring form and it turned out great! I lined the form with baking paper and spread the crust with no problem. The baking a paper also helped me take the tart out with zero effort 🙂
I made this yesterday and my whole family, Love, love, LOVED this tart! They told me it was a keeper. It was light and the flavor was amazing! It was super easy to make j just need to take my crust out a minute or two earlier and it’ll be perfect!
Perfection! This tart not only looks pretty, but it is delicious and easy to make. It’s not too sweet and not too tart, it’s just right.
Really good! Wasn’t too tart and there was a good balance of sweet vs tart!
I have Trader Joe’s pie crust in my freezer. Can I use that as the base?
This tart was so easy to put together and turned out so delicious! The dough was very wet/greasy, and I was afraid it would fall from the edges of the tart pan and melt more than bake, but it didn’t! I love how buttery the crust was and how fresh and tart the filling was. Would definitely make this again!
This was delicious, we all loved it. Thank you for the great recipe!
It was beyond delicious! Everyone had seconds LOL and easy to make!
I made 3 of these tarts one after the other!! One for ourselves and 2 for a lunch potluck!! They were amazingly easy to make, spectacular to see and deliciously creamy! Loved the short crust pastry as a base!! This one’s a keeper!!
Delicious tart! I put a little less sugar in the crust than required since I knew the filling would be real sweet, and I added a little extra lemon juice in the filling to give it an extra punch, and wow was it tasty! I was amazed by how creamy it turned out. Definitely will be making this all summer.
Great recipe, super easy, can’t wait to try it with raspberries & raspberry sauce. Looking forward for the May Challenge!
This is delicious! I was able to make this gluten free with a swap of gluten free flour for the crust. The buttery shortbread crust complemented the subtle though bright lemon lemon and burst of juicy blueberry flavor. This is a perfect spring dessert.
My toddler and I baked this tart this morning! We love the sugary sweet crust balanced with the tart lemon and blueberry filling. This is a winning recipe for sure!
My daughter and I made this and it was easy with scrumptious results. We only had a 10-1/2″ tart pan and used the ingredients unchanged and it turned out fine, though stretching the crust that far too some effort.
Like others I’ll try this again and try to reduce the amount of sweetened condensed milk which is VERY sweet even with all that lemon juice. But everyone in the family really liked it.
This is the third recipe we’ve tried because of the baking challenge and we’re having a lot of fun trying new things together and expanding our baking repertoire.
This was my first time baking a tart, and it came out so delicious! The tart’s bottom was perfect – no sogginess. The recipe and YouTube video was easy to follow, and the tart was very zesty, refreshing, and delicious! My family and I enjoyed eating it very much!
This recipe came together quickly and the results were impressive! This will be a great dessert for a hot summer day. I agree that it is in the sweet side but the blueberry really helped balance the sweetness. I topped mine with a dollop of lemon curd.
My Tart turned out perfect! It was beautiful and delicious. So easy to make, will definitely make again.
The filling reminded me a little of my mom’s lemon merguine pie, with the sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice. My tart pan was too big so I had to go with a 9″ spring form pan. It was easy to put together and very tasty.
This tart was pretty simple to make and so impressive looking and yummy! My family loved it. Thank you for the beautiful springtime recipe, I will definitely be making this again. I also love that it can be made ahead.
This was absolutely incredible. Lemon is one of my all time favorite dessert flavors. This tart absolutely hit the spot! It was tart, sweet, creamy and slightly crunchy from the crust. Oh man, I can’t wait to make this again!!
Take two on the crust turned out great! I’m not sure if it’s my flour or what, but using gram measurements hasn’t been kind to me for the last couple challenges. I tossed the soggy first attempt, and used measuring cups for the second try – much better!
I did a cherry-strawberry swirl, and it turned out great with the extra teaspoon of sugar.
Highly recommended recipe. Very easy to follow and a complete success. Everyone who had a piece wanted me to make it again. One person said it was the best thing I’ve ever baked 🙂
Absolutely delightful! Surprisingly simple to put together with beautiful results. This will definitely become a go-to recipe!
This recipe screams springtime! Absolutely delicious and very easy to make. I’ve never made a tart so I didn’t have a tart pan and had to use a pie plate so it’s not as pretty as a free standing tart. That said, the flavors burst in your mouth and shout “Make me for Mothers’ Day” which I will definitely do. This one is so spectacular it will be long gone by the holiday. Thanks for another winner, Sally. Your video and instructions make this simple to do and perfect to eat. Divine!
Delicious tang from the lemon with a delicious sweet, buttery crust! And having the blueberry sauce to play with and get decorative! Sally breaks down each step and makes it fun and easy!!
A very easy recipe. A perfect Spring tart on a cold wintery month of April in Calgary. 🙁 Definately my new favorite recipe.
We made 8 lemon blueberry tartelettes (~10 cm) and they were absolutely delicious. The only thing I might cut down on a bit is the amount of sugar, as it was on the sweet side for me. I was also pleasantly surprised at how easy the recipe was, and it was really nice that the filling and sauce could be prepared beforehand. Will definitely make them again!