Lemon Berry Tart

So you made that wonderfully tart lemon curd.  And whipped it into a light and fluffy lemon mousse.  Let's take it a step further and make a lemon tart to pile sweet berries upon!  I used frozen blueberries for this one (my kids and I picked 25 pounds at The Berry Patch in Sadler, TX), but it is also de.light.ful. with fresh berries mounded on top - strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries. . . whatever berries you have on hand.

Lemon Berry Tart

First make your tart shell. . .

Tart shell
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 tsp salt
9 Tbs very cold unsalted butter, chopped up into small dice
1 large egg 

Add the flour, sugar, and salt to a food processor and pulse a couple of times until they’re mixed together. Add in your COLD lumps of butter. Pulse for a few beats. The mix will look coarse and grainy and a few pea-sized butter bits should remain.

Add in your egg - pouring it around the whole surface. Pulse again, paying close attention to not let the food processor get away from you. Let it come almost to a ball of dough but not quite. Then  knead the rest by hand. Overprocessing the dough can make it tough.

Unload it to a work surface and give to a few turns and presses until it just comes together.  Form the dough into a disk shape. Wrap the disk in plastic and refrigerate for a couple of hours to chill the dough thoroughly.

Roll out your chilled dough on a lightly floured surface. It should be about 3 inches larger in diameter that your tart pan. I like to roll my dough on a piece of parchment or wax paper to keep it from sticking to the counter. Sparingly sprinkle with flour as needed to keep it from sticking.

Once rolled, drape it over your rolling pin and transfer it to your tart pan. Peel away the parchment paper if you used it. Press it into your tart pan, making sure to get it to butt up against the corner edges of the pan. If you get tears in your dough, patch it with the scraps. The excess can hang over the edge. Cut away the excess.

Prick the tart all over with a fork and place the tart shell in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before baking (or longer, if you want to make it the day before). This will help the shell keep its shape when the heat of the oven hits it.

 

 

 

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the shell from the freezer and tightly fit a sheet of tin foil inside the tart shell, taking care to tuck it into the contours. Place the tart on a baking sheet and bake the shell approxiamately 25 minutes - or until golden brown. Let cool completely before filling.

 

 

Next let's make our blueberry topping - if you're using fresh fruit just skip this step!

Blueberry Topping

1 cup blueberries - fresh or thawed from frozen

1/4 cup sugar

1 T. cornstarch

1/4 cup water

1/4 t. lemon zest (optional)

Place the blueberries in a small saucepan. In a small bowl mix together the sugar and cornstarch. Sprinkle over the blueberries, add water and stir. 

 

 

Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens and becomes clear. 

 

 

Stir in lemon zest if desired.

 

 

Now let's assemble that tart!

Remove your cooled tart shell from the pan and place it on a pretty plate or cake stand.  Spoon your lovely lemon mousse into the shell until it is 1/2 inch from the top.  Mound with beautiful fresh berries - or - drop spoonfulls of your blueberry topping onto the mouse.  Gently swirl by running a knife slowly through the berry topping.  Enjoy!

 

 

Zesty Lemon Chicken Ring

I'm not sure a person should admit this - but I really enjoy Hot Pockets. So it's no wonder that this chicken ring is one of my all time favorite dinners. It's like having a slice of THE BEST Hot Pocket you've ever had. It's almost shameful to compare the two, because this is so dang good - not to mention easy to make - which makes it even better :) Your family and friends will be so impressed when they see your beautiful creation!

Zesty Lemon Chicken Ring

2 cups chicken breast, cooked (I use one large breast and boil it for 10 minutes to cook through)
1 cup frozen broccoli, cooked (don't be afraid to use the cheaper "broccoli pieces" for this recipe - it will still taste great) (or you can cook up some fresh broccoli if you have it)
1/2 cup red bell pepper

2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
2 packages Pillsbury crescent rolls (I prefer the "Butter Flake" flavor)

To make the filling chop the chicken, broccoli and red pepper into small pieces.  Place in a bowl.  Add cheeses, mayo, garlic, lemon zest, salt, and italian seasoning.  Mix well.

