Tuesdays with Dorie—Tartest Lemon Tart

Tartest Lemon Tart is definitely the tartest, most pucker worthy, and bitter tart I've tasted. But it's perfect. A spoonful of lemon with a chaser of homemade vanilla ice cream was sour, sweet and bitter all in one bite.

You need a blender or food processor to make this dessert. After removing the seeds from the lemons, all the ingredients are whizzed to a smooth consistency.

I baked some of the mixture in hollowed-out half lemons at a lower temperature of 300°F for 30 to 35 minutes (because my first batch of minis exploded). I also baked some in little antique tin molds for about the same length of time.

To serve, I spooned some vanilla ice cream on the side and placed an amaretti cookie in each.

What's your favorite lemon squeezer? Mine is an antique one I found at a flea market.

Recipe

Makes 8 servings

1½ lemons, scrubbed and dried
1½ cups sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature (I used leftover eggs that I had frozen.)
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1½ tablespoons cornstarch
½ cup heavy cream
½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I didn't melt it.)

1 9-inch tart shell made with Sweet Tart Dough with nuts, partially baked and cooled (I used amaretti.)
You can find the recipe for Tartest Lemon Tart in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! Thanks to Babette of Babette Feasts who chose the recipe for this week.

Tasting Notes
What is it about lemons that make us want to squeeze out a bit of juice and feel our whole face pucker? We'll keep coming back to this dessert, just like this video of a baby boy tasting lemon for the first time.

Recipe for Next Week (May 19)
Kelly of Baking with the Boys selected Fresh Mango Bread on page 45.