I’m not proud of it, but sometimes I hold a grudge. When we had class at “the place that shall not be named” and the instructor told me I’d done something wrong to the dough for the tart, it made me mad. So mad, in fact, I’ve been determined to make a lemon tart again just to prove him wrong!

When a customer brought a whole bag of lemons from his tree and there was some gorgeous rosemary at Farmers Market, I figured it was a sign from the universe saying “Sara, make a Lemon Tart!” So that’s what I did!

I made the dough first because it needed to chill. Look Ma, No Sand!

If you haven’t read any earlier posts, my FFF (Favorite Foodie Friend) Marie and I attended a terrible cooking class where the lemon tart recipe was incorrect and our dough came out the consistency of sand. The instructor insisted nothing was wrong and made us finish the tart anyway (after accusing us of not following his recipe.) Thus the “sand” joke. That tart was not so great. This looks good to me though!

Plenty of lemons and eggs to make a gorgeous lemon curd filling!

This is so good, I could eat it all. No, I’m not even going to share. Well… maybe I’ll share the recipe so you can make your own. YUM!

Oops!

Had you going there for a second, didn’t I? 🙂 I used most of this delicious lemon curd to fill my beautiful pastry tart…


Take THAT Mr. Instructor Man!

I had leftovers of both dough and curd so I made mini-tarts too!

Are you ready to make your own now? You can do it! It’s so easy!

Rosemary Pastry Dough

2 1/2 cups flour
1 stick of unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
1 egg, whisked
pinch of salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBLS rosemary, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and rosemary in a mixing bowl. Whisk until combined. Cut in the butter until the you have the consistency of wet sand. (Sand…haha!) You can cut it in with your hands, or use your food processor. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Don’t knead the dough too much, you don’t want the butter to melt! Shape the dough into a disc and chill in the refrigerator while you make the lemon curd.

*Lemon Curd
(Recipe courtesy of Alton Brown-here is the original recipe: Lemon Curd)

5 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
4 lemons, zested and juiced
1 stick unsalted butter, chilled and cubed

You’ll need a double boiler for this. Use one you have, or create one with a saucepan and a metal bowl big enough to cover the pan, but not sit in the water. Add water to your saucepan. You’ll only need about 1-inch of water. Bring the water to a simmer over medium-high heat.

While the water is heating, combine egg yolks and sugar and whisk until smooth. Zest your lemons, then cut in half and juice them. Measure the juice to 1/3 cup (if needed, add cold water to reach a full 1/3 cup.) Add juice and zest to egg mixture and whisk again until smooth. Once the water is simmering, reduce the heat to low and place your bowl with the egg mixture on top of saucepan. Whisk continuously until the mixture thickens, about 6-8 minutes, or until it coats the back of a spoon. This happens quickly so keep an eye on it. Remove mixture from the heat and whisk in the butter one piece at a time. Let each piece melt before you add the next. Pour the curd into a serving bowl or container and cover with plastic wrap. It will stay good in your refrigerator for two weeks, or you can freeze it up to six months.

While your curd is cooling, remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out into the shape of your tart pan. The dough should be the same thickness as pie dough. Prick the dough with a fork and blind bake it for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Pour your curd into the baked tart shell and return to the oven for about 10 minutes or until the curd is set. Delicious!