Lemon tarts

I have been eyeing up Tartine's recipe for lemon cream tarts for at least half a year now and haven't managed to try it out until now due to the impossibility of obtaining the right size tartlet rings here in the big smoke, char! Obviously, said tartlet rings were top of my shopping list in Paris which I promptly managed to track down so I don't have any excuse for not making these tarts!

After reading the recipe over and also reading the recipe for PH's lemon tart in Dorie Greenspans' book, I realised that both used the same method of cooking eggs, sugar and lemon juice over a bain marie until thick. The resultant curd is then left to cool a little and finally, cold butter is added to make a silky emulsion. Having made the PH version during my stage (there is a swanky machine for it!) and not being a fan of the taste (too eggy), I decided to sitck to my guns and try out Tartine's version. Tart shells were made from pate sucree which was no biggie......however, my tart lining skills are a bit rusty (well, they were never perfect!!) and when, I had rolled my pastry out too big for the tart ring, all I could hear was chef shouting in my head and reminding me that I should only take enough dough to roll pastry just large enough for the ring......I might not have executed this time but at least, he taught me well :)

The lemon cream took much longer than I had expected to cook and despite purchasing a new thermometer in Paris, I was having trouble reaching the right temperature for the curd. Anyhoo, after a lot of whisking and sweating, the lemon cream was finally made and spooned into tart shells. No nappage (shall I mention again just how difficult it is to get specialist pastry stuff here????!!) so we went for the natural, rustic look :)

The tarts tasted pretty yummy with no eggy after taste.......Carl Marletti had better watch out, haha!! ;)