When Your CSA Box Gives You Lemons...

...make a Lemon Tart!! 

I couldn't even wait to take a picture before diving into it.  Isn't it so nice and glossy and creamy?!

I used the recipe for Lemon Tart from The New Best Recipe Cookbook (a cookbook from America's Test Kitchen).  The recipe called for making lemon curd (from the juice and zest of about 5 of our CSA lemons, hallelujah!) on the stovetop, straining out the zest, and making sure to use all non-reactive bowls and utensils.  It was so worth it. 

The crust was perfect--tender but not chewy, with bite, but not crunchy. What was it? I don't know. It was perfect. (The crust did brown too much on the edges, but I should have been watching it closer and covered it).

The tart was creamy, rich, and bursting with lemon flavor, not cloying sweetness.

It was the best lemon anything I have ever had. 

Lemon Tart from The New Best Recipe cookbook:

1 recipe Sweet Pastry Dough for Prebaked Tart Shell, fully baked and still warm (see below)

7 large egg yolks, plus 2 large eggs

1 C plus 2 T sugar

2/3 C juice and 1/4 C finely grated zest from 4-5 medium lemons

pinch salt

4 T unsalted butter, cut into 4  pieces

3 T heavy cream

Oven 375.  In a medium non-reactive bowl whisk yolks and whole eggs til combined.  Add sugar & whisk.  Add lemon juice and zest and whisk.  Transfer to a non reactive saucepan and add butter pieces.  Cook over med-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until curd thickens to a thin sauce-like consistency and registers 170 on a candy thermometer (~5 min).  Immediately pour the curd through a fine mesh stainless steel strainer over a clean non-reactive bowl.  Stir in heavy cream.  Pour curd into warm tart shell immediately.  Bake til filling is shiny & opaque and center 3 inches jiggle slightly when shaken, 10-15 min.  Cool on wire rack about 1 hr. Remove outer ring and tart pan bottom and place on a serving plate.  Serve within several hours.

Sweet Pastry Dough for Prebaked Tart Shell

1 large egg yolk

1 T heavy cream

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 C flour

2/3 C confectioner's sugar

1/4 tsp salt

8 T cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Whisk yolk, cream, vanilla in small bowl.  Place flour, c. sugar, and salt in a food processor and process briefy to combine.  Add butter and process til mixture resembles coarse meal--about 15 1 second pulses.  With the processor running, add the egg mixture and process until the dough just comes together, about 12 seconds.  Turn the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and press into a 6 inch disk.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.

Remove the dough from the fridge.  Unwrap and roll out between 2 lightly floured sheets of parchment or plastic wrap to a 13 inch round.  Trasfer dough to a 9 inch tart pan using a rolling pin to unroll it over the pan.  Ease the dough into the pan corners and press the dough against the fluted edges.  Roll the rolling pin over the top of the tart pan to remove the excess dough.  Set the dough lined trt pan on a large plate and freeze 30 min. 

Meanwhile, heat oven to 375.  Set the dough lined tart pan on a baking sheet and press foil into the tart shell and over the edge and fill with pie weights.  Bake 30 min.  Remove foil and weights and bake 5-8 min longer.