Mini Lemon Sponge Tarts

I love this time of year.  I love that the air is changing and there is a crispness about it.  I love pulling out my sweaters and bundling up and feeling cozy, I love watching my son practice with his football team at the park, and I especially love that my Meyer lemon tree is coming back to life after being dormant all summer long.  I love lemons.  Perhaps, lemons could quite possibly be my favorite fruit.  My mother-in-law laughs at me every time I order an iced tea in a restaurant.  I always request a huge bowl of lemons, on the side, and I am very specific on how I like them cut.  In wedges, no dinky slices for me.  I have to be able to squeeze all of the luscious juices out of them, getting every last drop, including the pulp.


It seemed only appropriate that I make a lemon dessert to celebrate the beginning of fall, coupled with a handful of very ripe lemons on my favorite tree.


This recipe comes from a book that I consider "perfectly perfect", rustic fruit desserts.  I bake from it often and, to date, I have had not one catastrophe!  The original recipe was for a 10" tart.  However, I opted to make minis (I adore mini anything) and in doing so, I had to alter the baking time of the crust (I over baked the first batch of crust and I was unconscious and baked the minis for the same time as the 10". ooops!)  These are light, flaky, and utterly delicious!

Lemon Sponge Tart


Short dough
yield: 15 mini tarts or one 10" tart shell

ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 Tbls. heavy cream
1 egg yolk

instructions:
• put the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl of your food processor.
• add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
• lightly beat the cream and egg yolk and add it to the flour mixture, and pulse lightly.  you don't want to over process.  this will result in less firm, less flaky dough.
• wrap in plastic wrap, flatten into a 6"disk and chill for 1 hour.
• preheat oven to 375*
• on a lightly floured surface (the dough is on the sticky side) roll the dough out to 1/8" thickness
• cut enough circles to fit your tart molds.  press dough into tart shells.  prick a few times with a fork.
• put tart shells on a parchment lined baking sheet.
• cover each tartlette with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans.
• bake for 17 minutes (for the tarteletts, 30 minutes for the large tart)
• the tarts can be pre-baked one day ahead.

Lemon Sponge Filling

ingredients:
2 Tbls. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
zest of 2 lemons
2 eggs separated
juice of 2 lemons
2 1/2 Tbls. all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp. fine sea salt

instructions:
• preheat oven to 425*
• in the bowl of your standing mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and the lemon zest at medium speed until well combined.
• add the egg yolks one at a time. mix until the batter is creamy.
• stir in the lemon juice, then the flour.  mix thoroughly.  this is a very thin mixture
• in a clean metal bowl, whisk the egg yolks and salt until soft peaks form. gently fold in the egg whites into the lemon mixture until evenly incorporated.
• pour into pre-baked tart shells.
• bake for 5 minutes.  turn the oven down to 325* and bake for an additional 12-15 minutes, until the filling is golden and firm to the touch.
• cool to room temperature.
• these are best eaten the day they are baked.  can be stored in the fridge, for up to 3 days.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

I type up my market list each week.  Miguel, generally, does the marketing. One week I forgot to delete the ricotta cheese from my previous list, leaving me with 32 oz. of ricotta I didn't really need.  I am finding ways to "use it up".

Today, I made the most delicious lemon ricotta pancakes.  The recipe called for poppy seeds, yet I knew what kind of reaction I would get if I served those up to my kids.  It wouldn't have been pretty.

Instead, I altered the recipe a tad and the outcome was very positive.  Isaac, who likes most things savory, LOVED them.  Eli commented on how light they were and Miguel said "yummy".  This recipe will be added to the "favorites" binder.

Use a smaller amount of batter on your griddle pan than you normally would with a traditional pancake batter.  The batter is so light and fluffy that it doesn't really firm up.  The first few pancakes had to be tossed.  When I started using less batter and turned down the fire under the griddle, they came out perfect.

I sprinkled the pancakes with powdered sugar and served strawberries and warm syrup on the side.

