This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see our privacy policy.
It's not that this Lemon Chess Tart with Shortbread Crust doesn't look good. No, it looks just fine ........... just rather plain. But you know what? It's a major con artist! Yup, you'll see ............ take the first bite and your eyes are sure to as get wide as your taste buds are delighted with the velvety smooth, not too tart, delicious lemon filling.
And then there's the crust ............. oh my! The crust. Wow, golden-crisp, buttery and sweet; a perfect partner to the bright, fresh lemony interior. I've decided this is one of my favorite desserts ........... ever! So just go ahead and pass it by for one of the more glamorous, fancy-looking, multi-named desserts. That will suit me just fine.
I knew the minute I tasted this amazing dessert at a classic, fun little restaurant in southern Virginia, that I'd HAVE to have the recipe. It turns out that all the desserts at The Horseshoe Restaurant in South Hill, Va. are homemade daily, from scratch. And even better than that, they're all made from recipes handed down from generation to generation.
Scott Rogers, the owner of The Horseshoe, uses old family recipes for every dessert he serves in his charming little diner whose history dates back to the early 1900's. It was originally a blacksmith shop (how cool is that!) and now includes a lunch counter in the shape of a horseshoe.
It's the actual area where the horses were tethered as they were receiving their new shoes. This particular recipe came from his great Aunt. Who knows, maybe it originated from her great Aunt? I love it!
We discovered the Horseshoe Restaurant several weeks ago while exploring the South Hill area. We'd taken a long bike ride on a section of the newly completed Virginia Heritage (Rails-to-Trails) bike trail, and were quite famished. We checked with YELP* on our phones, and noticed The Horseshoe was rated quite high (four and a half stars)  so we set out to find it.
We weren't  disappointed, and were thrilled to find this casual diner offered gourmet burgers, sandwiches, salads and other entrees with an emphasis on local and "farm to table". It was so good we returned a couple days later and had the pleasure of meeting Scott. He pulled up a chair and, as we chatted, Scott explained how he'd been in the corporate restaurant business for years before making the decision to return to his roots (the area where he'd grown up) and open up a diner in South Hill.
Everything we sampled at Scott's nostalgic, historic little restaurant was wonderful; from a fabulous Gyro Burger made with ground lamb from a local farm, to his renowned Fried Green Tomato appetizer - served with a dollop of homemade pimento cheese and a spicy dipping sauce. Oh, and the desserts! Between the two visits we tried three amazing pies, each one delicious, presented beautifully on rectangular plates with dollops of fresh, sweet whipped cream.
I'd order all of the desserts again, but the lemon chess pie had me totally smitten. Scott promised to send me the recipe and I was delighted when I received his email. The recipe looked exactly like many of the recipe cards and scraps of paper I have from my mom; they just knew how to put food together back then and didn't need a lot of details. This is how Scott's Lemon Chess Pie recipe read:
The Horseshoe Lemon Chess Pie
6-Eggs
2 Cups Sugar
½ Cup Lemon Juice
½ Stick Butter (Melted)
ÂĽ tsp. Cornstarch or Flour (yes, that's right - a ÂĽ TSP)
Dash Salt
Preheat Oven to 350
I would give you some sorta scientific order to mix it all up, but we just throw it all in the bowl and mix 'er up and pour it in a deep dish pie shell and bake 30-45 (Depending on what mood the oven is in for the day)Â minutes until firm in the middle and golden brown on top!!
So typical of how great cooks prepared delicious food back then! I have arranged it in a more detailed recipe format, (see below) but the bones for my Lemon Chess Tart with Shortbread Crust are exactly the same as Scott's great Aunt's recipe. I used a favorite shortbread-crust recipe of my own for the crust and baked it in a tart pan.
The crust is super easy to put together (in a food processor) and is a perfect complement to the lemon chess filling. If you're in a hurry, you could definitely use a purchased pie shell. It will still be incredible. Either way, I think you'll love it, and it very well may become a favorite at your house too!
