Thursday, October 10, 2019

When Life Gives You Lemons...



★★★★★ Lemon Curd Tart

Alright, this one’s short going to be but sweet (literally!). We somehow managed to get a late start to the new season of Great British Bake Off this year (one of our all time favorite shows). If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching this show, please do yourself a favor and get on board; it’s seriously the most feel-good show of all time. True amateur bakers competing in a contest for nothing more than their own pride in their passion is really wholesome TV. While I’m sure they get Instagram followers and some endorsements if they make it far enough in the competition, the camaraderie between the contestants and their honest, simple love for baking feels genuine and is truly a pleasure to watch.

Last year while watching the show I had a real “Hey, I can do that!” moment and decided I would put the seemingly decorative Kitchen Aid mixer from our wedding registry to work. Dozens of meringues and cookies later, and with the new season of GBBO on air, it was time to step up my game and take on something a bit more complicated. While this is by no means my own recipe (credit: @FoodNetwork & @InaGarten) here’s my attempt at a simple Lemon Curd Tart. Spoiler alert: it’s delicious.




Link to full recipe and process is here.



Ingredients used are below:

For the tart shell:
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch salt

For the lemon curd:
4 lemons, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon salt


^my reaction while taking it out of the oven. 
*Also Rahul (@bakewithrahul) is hands down our favorite contestant ever - here’s a link to some of his best moments from @BuzzFeed  (and also where I got this gif)

Ultimately, I definitely need more practice on the pastry-end but felt like it was an overall success. The filling more than made up for the rookie-level pastry it in taste, and the only real change for next time would be to have the correct tools for juicing, etc, to make the most of the flavors. For future bakes I’m going to make sure to have the right accouterments to make the process easier. Despite my best efforts, this bake turned out great and the end result was 100% delicious. The raspberries were the perfect final touch. For a sharp but sweet & simple dessert, this was a 5/5 in my book. Definitely something I will be making again!




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Maira Gall