The lemons called to me really, having exhausted my own supply from my young little lemon tree, the little bag at the
Clevedon Farmers Market did demand to be brought. So there I am with a gorgeous little bag of organic lemons, ummm! No, it's not to be a lemon cake or lemon muffins, it needs to be a new thing. Mind you, it's Sunday evening, in my new attempt to be organised I've done the shopping, so it also have to be made from things I've got in the house. "I'm making a lemon tart' I say and then what followed was a rather scary thorough search of lemon tart recipes. I had a few in the vast collection of cookbooks I treasure, though not as many as I expected, so I thought just to be sure I'd have a little online looking, checking out
Delia, just to make sure I'm in the right ball park, but also checking
out a
few more just to learn all there is about lemon tarts.
In the end however having grasped the general gist of the tart, I used the one in my faithful recipe file. Now, my baking weakness or danger spot is pastry. I try but am plagued with terrible memories of home economic classes at school, with the scary teachers ridiculing me at the shape I am rolling out. It's all too much!
There are however happy pastry memories. Both my grandmothers were marvelous cooks and made superb pastry, so I have fond thoughts of my nan being able to make a stunning pie without batting an eyelid or using scales for that matter. I was allowed to make jam rolly things from the left over pastry (or I ate the raw stuff which still tastes divine), and took great pride in sprinkling sugar on the egg coated 'thing' I'd 'made'. I would watch in awe as nan sliced off the excess pastry from around the edge of the plate, it was a thing of wonder. I am smiling now at the memory.
My Scottish grandmother, who I really never realised until too late, what a incredible woman she was, encouraged (and ate) my early attempts as a cooking teenager, she was always full of praise, encouragement and top tips (cold hands etc!).
My mother was an inspiration in pastry as she would make the most amazing decorations for the tops of pies, roses and leaves I seem to remember, I really must have another go at those.
So why with this pedigree is my pastry a bit weak, sometimes its OK, sometimes it's good, sometimes I give up throw it away and make a crumble! No consistency, it's a worry.
This is a very long winded way of saying that whatever recipe I looked at, I had no intention of making pastry. I love to bake, but I also love to enjoy myself while baking, and the joy at opening a ready made defrosted packet of sweet pastry and gently rolling out to the desired shape with ease and elegance is all I need really.
So there you go, if you want pastry recipe you don't need me. I just need a ready stocked freezer with my variety of pastries, ready for any such occurrence, like the need to make a lemon tart on a Sunday evening.
The trouble is, the tart is so easy it's a bit embarrassing, so Sandika, if you are reading this, this one is for you, trust me, you can do it. I pre-baked the pastry case, all that baking blind malarkey so you have a baked by cooled tart case ready for the filling.
Lemon filling then:
3 large eggs plus 1 yolk
150ml double cream
100g golden caster sugar
grated zest of 2 large unwaxed lemons
freshly squeezed juice of 3 large lemons
Put all the ingredients into a large jug/bowel and beat by hand until just combined. Set the prepared pre-baked pastry case, in the flan tin, on a preheated baking sheet and pour in three quarters of the filling. Put into a preheated oven at 160c, then carefully pour in the remaining filling (this way you avoid spilling the filling as you put the tart in the oven)
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the filling is firm when the tart is gently shaken. No wobbly tarts here!!
All the lemon tart recipes I looked at gave the hint about filling the pastry case when it's actually on the oven shelf, why the hell have I not come across this top tip before. I didn't have a large enough jug, so used a bowel which was OK, but I could see a jug would be easier.
I guess there are a whole heap of things you could do to top it, or serve it with, but we just ate the first piece warm and in stunned admiring silence. The second piece eaten cool later was just as good. As where the pieces for the rest of the week, there was no way Adam was letting this baby into work, sorry guys!
Oh made a very similar rhubarb (from the garden) tart, thanks to Jamie. This one is puff pastry so no baking blind business.
