Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives 2023 #Potluck – #Recipe Aunt Jeanette’s Luscious Lemon Tart by Dorothy Grover-Read – New Vintage Kitchen

Welcome to the new series of Posts from Your Archives 2023 where I will be sharing posts from the last six months of 2022 I have selected from the archives of willing participants. If you wish to be included the information is at the the end of the post.

This is the first post by newspaper and radio reporter, music promoter and hotelier Dorothy Grover-Read New Vintage Kitchen – I will admit that I am drawn to certain recipes because of memories of eating the dishes in the past, but sometimes my sweet tooth gets carried away.  Today’s recipe is my all time favourite dessert and who can resist lemon tart….

Aunt Jeanette’s Luscious Lemon Tart by Dorothy Grover-Read  

This tart is all about the lemon, so don’t be shy!

Anyone who knows me, knows I love lemons! To me, my idea of lemonade is freshy squeezed lemon juice and water, that’s it! I was delighted when I realized that all three of my grandchildren loved to suck on raw lemons since they were babies.
Lemon genes

My mom was also a lemon lover. One of her favorite tarts to make was my Aunt Jeanette’s lemon tart, only Mom always topped it with meringue, probably because my aunt never did and they were a bit competitive in the kitchen.

Let’s simplify here

In my aunt’s original recipe, a classic French tarte au citron, she mixed the lemon juice, sugar, and eggs together over heat until thickened, then added the butter (tediously I’ll add here), one pat at a time, mixing until melted. Since I make my lemon curd by tossing all this in the pan at once, and this is essentially a lemon curd with just a bit more body, I simplified the steps and time considerably with no difference in texture.

Always make it the way you like!

Aunt Jeanette’s recipe used more sugar; I’ve reduced the sugar because I like it that way, more tart than sweet, but as with everything else I tell folks, if you like it sweeter, add more sugar! You can add up to a third cup more sugar. It’s always about what we like, and when we are creating our own dishes, we can tailor it to our own taste. She also sometimes beat some whipped cream and folded it into the lemon to make a kind of lemon chiffon pie, very delicious.

You can use another citrus here, but lemon is the best! If you want a bit less lemon zing, use a bit less of the zest.

I used an all-butter crust here, but any favorite crust will do! This recipe is for the holidays, and I didn’t even try to make it less decadent, it just wouldn’t be worth it. It’s rich, and you only need a very small slice! Very small, trust me.

Now, pucker up!

Aunt Jeanette’s Luscious Lemon Tart 

• 1 ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
  Grated zest of three large lemons
• 4 large eggs
• 4 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup superfine sugar
• 1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter (12 tbsp.)
• Pinch of salt
• 1 10” prebaked tart crust, cooled

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. and place rack in the middle of oven. Have your 10” tart pan ready for action.

Zest the lemons and then squeeze them using whatever type of reamer or press you like. While I find the hinged lemon presses everyone uses these days handy, I find the old -fashioned reamers do a little better job of extracting all the juice, but use whatever you like.

Cube the butter, and separate the four egg yolks, reserving the whites for another use. Maybe an egg white omelet the next morning to make up for the rich night before.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine all the ingredients at once and place over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, keep stirring until the mixture is thickened; a whisk is handy here to keep everything smooth. When ready, you will want it to be the consistency of a thick pudding, and while it won’t be boiling, there will be big plops of curd bubbles breaking through like it wants to start really boiling.

Put the curd through a wire mesh strainer, pressing as much through as possible, and don’t forget to scrape what is left on the bottom of the sieve. This step removes the zest and any unpleasant pieces of egg white that may have congealed.

Pour into your baked shell, and smooth it flat. Bake for about 10 minutes, just to finish setting the tart.

Cool completely, overnight is best, with a thin film of plastic wrap set directly on top to prevent a skim from forming. When ready to serve, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

You can also top this with whipped cream, or use this as a base for a luscious lemon meringue pie like my mother.

And by itself, the filling makes a lovely curd for muffins and scones, so it’s an all-purpose lemon delight!

© Copyright 2022– or current year, The New Vintage Kitchen. Unattributed use of this material is strictly prohibited. Reposting and links may be used, provided that credit is given to The New Vintage Kitchen, with active link and direction to this original post.

My thanks to Dorothy for inviting me to delve into her archives and I know she would love to hear from you.

About Dorothy Grover-Read

After spending years as a newspaper and radio reporter and magazine writer, I needed a change. So, my husband and I operated a small bed and breakfast inn in Southern Vermont for more years than I want to count, and as you can imagine, I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen, much of it looking for ways to save some of that time while still offering something memorable to my guests.

This also freed me to help produce local music concerts and festivals in our areas, including the popular Roots on the River Music Festival which finished it run in 2019. We have been blessed to have many wonderful singers and singer/songwriters stay at our humble inn, and a few who have performed here as well. Precious moments.

We were among the first Green Hotels in the state, and member of the Vermont Fresh Network. We are now open only for special events, cooking classes, and a little catering to keep things interesting. I write a food column for our local newspaper, focusing on local foods and products and our fabulous southern Vermont farms, seasonal and delicious.

Connect to Dorothy Blog: New Vintage Kitchen – Twitter: @VermontBnB – Facebook: Dorothy G Read 

How to feature in the series?

• All I need you to do is give me permission to dive in to your archives and find two posts to share here on Smorgasbord. (sally.cronin@moyhill.com)
• Rather than a set topic, I will select posts at random of general interest across a number of subjects from the second six months of 2022. (it is helpful if you have a link to your archives in your sidebar by month)
• As I will be promoting your books as part of the post along with all your information and links so I will not be sharing direct marketing or self- promotional posts in the series.
• If you are an author I am sure you will have a page on your blog with the details, and an ‘about page’ with your profile and social media links (always a good idea anyway). I will get everything that I need.
• As a blogger I would assume that you have an ‘about page’ a profile photo and your links to social media.
• Copyright is yours and I will ©Your name on every post… and you will be named as the author in the URL and subject line.
• Previous participants are very welcome to take part again.
• Each post is reformatted for my blog and I don’t cut and paste, this means it might look different from your own post especially if you are using the block editor
• If I do share a post which contains mainly photographs I will share up to five and link back to the original post for people to view the rest.

N.B – To get the maximum benefit from your archive posts, the only thing I ask is that you respond to comments individually and share on your own social media.. thank you.