Lemon Tart

 It's Easter weekend, which means time to eat copious amounts of spring themed food. Fortunately, I've had a menu growing in my head since the first snowflake hit the ground. I am fond of abundance and comfort, so instead of sitting down around the dinner table for a set menu, I had everyone sit in the living room and served all the food on coffee tables. I made sure to have all finger food, and plenty of it, so the five hours we spent eating last night were rather decadent. It goes without saying that there was wine and beer circulating for each course, this is evidenced by the picture of tarts below with beer in the background. Though keeping in line with the casual mood of the evening, I had no pairing system for the meal.

First round of food included cheeses (Italian pecorino, soft sheep's cheese from Prince Edward County, hard sheep/goat mix from the same and a cow's blue from Quebec), baguette, wild boar pate, grapes, unsulphered dried apricots, and butter roasted almonds.

Second round was lamb chops, deviled eggs, artichoke dip, crackers, a selection of fresh vegetables, and saffron garlic mayonnaise for dipping.

The grand finale was a zesty lemon tart with strawberries and whipped cream on top. I include the recipe here because I have finally come up with a filling that is not too soft and has the perfect amount of tartness. The crust uses heavy cream which I've discovered leads to an incredibly flaky pastry that needs to be treated like a princess, but is just as rich as one when it comes out of the oven.

Lemon Tart
makes one 9 inch tart, serves 6 generously, 8 little ladies

Crust

210 g flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
150 g frozen butter (2/3 cup)
1/4 cup- 1/2 cup heavy cream
egg white (from yolk for filling)

1 Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl and grate the frozen butter in with a cheese grater. Toss the butter in flour regularly to keep your fingers from directly touching the butter and melting it
2 Rub the butter into the flour lightly until it is evenly distributed through the flour
3 Stir the heavy cream in with a fork, only add a couple tablespoons at first and see how it feels, add enough so it just comes together. It should be extremely delicate, but just form a ball. Wrap the ball in plastic, flatten it into a disk and refrigerate it for at least an hour
4 Let the dough sit for about 5 or 10 minutes at room temperature then put on a well floured surface and press into a very flat disk with the heel of your hand
5 Roll the flat disk into a nice big circle and place gently in a tart or pie plate and trim the tops, shaping them however you like. I am awful at shaping pie crusts so I go the simple straight cut route or go for the 'rustic' look
6 Refrigerate the crust for at least half an hour, take the time to preheat the stove to 400 F and do some dishes
7 When everything is ready, line the crust with foil, fill with beans and bake for 20 minutes in the lower half of the oven
8 Remove the foil, brush the crust with some of the egg white from the filling and bake another 5 minutes

Filling
60 g butter, melted (4 tbsp)
150 g sugar  (3/4 cup)
2 eggs
1 egg yolk (white reserved)
juice and zest from 3 lemons
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla

1 Make this while the crust cooks and once the crust is done, turn the oven down to 350 F
2 Combine the sugar and butter then add the eggs and beat until there are no pieces of egg, add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth
3 Pour the filling into the crust and return to the oven for 10 or 15 minutes, or until the filling is nearly firm when you jiggle the pan

Make sure to serve this pie with a mountain of whipped cream and strawberries, or else the Easter Bunny will not approve. Even though I didn't have a wine pairing system going on last night, this tart tart would be spectacular with a sweeter Riesling, especially if you garnish it with strawberries.