Pucker Up

This blog is at serious risk of morphing into an homage to Dorie Greenspan. Reading her book makes me want to head straight for the kitchen and work some magic with the measuring cups. My contribution to the family feast this festive season was her 'Tartest Lemon Tart', the perfect pick me up ending to a very rich meal. They'll be no snoozing on the sofa after this zingy dessert (ok well maybe just a little).

Despite involving homemade pastry (eeek) it came together easily and looked very impressive. There were a few scary moments in the oven towards the end of the cooking time where the filling bubbled up and then merrily bubbled over the edge of the pastry case onto the baking sheet. No harm done. Dorie does warn that this might happen and I think it's actually a cunning plan to
allow the baker a sneaky sample of good things to come.

As the filling uses whole lemons the end result is stickily sweet and sharp with a slight hint of bitterness - like lemon marmalade. Gorgeous with adollop of freshly whipped cream.