Whoa Nelly, that's Tart!

That's Right. Tart of the Week time. And since I haven't seen the sun in gloomy old Portland in say, a year, I decided to bake the sun. Something big and glowing and yellow. Yep, a Lemon Tart. Brings the sun right to your table. I was perusing some food blogs earlier in the week and came across a lemon tart recipe that looked incredibly simple and quite sunny. Instead of making lemon curd on a double boiler and pouring it into an already baked tart shell, you actually make a raw filling, pour it into a par-baked tart shell, and bake it all together. I had not tried it this way before and was intrigued. This recipe also seemed to have more butter than others, so I thought it was probably the one for me.

64 Sq Ft Kitchen

Now, I'm totally ripping off someone else's blog here. I've attached the link above. I used their recipe, followed their directions, and even took pictures. I hope they don't mind. They are still superior to me in every way.

One issue with baking the sun is that it can be really hard on pot holders, what with the melting 'n all, oh yeah, and I don't have a round tart pan. So, I have made a Rectangular Sun, I mean tart. Geez, I could really use a few rays to get my brain functioning properly.

So, for the recipe I put all my additions and comments in BLUE.

Lemon Tart

Recipe:

For the crust:

- 1 egg
- 2 oz sugar
- 9 oz – 1 tbsp flour (that's 9 oz minus 1T)
- 4 ½ oz butter, at room temperature diced

Peg recommends adding a dash of salt here for deliciousness.

For the crust, mix the eggs with the sugar. I used my mixer with a paddle attachment for this, but you could use a bowl and fork if your low-fi. Add flour and diced butter and mix until the dough comes together. Careful of that flour. Remember, your not supposed to inhale it. Roll into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45 min. It's OK if the butter is still visible in some spots. It will make a flakier crust. If you mix it quite throughly, you will have made a cookie. That's what I did. Made a tasty buttery cookie. Yum. I did not add salt, but I used salted butter so I thought I would be ok. I was only slightly wrong. If you need to leave the dough in the fridge for longer, no worries. Just get to in within 2 days or the egg will turn it green. It's still edible, but weird looking.

Butter a 10 inch (in diameter) tart pan with removable bottom. Or a rectangular tart pan and some little tart shells, Or a couple of pie tins or a nice skillet. Roll out the dough, (with flour underneath and on top) to about 2 inches larger than your pan, You can run your floured hand sexily over the dough to feel any thick parts to try to make an even dough. If you chilled the dough for longer than 45 minutes, it may be slightly difficult to roll, so first, bash it on the counter with the rolling pin like 5 times to get the cold butter to be more elastic. You do not want cracked dough. Crack kills. Keep it away from your tart dough.

Line the tart pan by using your rolling pin to assist in the transfer of the dough and prebake the crust partially at 400F for 15 min, or until the dough dries out (cover it with foil and put some kind of weight inside the foil, like rice, beans...ect). I find it strange that they assume everyone knows how to line a tart pan or how to weight it. By line, they mean lay the dough over the pan and carefully work the dough into the flutes and bends. Try to be even in the application so it cooks evenly. To weight this dough, put a big piece of foil over the raw crust and push it into the shape of the pan. Pour a pound or so of beans over the foil, spreading them out and making it even. You can use plastic wrap to do this, but I heard somewhere that an ion is lost in the heating of wrap and they don't know where it goes, so it may not be entirely food safe. We used plastic in culinary school. Go figure. I digress, try to keep the foil edges over the sides of the crust so you can easily remove the beans later. Picking out beans one at a time is a super huge pain. This also helps keep the sides from browning too soon.

Let this cool with out the beans in it for a while before you try to fill it. Reason: You need to be able to move your crusts easily (without an oven-mitt) to put them back in the hot oven.

Filling:
- 3 ½ oz butter at room temperature diced
- 7 oz sugar
- 1 orange (for zest only)
- 3 lemons (small to medium) zest 1
- 5 eggs

For the filling, mix the sugar with the butter, diced, the zest of one orange and 1 lemon until it looks smooth. Add the freshly squeezed juice of the three lemons, then the eggs lightly beaten. Mix until well incorporated, and then pour over the prebaked crust. I recommend pulling out your oven rack and setting the crust on it then pouring your filling into the crusts so you don't have to move them once they are filled. Just push the rack back in. Either way, becareful here, the mix is RUNNY. It also kinda started to look like cottage cheese. One of the problems is that this is a lot of liquid to be mixing with butter, so it just ends up being a lemon egg mixture with little pieces of butter floating in it. This worked out later when the butter floated to the top and caramelized to make a beautiful brown crust and it added to the dense texture of the tart. This is definitely not Lemon Jello pudding in a ritz pie crust. This is WAY WAY WAY more tastier.

Bake at 375F for 30-40 min. The top will be caramelized and bubbly but the filling will still be a little soft. Don’t worry; it will firm up once out of the oven.
Let it cool completely on a wire rack before refrigerating it. Unmold and serve cold, dusted with some icing sugar for a festive and pretty look.


Taste issues: This was way too tart. I used large lemons and don't recommend doing so. I also zested one too many lemons and used it all. Oops. I served the little slice of sunshine with an unsweetened hot tea and it sort of balanced out, but WOW is it zingy. Pucker Power or not, half of us went back for seconds and I even had it for breakfast this morning. I Love the Sun.