P.S. If you're in the vicinity of South Hill, VA, be sure to visit at The Horseshoe. If you're coming down I-85, it's only about 10 minutes off the Interstate! It will be so worth it! Have a slice of lemon chess pie; but be sure to leave some for me!
Scroll Down for the Recipe - or Save It to Your Inbox
We’ll email you the recipe so it’s easy to save, print, or share.
Shortbread Crust
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ sticks cold butter, 6 ounces, cut in small pieces
Instructions
- Lightly spray an 11-inch tart pan with removable bottom with cooking spray. Line a sheet pan with foil or parchment paper for easy clean up (just in case any of the filling bubbles up over the top) if desired.
- Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse, with 10 second pulses, until dough starts to form clumps. This will take anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. Stop as soon as the mixture clumps and turn out into a tart shell. Don't worry if it seems quite powdery at first. It will take longer than a regular pie crust dough. Just keep pulsing until it begins to clump.
- Using your fingertips, press dough evenly up sides of pan and onto the bottom.
- Prick the dough lightly with a fork.
- Cover with plastic wrap or foil and place in refrigerator for 1 hour. This will help keep the crust from shrinking when it hits a hot oven.
- Preheat oven to 425ËšF.
- Remove from the refrigerator and remove plastic wrap or foil. Place tart on the prepared sheet pan and bake for 8-12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely before adding the filling and proceeding with directions.
Scroll Down for the Recipe - or Save It to Your Inbox
We’ll email you the recipe so it’s easy to save, print, or share.
Lemon Chess Tart w/ Shortbread Crust
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- ½ cup lemon juice
- 2 ounces melted butter, ½ stick
- ÂĽ teaspoon cornstarch or flour
- ÂĽ teaspoon salt
- Shortbread Crust, recipe above or purchased deep dish pie shell
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ËšF
- Combine eggs and sugar in a medium size bowl. Stir with a whisk until completely combined.
- Add lemon juice, butter, cornstarch/flour and salt. Whisk until well combined.
- Pour into the prepared shortbread crust (or a purchased pie shell).
- Bake 30-40 minutes or until firm in the middle and golden brown on top
Shop Our Café Loves
We’ve gathered our favorite kitchen tools, tableware, and entertaining treasures in one place, the Café Loves store. It’s a wonderful spot to find something special for yourself or the cooks and hosts you love!
I have made this a few times, and I always have trouble getting it to set without the shortbread crust almost burning, even when I cover it with foil. It does taste good, but it just doesn't set up well.
Hi Cindy, not sure why it is getting close to burning. You might want to bake it on a cookie sheet that is lined with foil, then half-way through the baking time, bring the foil up around the pan in addition to covering the top with foil.
Delicious and easy recipe…..I took it to book club and not a crumb left! Thank you very much for sharing this recipe!
Awesome! Thanks for the review, Paula!
Do you put this in the fridge before serving?
Hi Michael, you can but you don't have to.
I made this for Easter. The proportions were perfect and the recipe was easy to follow. It came together quickly, so I had high hopes for positive reviews from my family of 8 adults. I polled my family and the group was split. 50% rated it as “good” and the other 50% said “it was OK, but I wouldn’t repeat it”. No one hated it but no one raved about it either.
Thanks for your review, Stacy.
I have made many of your recipes & loved them. My son and sister do as well. I wonder though, am I the only one that finds the pop of ads very annoying. I keep tapping the x to remove the ad and another one takes it place. I guess you need advertisers to keep the site going and making subscribers, like me, happy with recipes. I must have already said that...
Yooper Girl
I made this for a very dear but demanding group of friends. I followed the recipe exactly as directed, and it was a major success!
The pie was delicious, and the crust out of this world! What little I had left over, my husband ate and loved! This will certainly be a family favorite!!
Thanks, Suzie, for sharing your results. I'm so happy you enjoyed it!
Sorry, this may be a dumb question, but are you supposed to bake the crust before adding the lemon filling or do you take it out of the fridge and add the filling on top of the raw dough? Thank you! So excited to try this.
