Lemon & Lime Delight

Have you ever wanted something to succeed so much that you were too frightened to begin trying?

This has been a familiar feeling for me for far too long (yes, I know there were five 'f's in that sentence - I am nothing if not alliterate).

Anyway, the thing is, I've been eyeing out this amazing Lemon Divine Tart from the beautiful Megann of Megann's Kitchen for two weeks now; busting-out, waiting for Australia Day.

Go on, take a sneak-peek at how beautiful it is:  look at the lemony goodness - you can almost taste the tart-sweetness of the filling and the soft, buttery flakiness of the crust.  It's enough to just make you lick the screen, isn't it?  Only no one would do really that, would they?? 'Cause that would just be too weird, right?

Ahem.

Anyway, as always, I kept this recipe and (being 'me') I've over-analysed every single little component and am supremely confident I can almost do something just-about close to half-way as good as Megann's.

I've used both lemon and limes for this recipe (because the green and gold thing just works on this, our National Day).  Also, I used Megann's Sweet Shortcrust Pastry recipe, as well.

Can you believe it??  Me!! Making shortcrust pastry.

So, here goes:


Ingredients for Shortcrust Pastry:

250g plain flour

100g chilled unsalted butter, chopped

100g caster sugar

2 egg yolks

A pinch of salt

2-3 Tbs chilled water

Method:

Place the flour, butter, sugar & salt in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. 

Add the two egg yolks and, whilst blending, add 2-3 Tbs of chilled water until the mixture comes together. 

When the mixture just combines into a ball (see picture), stop the processor and form a disc in your hands. 

Wrap in cling wrap & chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to180°C (350°F). 

On a lightly floured surface with cling wrap below, roll the pastry until it is 3-5mm thick. 

With the cling wrap still attached to the pastry, carefully lift and line a greased, 28 cm loose-bottomed tart pan with pastry, then trim with the heal of your hand. 

Place tart pan on your baking tray.  This will ensure that you don't accidentally break the pastry pulling the pan in and out of the freezer/oven by lifting the loose-bottom on the pan.  Chill for 10 minutes in the freezer or 20 minutes in the fridge. Do not skip this step - it's very important to keep the butter from melting.

Remove the cling wrap, prick the pastry with a fork then line with parchment paper and fill with pastry weights. 

Bake blind at 180°C (350°F) for 10 minutes. Remove pastry weights and parchment paper then bake for another 5 minutes, until just cooked through. 

Reset your oven to 160°C (320°F).

Ingredients for Lemon Divine Filling:

2 large lemons

1 lime

6 eggs

250g castor sugar

200 ml cream

1 tsp vanilla bean paste or seeds of 1 vanilla bean

pure icing (confectioner's) sugar

Method

Zest and juice the lemons and lime. 

Combine eggs & sugar until well combined, then add the zest and lemon & lime juice and stir.

Add cream and vanilla and mix well using a whisk. 

Pour into just-baked pastry case and bake for 35-45 minutes until almost set. Cool in tin for at least 30 minutes before serving. Don't be tempted to serve too soon - filling will continue to set during this time.

Serve dusted with icing sugar and with thick cream.

 Prep time: 20 mins for pastry and 5 mins for filling, plus cooling time of an hour
Cooking time:  40 mins
Cost: <$10, but I already had most of the ingredients in my pantry.
Would I cook it again?:  Yes I would...but I may not wait until the next Australia Day.
What would I do differently next time?:  Not stress-out so much.  Megann's instructions and advice were pretty-much spot on - right down to placing it on the rack so as not to accidentally lift the loose-bottom pan.

Happy Australia Day to us all!!  xxoo