The Most Extraordinary Lemon Cream Tart Recipe Nov 25, 2015 yumme Desserts, Recipes 0 This week it was my pleasure to select the Baking with Dorie Challenge recipe. Since I love all things lemon, I thought it would be fun to give Dorie’s “The Most Extraordinary Lemon Cream Tart” a try. At first glance, I thought this was just a lemon curd tart. How wrong I was! One of the first things I noticed about this recipe was that the lemon cream filling used a whopping 2 sticks plus 5 tablespoons of butter. For those of you playing along at home, that’s 21 tablespoon of butter—in the filling alone! As much as I love butter, and really I do, I was concerned that 21 Tablespoons of butter was too much. Would it overwhelm the lemon zip? The first time I made the recipe as written and Land O’Lakes butter rejoiced. I found the flavor to be good but too buttery, too rich. And when I handed a slice to friends they all said the same thing, “Boy! That’s rich!” Not exactly what I was going for. I was looking for “Yum! That’s good.” Boy that’s rich! and Yum that’s good! are two different things.I decided to tinker with the recipe a little. After three more batches, I finally decided that 1 1/4 sticks of butter, only 10 tablespoons, made for a perfect balance of richness and flavor. The butter no longer blunted the flavor of the lemon.There was one other spot where I varied Dorie’s recipe a bit. She uses a double boiler to make the lemon cream. I elected to just use a heavy pot and whisk. If you are more comfortable using a double boiler, please do!After the filling is made, Dorie puts it into a blender to incorporate the butter. This also serves to lighten the cream a bit! While I’ve never done this before with a lemon curd-type filling, I loved it and thought the resulting texture was worth the mess of the blender.As for the crust, I used my favorite gluten-free tart crust with one tweak. I added lemon juice to it. It serves to heighten the lemon flavor of the entire crust without being sharp. I think you’ll like it. IngredientsDirections Tart Crust 3/4 cup white rice flour 1/3 cup sweet rice flour 1/4 cup cornstarch 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar 1 Tablespoon lemon juice Lemon Filling 4 large eggs 1 cup granulated sugar 3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 10 Tablespoons butter, room temperature and cut into small pieces For the Crust In a small mixing bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a medium mixing bowl, cream together butter and confectioner’s sugar. Add whisked dry ingredients. Blend until a mixture is dry and crumbly. Add lemon juice and mix until a dough forms. Spray a 10-inch tart pan with gluten-free cooking spray. Place the dough in the tart pan and, using your hand, press the dough evenly onto the bottom and sides of the pan. This will take a minute. Chill tart dough, in the pan, for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake tart shell for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove tart pan from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. For the Filling While tart shell bakes, prepare the filling. In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients. Whisk together until smooth. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly. As soon as the filling thickens, about 180 degrees F, remove from the heat. Strain mixture and transfer to a blender or food processor. Allow mixture to cool slightly, about 140 degrees F. Begin adding the butter two or three pieces at a time. Blend until butter is incorporated. Pour filling into a 9×13-inch pan to cool. Chill for 3-4 hours. Whisk filling and spread into prepared tart shell.11. Serve and enjoy! Serves eight.