Hi Marelise,
Yes, you do bake it before filling. It's the last step in the crust recipe. There's actually 2 recipes in this post. The crust and the filling. You may not have seen that. Enjoy!
Thank you for asking I was wondering the same thing my brain was about to explode thinking I missed it somewhere.
It’s absolutely delicious. I made it twice, the second time swapping out the lemon for passion fruit. Both times however, my crust puffed up and left little space for my filling . Is it because the temperature is too high?
Hi Roblin, if the crust puffs up, try pressing it down with the back of a spoon as soon as it is taken out of the oven.
1 1/2 sticks of butter is 6 oz?
1/2 stick is 2 oz?
I’m confused!
Hi Susan, you are correct. There are 4 sticks of butter in a pound so each "stick" is 4 ounces, making 1/2 stick equal to 2 ounces.
I recently made this for our craft group. I got a crumb! They told me that I could bring this to every potluck and NO ONE would complain. All in all, totally yummy!
I think you are going to have to make one of these for yourself, Judy 🙂 So happy you enjoyed it!
Lol, it's on the menu tonight!
Absolutely love this pie.. Huge hit with my friends.. I'll definately be making this often!
Thanks, Lisa, I'm so happy you enjoyed it!
Hi Chris. Thanks for this recipe. I made it this morning for Easter brunch and it was a hit. I used Meyers Lemons, so yummy. I did add about a table spoon of water to the crust. It came out fine. I will make this again.
Thanks Shellie! I'm so happy it turned out well for you.
This pie is amazing!!!! I love the crust, it is perfect and the lemon filling is not too tart.. I guess I can make use this recipe as a lemon bar. Unlike other lemon desserts, I made, I can taste the bitterness. Thanks for the recipe, This will be my go to recipe and will surely be a keeper! Please share more recipes, please..
This is a five star but somehow it does not allow me to put the fill the fifth star.
So glad you like it Elvy! We were so excited when Scott (the owner of The Horseshoe Restaurant) shared the filling recipe with us! Welcome to The Café!
The restaurant sounds great and I'm glad you were able ro recreate this tart. It is so pretty and I bet the flavor is fab!
It really is Laura! Lots of sunny, lemony flavor and a nice crunch and sweetness in the crust!
Made your Lemon Chess Tart for our New Year's Eve celebration and it was a big hit. Thanks for sharing.
okay..I did something wrong. Never cooked on the inside..beautiful crust and golden brown on top..complete liquid in the middle even after an hour
Hi Erin, sorry, not sure what could have gone wrong.
I also had a runny cake. It was delicious but too buttery, oily like. Maybe we needed one more egg or less butter. I was sure I followed the recipe exactly. I also had to cook it for more than 40 minutes. It was delicious though. Did you try again?
Hi Rosanna, I've made this tart several times with good results. I wonder if it was underbaked. Every oven is a little different and it also can vary depending on the pan you use.
This is amazing!! I have made this recipe as the pie and also as bars numerous times. Amazingly simple to make and tastes heavenly. I've been told I'm not invited if I don't bring these with me. Thank you for sharing.
I just made this tart and it was delicious! The only problem that I had was that the tart was so full with the liquid ingredients, that some of it spilled over the sides when I was putting it into the oven (my racks slant slightly when pulled out). So next time I will reserve some of the filling and then pour it into the crust once its in the oven. Its possible my crust puffed up too much and took up some of the space that the filling required.
I didn't see anywhere in your instructions if this was supposed to be served warm or cold. My guests were impatient and wanted to eat it warm. We had some chilled leftovers the next day also. It was delicious both ways! I will definitely make this again soon. Thank you!
Hi Michelle,
I usually serve this around room temperature but it could definitely be served cold if desired.
