Tuesday, April 8, 2008

TWD - lemon cream pie



The TWD challenge this week was lemon cream tart. This was absolutely divine! It was like a lemon curd pie, but rather than the butter of the curd added when cooking the curd, it was emulsified into the curd, like making mayonnaise.

I made my tart in two stages, as I wanted to take it down to Napier for the girls’ weekend. On Thursday night I made the lemon cream and the pastry. Lemons are not in season in NZ at the moment, so it is hard to find nice juicy ones. I had to juice about 7 lemons to get the right amount of juice. Dorie’s instructions regarding temperature of the curd were quite specific. I know that some other TWD bakers couldn’t get their curd up to the right temperature, but I had no problem, using a metal bowl which seems to be the key. The amount of butter in the curd was a little bit terrifying, but my lemon cream came together into a beautiful sweet but tart creamy mass.

The pastry came together really well, and my taste of the raw mixture confirmed that it was yummy – made with icing sugar, so sweet like shortbread. I took my cold lemon cream, uncooked pastry and tart tin down to Napier and assembled the tart on Saturday night. The tart dough rolled out beautifully and baked up lovely and crisp. The tart assembled looked divine and got rave reviews from my Mum and sisters. We had it with thickened cream. Another Dorie success!!!

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

The tart looks stunning, but what I'd really like to see is you getting on the plane with your pastry and filling and tin et cetera.
Stephanie X

Anonymous said...

It looks so silky and perfect! I'm so glad you enjoyed it :)

CB said...

I love that you post a day earlier than me so I can see your pictures and read your experience. Makes my turn way easier ;) Lovely tart. :)

Mary Ann said...

Beautiful- it looks perfect. It is so fun to see how everyone's tarts turned out!

Anonymous said...

Looks fantastic! You have spurred me on to make mine now! I'm afraid I will be posting late - Hope mine looks as good as yours!

Julius said...

Your lemon cream is beautiful and silky.

Must have been scrumptious.


Julius from Occasional Baker

Anonymous said...

Oh, that cream looks lovely. Perfect for a girls' weekend!

LyB said...

"a little bit terrifying" describes perfectly how we all felt about the amount of butter, I think! Your tart looks lovely ad delicious!

Marie Rayner said...

Ohh your tart looks gorgeous! Looks like your lemon set up perfect and silky delicious! I did the orange version and although it didn't turn exactly as I had envisioned it was still decadently good!

Zakia / Avenue Z Desserts said...

your tart looks great. the yellow color is so pretty.

Bumblebutton said...

Very silky and yummy looking! SEVEN lemons?!! Wow--I would have skipped the recipe!

Mary said...

oh, that looks sooooo good!!

Melissa said...

I love it without any adornments etc.!

Annemarie said...

Glad youliked it...we did, too!

Mari said...

Wowsa! There's plenty of billowing clouds of lemony goodness in that tart!

mimi said...

your tart looks amazingly thick and creamy, really lovely!

Heather B said...

yum! Looks great!

Anonymous said...

beautiful pics! great job!!

Natalie said...

I love the choppy top - makes the lemon cream look soooo good!

Anonymous said...

Looks absolutely beautiful and creamy-dreamy just like the picture in the book! Glad you liked it as much as I did ;-)

Gretchen Noelle said...

Gorgeous tart! I am jealous of the thick cream filling you have on yours. Looks delicious!

Dolores said...

Great job! A little sweet; a little tart... the perfect contribution to a girls' night gathering!

Morven said...

This is one of the first recipes in Dorie's book that I marked to try out but haven't got around to yet. Now I can see I need to buy a metal bowl! Your pie looks gorgeous.

Cakelaw said...

I've died and gone to heaven - this looks superb!

eatme_delicious said...

Wow your cream looks amazing!