Tomorrow night I am going to use the rest of the ricotta and make raviolis with my marinara sauce.  My family is convinced I buy it from our favorite restaurant, Giorgio's.  In order to prove it to them, I had them help me make it one evening.  It truly is the best sauce in town.  They want me to bottle it and sell it, that's how good it is.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes
Joan Nathan's, The New American Cooking
makes 20 pancakes

ingredients:
6 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
zest of 2 lemons
vegetable oil for griddle


directions:
• in the bowl of an electric mixer with whisk attachment, beat whites until firm & glossy.
• in a large bowl, beat ricotta, butter, egg yolks, & vanilla. in a medium bowl whisk flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and lemon zest.  Mix flour mixture into ricotta mixture.
• fold a large spoonful of egg whites into ricotta mixture.  continue folding in remaining egg whites.
• coat griddle with oil and heat over high heat.  place small spoonful of batter on griddle.  cook until golden  and begins to bubble. gently turn and continue to cook.
• serve warm.

Mini Lemon Bundts

As I have said in the past, I have been collecting Cooks Illustrated Magazines since my U.C. Berkeley days.  I have 17 years worth of magazines to prove it as well as a splattering of miscellaneous issues from 1980 through 1992.  The earlier issues have these really beautiful covers. They are all hand done water colors.  I just can't get rid of them.  They are as much a part of me as they are a part of my cook book library.

a few old cooks covers

the actual covers are so beautiful

I have made this particular pound cake in the past and it never fails.  Rather than making one big cake, I made little mini bundts.  These were one of three desserts (pecan tassies, and mini cheesecakes) I made for last weekends fund raiser.  They came out perfectly.  They were light, moist, tart, and sweet.  Isaac ate 6 of them.  And asked for more.

ingredients
cake
3 lemons, zest grated + saved, then juiced
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 large eggs, room temp.
1 large egg yolk, room temp.
18 Tbls. unsalted butter, room temp.
2 cups sugar


glaze
2-3 Tbls. fresh lemon juice
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 Tbls. buttermilk


instructions
cake
• preheat oven to 350*. spray mini bundt pans with spray.
• mince lemon zest to fine paste.  combine lemon zest + lemon juice in small bowl; set aside to soften
• whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, + salt in a small bowl.  combine lemon juice mixture, vanilla, + buttermilk in medium bowl.  in another bowl whisk the eggs and the egg yolk. in a standing mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.  reduce speed and add half the eggs, mixing until combined.  add the other half of the eggs.
• add the 1/3 of the flour mixture and then 1/2 of the buttermilk and then repeat ending with the flour mixture
• scrape the side of the bowl and scoop into the mini bundt pans
• bake until the tops are golden, around 15 - 20 minutes.
• let cool 10 minutes and then invert it onto a plate.

glaze
• whisk the ingredients together
• while cake is still warm, pour half the glaze over the cakelettes.  let cool one hour and pour the remaining glaze over the cakelettes.  let sit for 2 hours.

Lemon Cake

Today was my friends birthday and she wanted nothing to do with it. She didn't want lunch, she wanted nothing. I had a ton of lemons on hand as today was the last day of a 10 day cleanse (no food for 10 days!). I woke up early and made two lemon pound cakes.

Today was kind of the perfect day. No kids. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids. Yet, when I can have a day all alone in my home, I am perfectly content. I don't even like to answer the phone on these very rare and special days. I become a hermit. I cook, I fiddle around on the computer, I finish a project, I embrace the quiet and solitude.

I decided to make my friend a "pseudo" birthday cake. I like the Barefoot Contessa lemon yogurt cake recipe because it is super light. Oil replaces butter and yogurt is added which gives this cake a lot of air. I like to use a greek yogurt. I had enough yogurt to make two cakes. One to wrap and give away and one for the family to devour.

The cake was still around over the weekend. So I decided to cut and slice it up and grill it on the bbq for dinner one night. This is really easy and can be done with any pound cake (even a store bought one). Brush each side of each slice with a little melted butter until the grill marks show. I made a quick blueberry sauce to serve along with it. Take your blueberry's, some sugar and a little bit of corn starch and bring to a boil (and the sugar has melted). The melted sugar will help liquefy the blueberries. Roasted fruit is also good on this or even a simple scoop of vanilla ice cream. Such a yummy combo!