There's something about lemons.. and sweet dough.. and tea..special teas:) that warm the ♥
That little lavender hued set is so special to me..A friend of my mom's made it for her..Louise Skully..It's Mother Of Pearl..iridiscent in person..and just so sweet..I gather this little trio set is at least 60 yrs old~I treat myself with it for special days.
I made the tart for Jacques this weekend.. and it just happened to go so well with a chamomile and lemon tea I received as a special gift~
Here is the recipe..I love the tartness of it..very different from my other lemon tarts..
Of course everything she makes is wonderful~
La Recette~Dorie Greenspan's Tartest Lemon Tart
1 1/2 lemons, scrubbed and dried
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 lare egg yolks, room temp
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 c. heavy cream
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 9-inch tart shell made with Dorie's Sweet Tart Dough partially baked and cooled
Whipped cream, creme fraiche or confectioners' sugar for garnish
Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Place tart pan on baking sheet lined with parchment or silicone mat.
Slice whole lemon in half and pull out seeds from it and the half. Then cut lemons into small pieces.
Filling is best made in a blender, but you can use a food processor. Take care to work ingredients until they are smooth and to scrape down sides of bowl often. Put lemons and sugar in blender or processor and pulse, blend and scrape down sides until you have smooth mix. Add remaining filling ingredients and pulse and blend until filling is homogeneous. Rap bowl on counter several times to de-bubble filling as much as possible, and pour it into partially baked crust.
Very carefully--tart shell will be full--transfer baking sheet to oven. Bake 20 minutes, then increase oven temp to 350 degrees F and bake tart for an additional 25 to 30 minutes. (total time is 45 to 50 minutes). Don't be alarmed when filling starts to bubble up. (It might even bubble over edge of tart--that's okay.) When tart is properly baked, it shuld be set, although perhaps still shaky in center, and most of top will have formed a light sugary crust.
Transfer tart pan to cooling rack and let cool to room temperature. Chill, if you'd like, before serving with cream or dusting of confectioners' sugar.
I used her sweet crust pastry recipe that I love to bits~
The dough..
La Recette~Sweet Tart Dough (Pâte Sablée)
From Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home To Yours
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk
Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine.
Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in--you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas.
Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses--about 10 seconds each--until the dough, whisk will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds.
Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change--heads up.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface and , very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.
To press the dough into the pan: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked.
Don't be too heavy-handed--press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.
To partially or fully bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust.
(Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet to bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. For a partially baked crust, patch the crust if necessary, then transfer the crust to a cooking rack (keep it in is pan).
To fully bake the crust: Bake for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown. (Keep a close eye on the crust's progress--it can go from golden to way too dark in a flash). Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.
To patch a partially or fully baked crust, if necessary: If there are any cracks in the baked crust, patch them with some of the reserved raw dough as soon as you remove the foil. Slice off a thin piece of the dough, place it over the crack, moisten the edges and very gently smooth the edges into the baked crust. If the tart will not be baked again with its filling, bake for another 2 minutes or so, just to that the rawness off the patch.
Storing: Well wrapped, the dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen up to 2 months. While the fully baked crust can be packed airtight and frozen for up to 2 months I (Dorie), prefer to freeze the unbaked crust in the pan and bake it directly from the freezer--it has the fresher flavor. Just add about 5 minutes to the baking time.
And Voilà~ C'est tout!
P.S. The tea service/set was also my mom's~Perhaps even my grandmother's~
When people leave too early..so does the history~
Silver is a lot of work.. wether silver plated or real..
You have to polish a few times a year..
I have never not liked this attention to these pieces and the work my hands do to keep the pieces part of my history..
I actually think dearly of my mom..when I hold and polish the same pieces she once held and polished..
Routines like this are soothing to the soul..and lead to calmness..and memories~
