This month the theme for Aspiring Bakers is pies and tarts, and I wanted to make at least one thing to submit (arg, posted 2 pies RIGHT before August started!).  Of course, I finally had time to make a tart, and pretty much everything went wrong. That said, what I managed to scrape together was delicious, and I’m sure if the recipe went right and your final product had the intended proportions, it’d be even better!

The main problem I had was that I didn’t measure my tart pan first, and it was an inch to big. That, combined with the fact that I left the nuts out of the crust so there was less crust material all around, meant that the crust was too small and let the inside leak ALL OVER. Oops…

Another, lesser issue, was that the recipe called for golden superfine sugar. After a bit of googling, it seems like the best you could do in America without some sort of specialist store is to put light brown sugar in the blender and try to chop the grains of sugar smaller. Because brown sugar clumps, you’ll have to shake the blender container several times during the blending. In the end, it’s not perfect, but I didn’t notice textural problems.

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 3 1/2 ounces / 100 grams / 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 ounce / 25 grams / 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 3/4 ounces / 75 grams chilled, salted butter
• 1 ounce / 25 grams / 1/4 cup ground almonds
• 1 3/4 ounces  50 grams / 1/4 cup golden superfine sugar
• 1 egg, beaten

Filling:

• 4 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 7 ounces / 200 grams / 1 cup golden superfine sugar
• 5 fluid ounces / 150 milliliter / 2/3 cup heavy cream
• grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

Sift the flour and unsweetened cocoa into a food processor. Add the butter, almonds, sugar, and egg and process until the mixture forms a ball. I only have one of those little food processors, so I did it in two batches.

Chocolate poos?

Gather the dough together and press into a flattened ball.

Place in the center of an 8 1/2 inch loose-bottom tart pan and press evenly over the bottom of the pan with your fingers, then work the pie dough up the sides with your thumbs. Without the almonds, this was a sticky dough, and because the tart pan was an inch bigger than it was supposed to be, I didn’t have enough reach up the sides.

Cover the tart, and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prick the dough lightly with a fork, then cover with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. (If you don’t have pie weights, use dry, uncooked beans.) Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the dough no longer looks raw. Remove the weights and paper and bake a further 10 minutes. Let cool. Reduce oven to 300.

Oh dear, already shrunk smaller than the sides. Not good!

To make the filling, whisk the whole eggs, egg yolk, and sugar together until smooth. Add the cream and whisk again, then stir in the lemon rind and juice.

Pour the filling into the shell.

Oooooh god. Blame it on the earthquake??

Bake 50 minutes or until just set. It only took 28 minutes for me, because I’d lost so dang much lemon stuff.

Haggard.

Remove the tart ring and let cool.

As I said, even this mangled tart is delicious. If you do try it, and do it properly, I’m sure it’ll be even better!

It almost looks ok, here!

Lemon and Chocolate Tart

From Perfect Chocolate.

Crust:

• 3 1/2 ounces / 100 grams / 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 ounce / 25 grams / 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 3/4 ounces / 75 grams chilled, salted butter
• 1 ounce / 25 grams / 1/4 cup ground almonds
• 1 3/4 ounces  50 grams / 1/4 cup golden superfine sugar
• 1 egg, beaten

Filling:

• 4 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 7 ounces / 200 grams / 1 cup golden superfine sugar
• 5 fluid ounces / 150 milliliter / 2/3 cup heavy cream
• grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

Sift the flour and unsweetened cocoa into a food processor. Add the butter, almonds, sugar, and egg and process until the mixture forms a ball. Gather the dough together and press into a flattened ball in the center of an 8 1/2″ loose-bottom tart pan. Work the pie dough over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Cover and let chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Prick the dough base lightly with a fork, then line with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the dough no longer looks raw. Remove the weights and paper, return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Let cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees.

To make the filling, whisk the whole eggs, egg yolk, and sugar together until smooth. Add the cream and whisk again, then stir in the lemon rind and juice. Pour the filling into the pastry shell and bake for 50 minutes, or until just set. When the tart is cooked, remove the tart ring and let cool.