The Down Under Lemon Tart

Good Morning! I am sharing a beautiful lemon tart with you today but I wanted to take a moment to tell you all what will be happening for the next 4 weeks. For the next 4 weeks,

starting tomorrow, I have a big sale event at work. Last year was the first year we ever did this event, but it worked so well and we sold so much furniture that we are doing this event again. If you are in the area, feel free to stop by La-Z-Boy in Lafayette Indiana. While it is great, I will be very busy for the next 3-4 weeks and I won't be able to spend as much time on Calamity Kate's Facebook page or Twitter account. I have prewritten 3 blog posts, including this one, so you can all won't have to wait on some awesome recipes and stories. I will still get to see any and all of your fabulous comments as they go through my email.  I will see you next week with Fourth of July Cupcakes...until then, enjoy The Down Under Lemon Tart! 

Aunt Nancy and Bing 

While I was in Milwaukee we made this delicious tart with my Aunt Nancy, I am sure you have all heard me talk about her, she is the best. I love spending time with Aunt Nancy and Aunt Fran while in Milwaukee. We cook and bake and we eat and we talk and we laugh and we eat some more.  Aunt Nancy is a very accomplished cook and baker, but she makes pies and tarts like no one can! Aunt Nancy found this tart recipe online. We made it on the 3rd or 4th day I was in Milwaukee.  The tart dough is very solid and slightly sweet. This recipe made 2 tart shells but only one tart of filling. We froze the second tart shell and later that week we used it for a french apple tart. This tart dough is now my go to recipe for tarts!

Aunt Nancy has all these little tricks, tips and easy short cuts for making pies and tarts.

First, when cutting off the additional dough. After you place the dough into the tart shell and it is in place and snug, take the rolling pin and roll it over the tart pan. This will leave you with a crisp and clean tart edge. Second, using your fingers, gently push the edges of the  tart dough up, slightly above the tart pan edge. Take a small parring knife and make small slits, in the same direction across the edges of the entire tart. The edges that you just pushed up. This will allow the tart dough to become beautiful and slightly crisp while baking.

 So, if you don' t absolutely love lemon, you may want to, just slightly, water don't the lemon juice. However, this is a lemon tart and a truly fine lemon tart it is, so I really don't recommend any watering down of your lemon juice, we actully added more lemon juice and zest. You can never have enough lemon.  This lemon tart is very citrus-y and smooth and creamy and zesty and perfect! If you read some of the comments for this recipe at AllRecipes.com you will find so many comments about how you should not serve this to company, because you want to eat it all by yourself. Well, I agree! We had some of this silky lemon tart after dinner, while watching TV, as a midnight snack, at at lunch and dinner the next day...then it was gone but my lemon dessert need was fulfilled. 

The Down Under

 Lemon Tart
Slightly adapted recipe from All Recipes.com

Sweet Pastry
Makes 2 Tart Shells
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
7/8 cup butter
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar 
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tablespoons cold water
2 tablespoons minced lemon zest

Place flour, butter, and confectioners' sugar in food processor; process until mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add egg yolk and 1 to 2 tablespoons cold water and lemon zest, and process until mixture forms a dough. Mold dough into 2 flat shapes, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for 20 minutes.

Roll out pastry to 1/8 inch thick (3mm), and line a 9- or 10-inch (24 cm) tart pan. Patch any cracks with extra dough and chill the crust in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 

Line pastry with foil, fill the foil with a little raw rice, and bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove foil and rice, and continue baking until pastry is a light golden color.

Lemon Filling
Makes 1 tart
4 eggs
3/4 cup superfine sugar (or granulated sugar, processed to fine texture in a food processor)
2 tablespoons minced lemon zest
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup heavy cream

In a mixing bowl, mix together eggs, superfine sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and cream. Do not over beat. Pour the mixture through a strainer. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet, and carefully pour the lemon mixture into the baked pastry crust.
Bake until the tart is nearly set, about 20 minutes. The filling will be runny in the center, and will set when cool; don't over cook, or cracks will appear. Cool 20-30 minutes. Serve with fresh whipped cream, we decorated our tart thin slices of lemon and sprigs of mint and sprinkled powdered sugar. Enjoy!

P. S.  The TV show we watched, while eating this lemon tart was, New Tricks. It is awesome, a group of older British cops become cold case detectives...and if was so cool and very funny! I am watching a lot of British TV and BBC right now. Some of the shows I am catching up on are... New Tricks, Call the Midwife on PBS and Netflix and of course, Downton Abby.  All of these shows are on Netflix.