Gluten Free Yuzu Tart with Swiss Meringue and Sweet Sauternes Wine

Here’s to friends far away – and to reconnecting with folks you meet years later to collaborate on awesome projects that blend two perfectly-balanced passions: wine and dessert! This whole post starts back in the summer of 2019 (remember those days? no masks, hugs, handshakes, and seeing people’s smiles?) when we visited one of my best friends in Vienna, where she’s living her best life. She happens to have a marvelous rooftop terrace just above her apartment where we organized a late-summer dinner paired with incredible wine, and we met her downstairs neighbors, Iker and his boyfriend Felix. And Iker happens to be not only an incredible academic (just a casual masters + PhD under his belt), but a life-long wine lover (he’s got his own wine cave in their storage space/cellar! He decided to focus on where his heart lies and make wine his full-time gig, so is training to be the ultimate wine taster and expert in Austria. He’s an absolute go-to font of knowledge for all-things wine, so if you’ve got any questions or just are excited to learn, check out his Instagram where he hosts educational videos, tastings, etc!

Long story short, we decided a collab was in order so teamed up with Iker to create a series of wine & dessert pairings (gluten free of course) that highlight gorgeous wines and brand new dessert recipes! First up: this yuzu tart, paired with one of the best sweet wines I’ve ever had – a Sauternes from the Bordeaux region (Iker has much more info in the Instagram Live that we did so check that out too! Part one of the Live video here and Part two here!). The tasting notes of the wine line up perfectly with the flavors and ingredients of the tart, and really work to bring out the vanilla, softer notes of the tart while still highlighting and rounding out the sharper tang of the yuzu. And for those of you wondering (like I was a few months ago), what yuzu is: it’s a Japanese citrus (though grown in larger areas of Southeast Asia as well) that is originally a cross between a mandarin orange and an Ichang Papeda (of the family of Papeda citrus which are not eaten because they’re far too bitter, but are used in landscaping/for other purposes) – another citrus fruit native to south-western and west Central China. It’s more floral in flavor than lemon, and has a hint of mandarin orange, and is absolutely lovely. Because it’s not super widely-produced commercially, it’s tricky to find fresh yuzu here in the states, but you can definitely order yuzu marmelade, yuzu juice, etc which is all you need for this recipe! Definitely check out other yuzu recipes out there – it’s new to us so chefs and homecooks who’ve been using it longer will absolutely have more uses for it!

If you’re excited about this recipe, then check out how excited we were in the actual live tasting! Iker and I actually got to be on video when we tasted the tart and wine (even though he’s in Austria and I’m here in the states, we each baked a tart and got a bottle of wine!):

In the mean time, I highly recommend making this tart (it’s easier than it looks!!) and getting yourself a bottle of this Sauternes – this one was easy to find online and deliver to my apartment in San Francisco via wine.com, but your local wine shop may have something similar! If you’re a citrus fan, definitely check out our lemon bars, or lemon poppyseed bundt cake, or these pink lemonade bars, our orange creamsicle cupcakes!

And, if you’re curious how we got these photos edited, here’e a little peak behind the scenes for how we edit the photos we take!

Print Recipe

5 from 5 votes

Gluten Free Yuzu Tart with Swiss Meringue

This creamy, tart citrus tart, packed with Japanese yuzu (similar to a lemon + tangerine flavor!) is an instant hit!

Prep Time1 hour hr

Cook Time1 hour hr

Chilling time3 hours hrs

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, Japanese

Diet: Gluten Free

Keyword: citrus, custard, gluten free, lemon, meringue, swiss meringue, tangerine, tart, tarts, yuzu

Servings: 10 people

Calories: 400kcal

Author: Amelia Farber

Equipment

• 10-inch circular tart pan (1 inch tall)
• Rolling Pin
• Plastic wrap
• Large pot
• Whisk
• Metal or glass bowl

Ingredients

For the tart crust/shell:

• 1 1/2 Cups gluten free 1-1 flour mix with xanthan gum added (if it doesn't have xanthan gum, add 1 teaspoon xanthan gum)
• 1/4 Cup plus 2 Tbsp arrowroot starch
• 1/3 Cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 Cup cold salted butter cubed
• 2 cold egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the yuzu filling:

• 4 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 2/3 Cup heavy cream
• 1 Cup white sugar
• 2/3 Cup yuzu juice
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp tangerine zest
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract optional
• pinch salt

For the Swiss meringue:

• 3 large egg whites no bits of yolks!!
• 1/2 Cup white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the decoration:

• 3 Tbsp yuzu marmalade
• Lemon peel
• Tangerine peel

Instructions

To make the crust:

• First, make the pastry crust. In a food processor, pulse the flour, arrowroot starch, icing sugar, salt, and cubed cold butter until crumbly and butter has been combined. Separately, whisk the two egg yolks and vanilla until smooth, then, while pulsing food processor, slowly pour in the cold egg yolks and pulse until the dough comes together in a ball. Scrape out of the food processor and form into a 6-inch flat circle, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours.
• Once the dough is chilled, remove from fridge and let sit on the counter for a few minutes (10-15) to soften. Then using a floured surface and floured rolling pin, roll out dough into a 12 inch circle and carefully line tart pan with the dough, pressing into the side grooves. Cut off the edges that extend beyond the top of the tart pan. Refrigerate the formed crust again for 30 minutes before baking. While chilling, preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Once chilled, remove from fridge and poke a series of small holes into the base of the crust with a fork for venting, then bake with pie weights for 15 minutes. Then remove the pie weights and continue to bake for 5 minutes until golden.

To make the filling:

• While the tart shell cools, make the filling! In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolk, and sugar until smooth. Add in the cream and whisk until combined. Finally, add in the yuzu juice, lemon juice, lemon and tangerine zest, pinch of salt and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Pour filling into cooled crust. I recommend using aluminum foil to tent the edges of the crust (cover just the crust edges with foil) so they don’t get too brown. Then bake the entire tart again at 325 degrees Fahrenheit (160 C) for 25-35 minutes until nearly set – the center can still jiggle a bit. Remove from oven and let cool completely, then chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

To make the meringue:

• While the tart is chilling, make the Swiss meringue! Place a large metal or glass bowl over a large soup pot (pot should have 1-2 inches of water in it) to create a bain marie. Heat over medium-low (do not let the water boil) and add your three egg whites to the clean/dry bowl sitting on top of the pot. Whisk in the sugar and continue whisking frequently until the egg + sugar mixture becomes thick, fluffy, and reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit (to make it safe to eat). This may take 10-15 minutes! Just keep whisking!
• Finally, remove the bowl from on top of the pot and continue to whisk until thick and stiff peaks form, then scoop into a piping bag with your choice of piping tip.

To construct:

• Decorating time! Remove the tart from the fridge and decorate how you’d like! I added yuzu marmalade as a thin layer on top for a glossy layer and extra flavor, and then piped meringue dollops and added both lemon and tangerine peel (or yuzu peel if you have it)! Keep in the fridge until serving.

Tag @sisterssansgluten on Instagram if you snap a photo of your tart!

Food photography and styling by Amelia Farber