This is a lovely twist! I cant wait to try it out for thanksgiving. I have a logistical hiccup however. I feel silly asking...but this is my first rodeo with a tart pan. By sheet pan, do you mean a baking sheet for like, cookies? Or a cake, with sides? Where am I putting this parchment paper? :/
Hi Shelby, yes a sheet pan would be also called a cookie pan. Good question. The parchment paper or foil is place on the sheet pan just for easy clean up in case any of the lemon filling bubbles up over the top. It's not absolutely necessary. Hope you enjoy this tart. It's one of our favorite desserts ever!
Hello. Greetings from New Zealand. I just came across your page and I'm drooling at your lemon tart.... I'm going to head to the supermarket shortly to buy the ingredients, can't wait. Thanks, Helen
Thanks Helen, hop you enjoy it. So nice to hear from you all the way from New Zealand.
This looks amazing! I'm making it right now, actually. The only thing I noticed is that the lemon curd filling made much more than was necessary to fill the pie crust. Has anyone else encountered this? I followed the recipe exactly as-is, so I'm not quite sure why there's so much leftover (I'd say at least 1/4 cup - 1/3 cup remaining). I didn't want to flood the tart, so I left it out.
Hi Kevin, tart pans vary a bit in depth so that might be the issue. You did the right thing. Perhaps next time you could make a little crustless tart in a small ramekin with the leftovers 🙂
I made this dessert last night when my husband sprung a guest on me for dinner. It was delicious and simple! I used my own tried and tested shortcrust pastry recipe and halved the sugar and found that it was plenty sweet enough. Such a lovely dessert with staples from the fridge and pantry, thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing! I made this and it was amazing! The crust worked out great but I should have used a stronger spray for it not to stick 🙂 fortunately only the edges were lost. If you feel intimidated or fearful it's not anything to be afraid of 🙂 (I know I was) have fun baking 🙂
Can the shortbread crust be made without a food processor? I gave mine to my daughter, as I hardly ever used it.
Hi Louise, I think it would be fine to make in a mixer. I make my regular shortbread in a mixer. You could also do it by hand but it would take awhile to get the butter mixed in.
I used what I think is called a pastry mixer that is a hand powered utensil. It did take a few minutes, but it worked. Good luck with your baking. 🙂
Thanks Rebecca, that's good to know since I haven't tried it that way!
Can hardly wait to make the Lemon Chess Tart w/ Shortbread Crust. I have made shortbread and it is so luscious (and I hate to say Not low fat.....but I love it)
loved the story about The Horseshoe Restaurant and the Trail. that would be a fun trip some day. i am in California so it may be a while. thanks so much for all the recipes.
You're absolutely welcome Donna. Thank you for stopping by The Cafe!
that crust looks amazing!
I'm a south Virginia resident and love the Horseshoe, but I've never tried their lemon pie. I feel I must now that I've seen this blog. Thanks for visiting our area and trying the Horseshoe and the Tobacco Heritage Trail. We're very proud of our trail. It will eventually be 150 miles long. Then you can go for a really looooong bike ride and eat as much pie as your heart desires! Check out the trail on facebook "Tobacco Heritage Trail" or on the website http://www.tobaccoheritagetrail.org.
We loved the trail and can't wait to go back! It's wonderful!!
what a fantastic dessert!Aromatic and tasteful!
Have a lovely week,derar Chris!
This pie sounds fantastic! Just the kind of dessert I'd love. (And who can resist his original recipe?)
OMG Chirs this is delightful! So spring like and just WOW! I mean shortbread is sooooo good then you made it a crust and filled it with lemony custard! WOW! Need this in my life!
Chris, I might have mentioned before that I love , love everything lemon., everything form lemony desserts to lemon dressing...so this lovely Lemon Chess Tart look s exactly like the kind of dessert tart that I would make - so, I will definitely give this recipe a try - as it looks fabulous. I do have one question, do you usually pre-bake your pie crusts?
The post is wonderful too, I. really enjoyed reading about the "Horseshoe Restauarnt.
Have a nice Sunday!
