French Frdays with Dorie

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Pucker Up - Lemon Tart!!


I don't really know how much pucker this tart is going to produce, I haven't tried the finished product yet. It is still cooling down. I made it with Meyer lemons and I tried to remove as much pith as I could from the peel. I am hoping that I managed to capture the tartness of the lemon while avoiding the nasty bitter flavor of the pith. I do love lemon flavoring.
I was very excited when I made the crust for this tart because it actually came together for me and I did not end up putting piles of sand into the tart pan! Turns out that in the past I have not processed the dough long enough. I just could not believe I had to process the butter, flour and egg so long to get it to come together. I will probably switch to making the dough by hand. It doesn't seem right to process it for so long in the food processor. If I were doing it by hand I would not handle it for as long a period of time as I whirled it this evening. I just hope it tastes as good as it usually does. I used almonds in the base.
This is a fantastically easy recipe to make - as long as you follow Dorrie's suggestion to put a pan under the tart pan while it is baking. If I had not, I would have had one ungodly mess in my oven, because I definitely overflowed my tart pan.
I have my fingers crossed that this tastes tongue tingling tart because tomorrow I am going to pick up strawberries from my CSA and I think they will taste just fabulously with this tart. You'll read all about it here.
To see many other versions of this tart go to Tuesdays with Dorrie . Many thanks to Babette of Babette Feasts for choosing this week's recipe. She has posted the recipe on her blog, but you can own it by simply buying the book, Baking From My Home to Yours.
Post Eating Report: Well, first things first - did I mention this did "boil" up over the sides of the tart pan? Well, it did - and let me tell you -if in a pinch you need some really strong adhesive - try using baked on lemon tart filling. My GOD! I absolutely could not get the tart out of the pan.
I ended up slicing the pieces and serving them without the edge crust. They were a tad difficult to remove, until I cleared some space, and they looked so lonesome without the attractive fluted edge of crust . . . but they were very well received.
For me, they were way too mild in the lemon taste. I think this is the payoff from using Meyer lemons. I definitely like the recipe and I will try it again - with regular - really sassy lemons - and I will be sure to be wary of overfilling the crust. For me, it was just a nice tart with a hint of lemon, but most of the fellows who were trying it thought it had just enough lemon - what do they know?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Your tart looks great! Hope you enjoy it. Mine turned out very bitter but I didn't remove any of the pith.

Anonymous said...

I mixed my crust by hand. I was too lazy to drag out the food processor. :) How did it end up tasting? I quite liked mine...it wasn't too bitter for me, but I like sour things.

TeaLady said...

Looks lovely. Sorry you had trouble getting it out of the pan. It was good tho. Try regular lemons next time.