Unroll the crescents and arrange triangles in a circle on a round baking stone with bases overlapping in center and points toward outside. I place my 5" round biscuit cutter in the middle of the pan to help me make a circle. 

Once your dough is laid out, press the base of the triangles near the center to flatten and seal. This will give you a nice base to place your filling onto.

I use a 1/4 cup scoop to place filling onto widest portion of each triangle, but a large spoon would work also.

Fold the dough points over the filling and tuck under the base in the center to seal.

Work your way around until the filling is wrapped in dough - you do want to see some filling poking through!

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  Make sure the crust is a deep golden brown and cooked through (a doughy crust is not a delicious crust!)

Let the ring rest/cool for 5 minutes.  I will often slice and serve directly from my baking stone, but to make it fancy for pictures I carefully transferred it to a serving plate.

When we had this for dinner last night - and we polished the whole thing off - we decided that from now on we are a "2 chicken ring family!" By the way, one of our teenagers wasn't even home to help us eat it - yikes!

Lemon Mousse

 Ok, so now we've made our lemon curd (click here if you missed it).  If you didn't eat it all up yet, we can use it to make a wonderful lemon mousse.  This mousse is delicious served all on it's own, or it can be used as an ingredient in tarts, cakes and pies. 

Lemon Mousse

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups lemon curd

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and heavy cream to soft peak stage.

Because we whipped air into the cream and made it light and delicate, and because the curd is heavy and dense, we will fold the cream into the curd gradually, so we don’t completely deflate the cream. Scoop a third of the whipped cream into the bowl with the curd. You can eyeball this. It doesn’t have to be exact. Gently fold it in.

Scrape in the rest of the heavy cream and fold it in.

That's it. You're done. Easy peasy. Now you're faced with the tough decision of whether to spoon it into parfait cups to eat right away, or perhaps take it a step further and make a lemon berry tart - recipe to follow!

Whatever you decide, make sure you refrigerate your treat until you're ready to eat or use it :)

Lemon Curd

Lemon curd - oh how I love your happy color and the way your bright flavors zing my tongue and make my cheeks pucker with your sweet sourness.  So summery and a great way to use fresh lemons when you find them 10/$1.  Once you've made your delicious lemon curd (which tastes awesome by the spoonful) you can turn it into Lemon Mousse or a Blueberry Lemon Tart or Lemony Sunshine Cupcakes.  All of these recipes will soon follow. I guess this will be my first "blog recipe series."

But for today, let's start with the basic ingredient for all of these lemony wonders - the lemon curd.  This is by far the easiest lemon curd recipe ever.  It requires no tempering of the eggs and no straining.  I LOVE easy.  And the taste is tart perfection.  So, here we go.

Lemon Curd

6 Tbs butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest
4 drops food coloring, optional

Seriously - aren't these some of the prettiest ingredients ever!

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, about 2 min. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.)

Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 min. I know, 15 minutes is a long time, but while you're stirring you can imagine all the wonderful ways you will be enjoying your delightful lemon curd. When it has thickened enough it will stick to the back of your spoon and when you run your finger through it it leaves a path. Don't let the mixture boil.

Remove the curd from the heat and stir in the lemon zest and optional yellow food coloring (I did not use food coloring in this batch). For this recipe I prefer to peel my lemons with a potato peeler which gives me big chunks of zest.  I can then chop them into the size I want (I like bigger bits) and freeze the leftover zest for when I want to brighten the flavor in some of my other recipes.

Transfer the curd to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the lemon curd to keep a skin from forming and chill the curd in the refrigerator. Or you can spoon it into small canning jars that can go into either the refrigerator or freezer. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.

You can also substitute limes and make lime curd - this too is awesome stuff!!

Yield: 2 cups

Here's a teaser for what we might do with our lemon curd. . .

Are you hungry yet?