When spring arrives, the menu in our house begins to change. Suddenly I don’t feel like making heavy soups and stews and although we don’t often eat dessert, the sorts of sweet ideas that come to mind change with the seasons too.
It’s a bit like the feeling we’d get as kids when spring days were finally warm enough to get our bikes out – an airy freedom that comes with the shedding of winter.
Lemon curd is one of those desserts that suits the lengthening days. Brightly flavoured and the colour of sunshine, it’s lovely made into tartlets or served alongside a simple cake.
My daughter Amelia went through a stage where she made this lemon curd often and would eat it by the spoonful.
Tart Lemon Curd
(adapted from Nigella Lawson)
- ¼ cup butter
- ½ cup sugar
- 3 eggs, beaten
- ½ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- Zest of one lemon
Instructions:
- In a medium pot, melt the butter over medium heat.
- While butter is melting, whisk the remaining ingredients together and add to the pot once the butter has melted.
- Stir constantly until it thickens, about 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and cool.
Flaky Wholegrain Pastry for lemon tarts
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups flour (whole white and whole wheat pastry flours are nice together, or spelt flour)
- 2 tsp. sugar
- ¾ tsp. salt
- 1 cup cold butter
- ½ cup ice water
Instruction:
- Add dry ingredients & cubed butter to food processor.
- Process just until it resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle in ice water and process until mixture starts to clump together. (Be careful not to over mix.)
- Pat into a disk & chill for at least 30 min.
- Roll out pastry and cut into disks that fit into mini muffin tins (no need to grease them).
- Bake at 375 F for about 15 minutes or until the little cups start to brown around the edges.
- When cool, fill with the lemon curd.
