Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Tartest Meyer Lemon Tart (TWD)

After the overload of rich chocolate recipes last month, this week's TWD recipe for Tartest Lemon Tart was a refreshing change of pace. I love all things that are intensely sweet & tart (I'm a total Sour Patch Kid junkie), and I was totally looking forward to making this. What is so unique and intruiging about this recipe is the use of whole lemons, peel and all.

I couldn't resist making individual tartlettes. Here are my notes and adjustments (for the full recipe please visit Babette Feasts):

- made a full recipe of shortbread nut crust, using Trader Joe's Almond Meal, and I yielded four 4" tartlettes and four 3" tartlettes.

- I made a half recipe of the lemon filling and used 1 whole meyer lemon (it's the end of their season ---*sigh*). This yielded the perfect amount of filling for the four 4" tartlettes.

I loved how the filling slightly overflowed and formed a brown slightly crispy/chewy crust around the edge. For me, that was the tastiest part of this tart. :)


Creme fraiche would have been a perfect partner to this tart. As I didn't have any handy, I whipped up a mixture of heavy cream, sour cream and powdered sugar, and it worked wonderfully. A handful of tart blackberries completed this beauty of a dessert. So, was this tart ...too tart? Absolutely not! As I used meyer lemons, the tartness was probably downplayed. Still, this tart delivered a wonderfully fresh and bright lemon flavor with just the right amount of sweetness to prevent your mouth from puckering. The buttery, crunchy crust played perfectly with the jammy filling.
Feeling a little adventurous, I eyed a 1/2 pink grapefruit sitting on the counter that was leftover from breakfast .... hmmm...how about a grapefruit tart? I used this half and made a half batch of the filling, which was way more than enough for the three remaining tart shells. Eyeballing what I had left, the half batch would have yielded enough filling for eight 3" tartlettes. The tarts baked beautifully with a gorgeous orange/pink hue, but the taste was a whole different story...way too bitter! I should have removed the pith. Oh well, you live and learn. I still love this idea of a grapefruit tart, so I'm doing to attempt this again soon, sans the white pith. Stay tuned and I'll tell you how it turns out in a future post.
Thank you Babette of Babette Feasts selecting this wonderful recipe! For more beautiful tarts, make sure to explore the TWD blogroll.

27 comments:

Amanda said...

Man your photos are gorgeous!!

Mine bubbled over like a volcano, but it turned out fine after some doctoring :) A little bitter, but I don't think my lemons were of the best quality. DELICIOUS dough!

Isabelle Lambert said...

wow linda ! tes photos sont toujours aussi belles !J'ai adoré cette tarte.
pas fichue de trouver des citrons Meyers dans mon village...faudra que je cherche à Montréal !

vibi said...

Oh! How I wish I had had that idea... grapefruit! How ingenious! Must have made even better!!!

Loooooove that so simple look you are going for in your pics! Bravo... extremely pretty (may I add "as usual", Linda!) LOL

steph- whisk/spoon said...

two gorgeous tarts! i love the grapefruit idea, too (my favorite citrus)...can't wait to see how your next batch comes out!

Teanna said...

Wow that was brave with the grapefruit! Great idea, I think it would work without the pith! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous tarts!

Susan @ SGCC said...

What a unique and lovely presentation! I love what you did with your tarts. The grapefruit sounds divine too. Great work!

Jo said...

I'm seeing a whole bunch of lemon tarts today and it's driving me nuts. Yours is an excellent choice in using grapefruit. I have to bear in mind to take out the pith if I'm going to attempt this version.

chocolatechic said...

Gorgeous tart!

Sara said...

Love them. I wanted to make a grapefruit one too. Glad I read it way too bitter, I will remember that.

Charli said...

Those look so beautiful. I can't wait to hear about the grapefruit tart!

Cristine said...

Wow! Amazing tarts!

redmenace said...

lovely! i wish i lived somewhere where i could find meyer lemons!

betty geek said...

Linda, your food pictures ALWAYS ALWAYS look so darn AMAZING.

The pith aside, I used buttermilk instead of heavy cream and I think it calmed the sourness a bit. You used meyer lemons which was an excellent idea as well.

Fab job all around!

Anonymous said...

Your tarts look wonderful! I love the blackberries and the whipped topping. Perfection!

Steph said...

I love sour patch kids too, espeically when they're stale and super chewy and hard at the same time! Those tarts look delicious. I think my favourite part would also be the slightly crispy/chewy crust around the edge too!

Pamela said...

Very creative with the grapefruit. The lemon tarts looks outstanding!! And the blackberries were a great topper.

Jules Someone said...

Those orange tarts look amazing! Sorry the grapefruit ones didn't work. Maybe orange...

Hindy said...

Thank you for boldly going the grapefruit route before the rest of us. Your tarts look lovely!

Madam Chow said...

Gorgeous tarts - I loved this recipe, too. Your photos are fabulous!

The Food Librarian said...

I'll fight you for those sour patch kids! :) These look wonderful!!

Unknown said...

Your tarts are really pretty! Nice job. My tart was very bitter but I used regular lemons with all of their pith. Lesson learned :)

Mermaid Sews said...

I have photo envy. Love the grapefruit idea.

Marta said...

I like the mini-cakes, that way you feel so important because you got a "whole cake" to yourself ;)
Photos look great and I'm sure those backberries were in perfect harmony with the tangy sweetness of the tart :)

Shari said...

Nice job! I'll be looking forward to your grapefruit report!! Your tarts look just wonderful.

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Your photos are fabulous! I love visiting here to drool over everything you make....even your too bitter grapefruit tarts which by the way look perfect.

Oh, and I'm a lover of tart candies. My fave sour patch kid is the yellow and then the red. :)
~ingrid

kellypea said...

These are just about the cutest and most delicious things I've seen in a while. My tastebuds are going nuts right now! Oh, the possibilities... ; )

TeaLady said...

Luscious lemon tart. LOVE the bite with a little bite of tart/cream/berry. PERFECT!!!!

Blog Widget by LinkWithin