Tuesdays with Dorie-The Most Extraordinary Lemon Cream Tart

**Seeing as the group is called Tuesdays with Dorie, I probably should have saved this post for today, which is why I reposted it!**

I have recently joined Tuesdays with Dorie. This is a blogging group that picks a recipe a week from the cookbook Baking: From my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

This is my first attempt for this group, and the recipe picked is a doozy!

I've started making the dough for the crust. It's currently in the freezer (this was Saturday), because I don't want to make the rest of the tart until tomorrow... why, you ask? Well, BAJ can bring the leftovers into work on Monday, so if I make it tonight, it might not last.

Here's some pictures of my progress on the dough. I started in the food processor, as instructed, but then discovered the bowl of mine is too small for this dough! So I had to transfer to a regular bowl and use a pastry cutter. OY.... my shoulders got really sore. It smelled fantastic, though!






I worried that the dough wasn't dough like at all... as you can see, it was crumbly. Worried, I continued blending. Then, I pressed some pieces together and discovered it was at that point dough like!

Here's what the crust looked like after baking. I, unfortunately, don't have a tart pan and so used my Pyrex pie plate. It was ok, but not nearly as pretty as those of some of the other TWD bakers.

Here's the recipe for the crust, from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I found the recipes here (dough) and here (lemon cream).

I had a hard time getting the lemon cream to 180 degrees, as did many of my fellow bakers. It got to around 160 after almost 15 minutes, was making tracks, so I stopped. I also didn't strain the cream--the zest was so tiny and the strainer was so thin, it wasn't worth my time.

As for the crust... I baked it this afternoon, and then started to make the lemon cream. I discovered I was one egg short--woops! I ran to the store, with instructions for BAJ and the recipe's page clearly marked. He apparently didn't see the "remove foil" part, and then put in the oven for 8 more minutes, followed by 3 more minutes. When I returned, I took off the foil and baked for 5 minutes. It started to brown at that point, but hopefully it won't be too brown.

At this moment, the crust is cooling and the lemon cream is refrigerating. I can't wait to try my first DG recipe!

**Updated**

Ok, the crust was pretty hard and tough to cut. We attribute this to the slight overcooking by BAJ. I tasted the cream off the spoon and wasn't impressed, but it was very nice when combined with the crust. It was good, and BAJ even went back for a second slice (asking first, "Is this really bad for us?" but then going for it despite my description of it having more than 2 sticks of butter in the cream alone!), but I don't think it was worth the work... now, the chocolate cake thing on the cover of the book?? THAT might be worth the work...

Before slicing:

Before indulging (please ignore the paper plate...)

In the end, this was pretty tasty, but BAJ decided not to bring it into work. It would have been too difficult for him to keep refrigerated with the way his coworkers eat their snacks around lunchtime. So we planned to have it over the course of the week here at the Feisty home. Alas, neither one of us wrapped it up and put it away, so in the garbage it went. Sad, because it was incredibly decadent.