Hi Andrea! Thanks for your kind comment! I don't always pre-bake my pie crusts. It just depends on the type of pie. I wanted the crust to be nice and crisp with this one so I did pre-bake it. I love that you don't have to mess with the blind-baking though and the pie weights,etc - just a quick stint in the oven!
The photos with the crust front and center makes me shiver a little. I so need it in my life!! I've never ever made a tart. This may be the first one I make!
You make me laugh Veronica! 🙂
This looks so delicious!! YUM! and your photography is so beautiful! I just found your blog! So nice 🙂 I hope that you have a great rest of your weekend!!
Thanks for visiting Cailee, nice to meet you!
Oh I want so much to taste this lemon-wonder tart^^ Kisses
I want a piece of this pie for sure! Delish!
Chris, Really enjoyed this post! The Horseshoe Restaurant sounds like a perfect place to enjoy a good meal! And the pie is just beautiful…I have so many recipes from my mom or my aunts that read the exact same way! I am bookmarking this pie…give me anything lemon! Have a great weekend!
This is really delicious Chris I love all with lemon!!
xx
This is spectacular! The crust and lemon filling...absolutely stunning, Chris.
I love little gems like this diner. We use Yelp a lot too to get off the interstates and find the local cafés and eateries like this. So great he shared the recipe with you.
My mom has a large lemon tree in her backyard and right now I am looking for great ways to use them up, this looks fabulous, the crust looks amazing.
I can hardly wait to make this. We love lemon desserts and I just picked the last of the lemons from our tree.
I'm jealous that you have a lemon tree Kate, how fun!!
This could easily become one of my favorite desserts too. Your crust looks divine and we love all things lemon. Your new look is wonderful, Chris. Your designer did a wonderful job that really shows off your stunning photos and your lovely recipes.
Thanks Cathy, I appreciate your kind words.
I love everything about this recipe (look at that crust!) and it has to smell AMAZING!
I have an 11" tart pan but it doesn't have a removable bottom -- if I spray it well enough with cooking spray do you think it'll be okay? Thanks!
I think that will work just fine.
I think I have my recipe to welcome the first lemons to my tree this year! I love a recipe with a story. I wish there were more places like this where I live!
A dear sweet soul that used to babysit for us when the kids were little made Chess Pie quite often. At that time baking wasn't on my radar as often as it is now. I've often wondered about the recipe but never searched for it. Thank you so much Chris. Saying that it looks delicious doesn't seem to be enough.
Oh, so sweet Sandra! I love it when recipes bring back wonderful memories!
This is pure heaven, Chris! Only to look at this tart makes my heart race and my mouth salivate. This has been a stressful day for me so eating something so delicious like this would be so comforting... Have a great weekend!
Thanks Denise, I hope tomorrow's a brighter day for youl
You know I love lemon desserts, what a beautiful pie!
Oh my, you have my attention. How wonderful. And the bike ride makes it calorie neutral.
It looks fantastic! I've made a couple chess pies and know I'd love this lemon version:@)
My pastry skills leave a little to be desired, so when I see a crust that can be pushed and spread into a tart pan I swoon. I swoon for lemon too.
I'm the same way 🙂
I apologize for how I type in haste..backwards. obviously.Oh lala Monique.
You are so funny Monique, I do the same thing!
Love lemon tarts and shortbread crusts..look at the texture on your crust....splendido!
How nice of Scott to send you teh recipe..Now that's a class act:)
I want a male muffin recipe I just had at a locel patisserie..well not local but 20 minutes away..i tried recreating..they are good..but not teh oens we sampled..:)
Lucky you..:)
I always ask Monique. Sometimes they refuse but people are often quite generous about sharing recipes 🙂
Chris, I do believe you have a winner! Right now...I want a slice of that pie...right now!!
Thanks Susan, I'm a bit sad that I gave the rest of this away 🙂
Chris, this is the most beautiful post, the photos are incredible, and how can I resist a lemon dessert? I love historic recipes like this, I have to try it.
Thanks Sue, what a kind, thoughtful comment!