Last Saturday we attended a baby shower and needed to bring something.  I naturally decided I should bake something since I find I really like baking.  After going back and forth all Friday night I was leaning towards a tart.  The only problem was that 1. I didn’t have a tart pan and 2. the crust recipes I could find were really intimidating.

So Saturday morning I woke up and decided I was going to bite the bullet and just make a tart using one of the easier recipes I could find.  The recipe ended up being a bit harder than I thought but I was still convinced I could do it.  Getting the dough ready for the fridge was the easy part.

Now that the dough was chilling I decided to run out and buy a tart pan, little did I know that Saturday was the day that no one was going to have tart pans.  After scouring 3 different stores I headed home trying to come up with other options since we had to leave for our baby shower in a few hours.  I decided on improvising with a cheesecake pan, which ended up working great.  After a bit of stress and a frantic call to my mom I got the dough in the pan and ready for the oven.

Now was time for the filling.  The recipe seemed pretty easy, which was a combination of a few recipes.  I was excited to be making my first lemon curd, something my sister has long mastered and left a lot for me to live up to.  I was pleasantly surprised that it was really good.  Now I just had to mix it with a few other ingredients and blueberries and I was left with a very pretty tart.

Fast forward to the party, where I was a bit nervous that it wasn’t going to be very good.  I had no reason to be nervous, it was a big hit.  One of the guests had a few helpings and was surprised when I told him that it was my first time making a tart.

In the end I was very proud of my dessert and look forward to mastering pastries to improve on this recipe in the future.

Prebaked Flaky Pate Sucree

Courtesy of nookandpantry.blogspot.com

1 C flour

1/3 C confectioner’s sugar

1/4 tsp salt

6 Tbsp cold butter, cut into 6 pieces

1 egg yolk

2 Tbsp cold milk or ice water

1/2 tsp of vanilla

Add the flour, confectioner’s sugar, and salt together in a food processor and pulse once or twice to combined. Add the pieces of butter and pulse until the butter pieces are no bigger than a pea.  Make sure the butter stays cold to keep the dough from getting greasy.

Mix the egg yolk, milk, and vanilla together. Drizzle the mixture over the butter and flour mix in the food processor. Pulse again until the dough start to form large clumps. If it looks too dry add a little more milk.

Scrape the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and press the clumps together to form a disc. Wrap the dough in the plastic wrap and chill at least an hour up to overnight. Or store it in the freezer for as long as you want.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Lightly flour a work surface and rolling pin and roll out the dough to into a large circle. Move the crust around often to make sure it doesn’t stick to your work surface.

Transfer the dough to an 8 or 9 inch tart pan. To make this easier, drape the dough over the rolling pin and lay it over the pan. Lift the edges of the crust and gently press the dough down into the pan. Roll over the top of the pan with a rolling pin to trim any overhanging dough.

Prick the surface of the dough with a fork. Press a sheet of aluminum foil onto a crust and add pie weights, beans, or clean pennies on top.  Bake on the middle rack for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and baking weights (be careful the weights will be very hot!) and return the crust to the oven to bake for another 10 or so minutes until it is golden. Cool to room temperature before filling

Lemon Cream Tart

Adapted from nookandpantry.blogspot.com

2 oz. cream cheese

3 Tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 C heavy cream or whipping cream

1/4 C lemon curd

With a whisk attachment, using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium high speed until fluffy. Slowly drizzle in the whipping cream and whip until stiff peaks form. Fold in the lemon curd.

Since the original recipe called for store bought lemon curd I decided be adventurous and make my own.

Lemon Curd

Courtesy of Food Network Canada

1/2 cup unsalted butter (125 mL)

1 1/4 cups sugar (300 mL)

3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (175 mL)

2 tbsp lemon zest (25 mL)

6 eggs

In a medium saucepan, over medium-high heat, combine butter, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest. Cook, stirring constantly, until all butter is melted and sugar is dissolved about 4 minutes.

In a heatproof bowl, whisk eggs. Continue whisking while pouring in about 1 cup of hot lemon liquid. Once combined transfer egg mixture back to saucepan, and continue to cook, over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes.

Cover surface directly with plastic wrap. Cool in fridge until ready to serve with Strawberry and Lemon Shortcake.