Monthly Archives: May 2008

The pastry i made last time was to be used for a Whole Lemon Tart but i made way too much so i also froze two balls and used the last of it for a traditional English Custard Tart which ill post soon.

I wanted something summery as the weather was meant to be nice again and so i didn’t want anything too heavy. Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse but the tart was still great.

1 Partially baked 9 inch tart shell (from the last post)
1 Lemon (around 130g)
300g sugar
1 Large egg
1 Egg yolk
1 1/2 tbsp conflour
115g unsalted butter (melted and cooled)

1. Preheat oven to 165c and place your tart shell on a parchment lined baking sheet.

2. slice lemon into small pieces and remove the seeds. place lemon and sugar into food processor and blend until thoroughly pureed.

3. Using a whisk gently stir in the egg cornflour and butter.

4. Pour filling into the crust.

5. place in oven and bake for 20 mins then increase temperature to 180c for a further 15-20 mins until the filling is bubbling and slightly coloured. leave in the pan for 20 mins and serve when at room temp.

I served this the same day but the little that was left was still good the next. I served it with creme fraiche which worked really well but a raspberry sauce would have gone great i think.

My birthdays tomorrow and i wanted to try out a whole lemon tart so i made the pastry today and will refrigerate overnight and then finish off tomorrow.

This was almost an absolute disaster. I was supposed to half the base recipe but only halved the flour so ended up as a bowl of slop. I realised in time hopefully to rescue it.

500g Plain White Flour
4 pinches of salt
300g butter at room temperature
Seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
190g Icing Sugar
60g Ground Almonds
2 Eggs

1. Sift Flour onto work surface and sprinkle with the salt. Add the butter and rub together until it is the texture of fine crumbs.

2. Mix the vanilla and sugar together and add this and the ground almonds to the flour mixture.

3. Make a well and break the eggs into it.

4. Using fingertips mix together to form a soft dough but dont overwork. shape into ball and wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Via Bakeorbreak.com via martha stewarts cookies

These were very very nice. I really liked the simplicity of just plain chocolate brownies yet the salt adds depth to the flavour. they also kept quite well lasting a good few days without drying out too much

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 ounces semisweet chocolate
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 teaspoon bakingpowder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. preheat oven to 350 f and butter and line with parchment a 8″ square pan

2. melt the chocolate butter and cocoa powder on a double boiler and set aside to cool slightly

3. mix together with a whisk yje flour salt and sugar

4. in an electric mixer with whisk attached mix the sugar eggs and vanilla until pale, around 4 minutes on medium speed. add the chocolate mixture until well combined then reduce speed and add the flour mixture and mix again till well combined

5. put mixture in pan and bake for around 35 mins or until tester comes out with crumbs but not wet. let it cool in pan for 15 minutes before taking out and cutting up.