Meyer Lemon Tart .......

I finally found Meyer lemons this past weekend at the farm I frequent in New Hampshire.  Now all I needed was a delicious recipe that would highlight their subtle tartness.  I  found just what I had been looking for in a Pillsbury recipe  Was it ever delicious.  Here is the recipe.
 Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp. cornstarch 

2 tbsp. flour

1 1/2 cups water 

3 eggs yolks, beaten 

1 tbsp. Meyer lemon zest 

1/3 cup Meyer lemon juice 

1 tbsp. butter

1 Pillsbury pie crust 

• Heat oven to 450°F. Bake pie crust as directed on box for One-Crust Baked Shell, using 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom or 9-inch glass pie plate. Cool on cooling rack 15 minutes.
•  In 2-quart saucepan, mix sugar, cornstarch and flour. Gradually stir in water, stirring until smooth. Heat to boiling over medium heat; cook and stir 1 minute longer. Remove from heat. Quickly stir about 1/2 cup hot mixture into beaten egg yolks; mix well. Gradually stir egg mixture back into hot mixture. Stir in lemon peel and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add butter; stir until melted. Let stand 10 minutes.
• Carefully pour hot lemon filling in crust. Cool 2 hours; top with blackberries ans strawberry slices. Refrigerate until serving time. Remove side of pan. Cover and refrigerate any remaining tart.

The tart was a great success and won raves all around.

Belleau Kitchen Dessert Challenge

These challenges of Dom's Belleau Kitchen are so much fun.  We had to once again go to our bookcase and pull out all our dessert cook books. Then randomly choose a book (I closed my eyes) and plucked The Good Housekeeping Illustrated  Dessert Cookbook out of the pile. I need to be honest here.  The first page I opened to had so many decorations on the cake I knew my skill level for decorating cakes was not anywhere near that level.  I flipped again and opened to The Berries and Custard In Coconut Shell Tart.  Off to the specialty kitchen to buy a tart pan.  I have only made one tart in my life and I had to borrow the pan from my sister.  Tarts are not in my comfort level either, but at least I knew it wouldn't look like a kindergartner made it. Here's the recipe with a few fruit changes.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup shredded coconut
• 6 tbsp. butter
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 large lemon
• 6 tbsp. butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 1/2 pints raspberries
• 1 pint blueberries

1. Prepare Coconut Pastry dough, measure flour, coconut, butter, sugar, and egg yolk.  With fingertips, mix together just until blended.
2. Press dough onto bottom and up sides of 10-inch tart pan. With fork, prick tart shell in many places to prevent puffing and shrinkage during baking.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line tart shell with foil: bake 10 min.  Remove foil; again prick dough.  Bake tart shell 10 to 15 minutes until golden.
4. While tart shell is baking, prepare Lemon-Custard Filling. From the lemon grate 1 tsp. and  squeeze 2 tbsp. juice; set aside.  In heavy 2 qt. sauce pan over medium- low heat, heat butter, sugar,  and cornstarch, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils; boil 1 min.
5. In small bowl with fork, beat egg yolks; stir in small amount of hot sugar mixture.  Slowly pour egg yolk mixture back into sugar mixture in pan, stirring rapidly to prevent lumping.
6. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and coats spoon, about 170-175 degrees.  Remove from heat.
7. Stir lemon peel and lemon juice into custard; cover custard and refrigerate about one hour.
8. In small bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat cream until stiff peaks form.  With rubber spatula fold whipped cream into custard.
9. Evenly spoon Lemon Custard Filling into cooled shell.
10. Topped with berries.

I used blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and mangoes.