Method (crust)

1. Sift the icing sugar and plain flour into a medium sized mixing bowl along with the lemon zest. Stir together to combine.
2. Add the cold, cubed dairy-free block butter and rub it in using your finger tips. You can also use a food processor to blitz the ingredients together until it resembles fine bread crumbs.
3. Add in a tablespoon of ice water at a time and mix together until the pastry comes together into a ball. If you’re using your hands, press the mixture together and bring together with your hands.
4. Wrap the ball of pastry into some greaseproof paper and place into the freezer for 10-15 minutes, until its firmed up. You want to chill the pastry, as this prevents too much shrinkage when baked.
5. Once the pastry has chilled, remove it from the freezer, roll it out in-between 2 sheets of greaseproof paper. TIP: As the pastry can be sticky even when using greaseproof paper, sprinkle some plain flour on the paper before rolling the dough.
6. Roll the pastry dough out thinly, and wide enough to fit inside your tart tin. You want the pastry to be a few inches bigger than the tart tin, as you’ll want some excess to hang over the edges of the tin.
7. Carefully transfer the pastry into the tin, lifting it up and making sure to press it into the corners and ridges of the tin. Trim off any excess (you can use this extra pastry to decorate the top of the tart- optional ).
8. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork. Place into the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up. In this time, pre-heat the oven to 180°C fan. Once the pastry is firm and cold, crinkle some greaseproof paper and place it into the tart tin making sure it covers the base and the sides. Then, fill with baking beans or rice. Crinkling the paper before adding it into the tin allows it to fill out the pastry more. 
9. Bake for 18 minutes, remove the paper and beans /race, than transfer back into the oven for a further 15-20 minutes, or until lightly golden in colour. Once golden, remove from the oven and place on a wire rack while you make the filling.

Method (lemon filling)

1. Turn down the oven to 160°C fan.
2. Add all of the lemon filling ingredients into a blender and whizz up until fully combined and smooth. I use a KitchenAid Power Plus Blender. It’s best to use a high speed blender to make sure the filling is as smooth as possible. Turn off the blender half way through mixing, to scrape down the sides of the blender, then blend again until it’s smooth and creamy.
3. Pour the filling directly into the pastry case. Fill the pastry case just short of the top of the edge of the pastry, as you don’t want any spillages when baking. 
4. Extremely carefully (as the filling is very runny),  place the tart into the oven on the middle shelf, bake for around 40 minutes. The filling should be set, but will jiggle a little bit. If it still looks too wet, wobbly, pop back into the oven until fully baked. The tart will firm up as it cools and sets. Don’t over bake it though, as you risk burning the tart.
5. Remove from the oven and place on to a wire rack to cool fully, before transferring into the fridge overnight to chill. Chilling overnight allows the filling to firm up, leaving you with the perfect lemon tart.
6. Remove from the fridge, place on a cake stand or serving plate, decorate, slice and enjoy!