Lemon & Lavender Tart

This is a classic French lemon tart, made using the “custard” rather than the “curd” method and as I like lemon and lavender combos I’ve added lavender – if its too floral for you don’t bother. This method relies on a “custard” mixture being baked in the oven in a pre baked pastry shell (a kind of sweet quiche idea) and is very easy. A “curd” version involves making a lemon curd which range in richness from a slightly lean classic English lemon meringue Pie recipe adding water and cornflour to a full on “Italian Crostata al Limone” egg yolks and egg affair which I tend to use as my default.

Ingredients for a 20cm tart

6 eggs
300ml double cream (smantana dulce 30%)
230g sugar
4 lemons with the zest finely grated and juiced
1 Blind baked pastry case using all butter pastry

a few lavender flowers (approx 1 teaspoon) if using

Gadgets & Gizmos

A loose bottomed tin is what you need here. I know I’m not really pedantic about equipment and love to improvise but tarts really benefit from proper tins.

How To

Whisk the eggs and sugar to ensure the sugar dissolves – you don’t really need a sloppy mousse here as its not the aim but the sugar does need to dissolve.

Add the zest, eggs and lemon juice to the egg and sugar mix.

Fill the pre-baked pastry case with the mix and carefully (it has a tendency to slop so sometimes I place the case on the oven shelf and using a jug I pour the mix in…depends how accident prone you are! or how wobbly your oven shelves are)

Now bake at 180C for 20-25 minutes. Its a bit like a baked cheesecake idea..you want it done but a little wobbly in the middle so that when you take it out of the oven, the cooking process continues and it will be just perfect.

After you take it out it will deflate a little, but only a little. Dust with icing sugar to disguise any wrinkles and it will look and taste divine!

Italian Meringue

An alchemist moment awaits you when you make this ethereally light meringue.

The Italian variety is more stable than the classic French variety with less tendency to weep (a first?). Use it as a meringue or as a very clever base for many recipes – its truly a great technique to have up your sleeve. You just need a steady nerve and a steady hand for the hot sugar syrup. Best of all this hot syrup cooks the egg whites so the meringue is safe and that’s really important when it comes to ice creams and desserts.

This makes enough for a very generous 20cm lemon meringue topping and if its a bit too much make little meringues by blobbing the mix onto a tin and drying through at 90C for a couple of hours in the oven. Its the quantity I always make and just seems to work.

Ingredients

180ml water

200g sugar

4 egg whites

Half a tea spoon of lemon juice or vinegar

Gizmos

A sugar thermometer is good but I do it by eye now. Don’t feel like you have to have one. A food mixer whisk attachment or some kind of electrical elbow grease – really life is too short to do this by hand apart from needing three arms to be able to simultaneously pour in the hot syrup, hold the bowl and whisk like crazy.

How To

Do things in this order and you wont go wrong.

1. wipe your bowl and whisk with the vinegar/lemon juice in an anally retentive OCD manner. No grease ok?

2. Whisk the whites until they form soft peaks? what does that mean? well they kind of hold their shape a bit but definitely fall over if pushed and absolutely don’t stay attached to the whisk. If in doubt softer is better.

3. Put the water and sugar to boil fast. Don’t be tempted to multitask…its like hollandaise sauce…it will go horribly wrong if you turn your back. Do not stir – please do not stir as crystals can form and we don’t want crystals in our kitchen. Its just not that kind of place. Gently swill the water and sugar around a bit at the beginning to help the sugar dissolve.

4. the syrup needs to reach 121C ie the hard ball stage (in theory if you drop the syrup into ice cold water it will form a fairly hard glob and you can use this method). I use the eyeball stage as I am usually in a rush and I dont have time to be faffing around with thermometers in syrup. Dont get me wrong…I like the whole geeky thermometer thing but with a bit of experience you can eyeball it. So…your syrup needs to look pretty sticky and be really hot.

5. Start the mixer on medium speed and as it is mixing pour in the syrup. Now turn up the volume and whisk like crazy on max until the entire mass is glossy and voluminous – approx 5-7 minutes in my trusty Kenwood. Like any good meringue it stays in the bowl when you turn the bowl upside down!

Hot Chocolate Orange Fondant Puddings – a dirty little secret

We all love chocolate fondant pudding…the soft molten chocolate goo inside and the spongy crust provide for a great collision of taste sensations. Here I am using an eco friendly serving dish – the case of the orange itself which is also great if you dont happen to own ramekins or mini pudding tins. This also imbibes an extra orangey hit into the mix. I took the idea from a child’s cooking session where we baked orange cake in the shells and created this more adult version.

And now the dirty little secret…. no not that you can eat the batter direct from the bowl and never actually bother with making the puds…no something a little more prosaic… simply that you can cook these direct from frozen…hallelujah! and therefore they should be on your dinner party shortlist.

Ingredients (makes 12 halves)

2 oranges whole boiled for 1 hour starting with a level of water that almost covers them both – use up less than perfect oranges, make ahead and freeze them
6 oranges
cocoa powder, for dusting
200g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
200g butter, in small pieces plus extra if you are using ramekins or expresso cups
200g sugar
4 eggs and 4 yolks
100g plain flour (note for a gluten free version use rice flour or corn flour)
50g good cocoa powder

Gadgets & Gizmos

An electric whisk/ food mixer with a whisk attachment – unless you have Popeye biceps its not really worth whisking with a hand whisk…well I think its not!

A blender to pulp your boiled oranges.

A cup cake tin is handy

How To

If you are using orange halves no need to prepare your moulds just cut in half and use a citrus juicer to take out the juice. Now with your fingers or a teaspoon remove the pithy debris – what you want is orange halves free of the pith and segment membranes. It sounds worse than it is – its pretty easy! Cut a little of the orange away at each end so it will sit flat on a tray/ final serving plate. Place each empty half so it just rests on the cup cake hole.
If using ceramic/metal little pots/ ramekins make sure what you are using is ovenproof – expresso cups work well if you dont have ramekins. First get your moulds ready by painting them with melted butter and then allow it to go solid. Now sprinkle with cocoa powder generously, tip upside down onto a plate to remove excess. This step seems fiddly…..and it is. But the cocoa powder allows the pudding to rise up gracefully and not stick to the sides of the moulds. Same thing applies to souffles.
Cut your boiled oranges up roughly just to ensure you can take all the pips out. Blitz them up to a nice puree. It should smell like marmalade.
Melt your chocolate and butter together in the microwave (carefully and checking the rotating plate is rotating so you don’t set fire to it like I did recently…beautiful chocolate reduced to smoke and ash…) or traditionally in a bowl over simmering water.
In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and yolks together with the sugar until thick and pale and the whisk leaves a trail – if you havent got an electric whisk this is pretty daunting and I am not sure I would bother to be honest.
Sift the flour and cocoa into the egg mixture. Pour in the orange puree. Fold very gently until incorporated taking care that the orange puree hasnt all sunk to the bottom.
Pour the melted chocolate/butter into the orangey floury cocoay egg mixture in thirds, folding in ever so gently so as not to knock the air out. Again make sure the chocolate hasnt all accumulated at the bottom of your bowl.
You can tip into a jug but I hate excess washing up – I use a ladle to put into the orange halves. Fill to the brim. At this point you can freeze them. If cooking immediately it is better to chill them a little beforehand but not essential.
Heat oven to 180C and cook for 10-12 minutes until the tops have formed a crust and they are starting to come away from the sides of their moulds (this wont happen with the orange). If cooking from frozen add 6 minutes extra to the cooking time.
Serve immediately!

I think they are great with some vanilla ice cream on top or actually just as they are.