This Easter I was lucky enough to go to two easter dinners. And, both were different and unique. On Sunday I feasted on a traditional Italian dinner of Lasagna, Lamb, Smelt, Salad, Fried Artichoke hearts, Shrimp, Fennel etc. and delicious Italian desserts such as Torta Di Riso and Zuppa Inglese. On Saturday, I went to my boyfriends parents house for a turkey dinner! I love love love turkey dinners. It felt like christmas all over again, and the stormy weather made it feel even more like winter than spring! Even so, I felt like I wanted to make a truly spring-like dessert, and I had decided a week or so ago that it would be something with lemons. I think a lemon dessert is the epitome of spring, its tangy and sweet and usually on top of a delicious crust, be it graham or pastry.

This crust however, is a different story. I had decided on a recipe early on, thinking I would try something new, as I had made the Tarte Au Citron by Dorie before, I thought I would give something else a go. The ‘You Could Be in Paris’ Lemon Tart seemed promising, and looked even better. I was all ready to go, with a little distraction helper in the kitchen, and readied all the ingredients like a pro. I thought “this tart is going to be perfect!” I was right, ish.

You see, I had read all the ingredients and set them out on the counter, I began first with the crust, of course, and continued on my way. As I was making the crust I thought, how simple! I should tell you, I have never been a crust maker, not pies or tarts. For some reason It always turns out hard, even when I try to work it as little as possible. Now, this tart shell was appealing to me because I had never used melted butter, instead of cold butter to make the pastry. This intrigued me because I thought how could you possibly over work it. Well, you see I’m sure you can’t, but, you can however add about a cup too much of sugar, thus leaving you with a hardened tart shell.

Now I’m usually pretty careful when it comes to ingredients, but to no fault but my own, I didn’t realize all the ingredients were lumped into one, no differentiating between crust and filling. So, I measured out all my sugar and plopped it into the crust. When really, there was only supposed to be a 1/4 cup in the crust, and reserved the 1 cup for the filling. I did think to myself as I baked it “my, thats a shiny crust!” Oh well. It was delicious all the same, the filling was just tangy enough and smooth and creamy. I would recommend it if you love lemon, as I do, and you can even pretend you were in Paris.

I also had a smaller tart pan, so I moulded the rest of the dough into my tiny muffin tin and made mini ones. They were an excellent pre-dinner appy.

‘You Could Be In Paris’ Lemon Tart

from Luscious Lemon Desserts via Not so humble pie
serves 10

For The Crust:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tbs. lemon zest

For the Filling:

• 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
• 1  cup granulated sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Preheat your oven to 350°F and position a rack in the lower third of the oven.

Crust:

1. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan over medium low heat. Stir in one tablespoon of the lemon zest and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Combine the flour and sugar in a bowl or your food processor. Pour the butter into the bowl in a fine stream, mixing with a fork until well blended and it holds together when pinched. If using a food processor, blend the ingredients and then pour the butter into the feed tube and blend for roughly a minute.
2. Empty the mixture into an 11″ tart pan with a removable bottom and press it with your fingertips to evenly line the sides and bottom.
3. Bake the crust for 20 minutes, or until it is a light golden brown. Allow the crust to cool on a wire rack while making the filling.

Filling:

1. Process the remaining one cup of sugar with the remaining one tablespoon of lemon zest in your food processor for about 2-3 minutes, until the zest is finely ground.
2. Pour the sugar into a bowl and add the eggs, lemon juice and whisk until smooth.
3. Beat the 1/2 cup of heavy cream to soft peaks and then whisk the cream into the sugar/egg mixture until just blended. Pour this mixture into your still warm crust and bake for 20-30 minutes, until the filling is just set in the center.
4. Allow the tart to cool completely.
5. Just before serving, dust generously with powdered sugar, cut into wedges and enjoy.

Enter distraction.

This weekend in Canada is Thanksgiving! Which means food, food and more food. And of course, Pie. It wouldn’t be thanksgiving without a pie for dessert. Even though you’re usually too full from all that food to even think about eating any more, but somehow everyone always manages to make room for dessert.

Traditionally Thanksgiving means pumpkin pie. But, nowadays pumpkin cheesecakes and other desserts are making their way into the spotlight as the holiday dessert. This year however, I wasn’t going to let pumpkin pie take the backseat to this new trend. My mom had gotten a pumpkin cheesecake for thanksgiving, but she knew I would be baking something else as well. I couldn’t not!I decided to bake two types of pies. Now usually we have a massive thanksgiving dinner, up to 30 people so three desserts would be acceptable, but this year there’s 12. And, it’s not three desserts, its four. I had planned on making a large pumpkin pie, and a pecan pie. But I noticed I only had two smaller pie dishes and one larger one and enough pie dough to make three crusts. So, why not make three pies?? Yup. Three. Two smaller pecan pies and a pumpkin pie, and then the non-homemade pumpkin cheesecake. It was necessary. So to all the Canadians Happy Thanksgiving! And make room for pie!

Good Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pie

Buttermilk Pie Crust (recipe from joy the baker)

• 2 sticks (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 (12 ounces) cups all purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (5 to 6 ounces) buttermilk

1.  Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the freezer to chill for 15 minutes.  Measure out the buttermilk and store in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

2.  Sift together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.  Take the cold butter from the freezer and toss it with the flour mixture.

3.  Dump the cold butter cubes and flour mixture onto a large work area for rolling.  With a rolling pin, roll the mixture, flattening the butter cubes with the flour into long, thin, floured butter sheets.  Work quickly to ensure that the butter stays cold.  Below is what the rolled butter and flour look like after I’ve gathered them together on the work surface a bit.

4.  Place the flour and flattened butter back in the large bowl and chill for 10 minutes.    When the butter is cold, remove the bowl from the refrigerator, make a small well in the center of the flour and butter mixture.  Add the cold buttermilk to the bowl all at once.  Begin to bring the dough together with one hand ( keep the other hand free to answer the phone).  Moisten all of the flour with the milk, using your hand to break up large clumps of milk and flour.  The dough will be rather shaggy, but you can add another tablespoon of buttermilk, if you see that all your flour isn’t moistened.  Form the dough into two disks.  The disks will be rough, and hard to shape together, but once they rest in the fridge for an hour, they’ll be easier to roll out.

5.  Chill the dough for at least an hour in the refrigerator.  At this point, the dough will keep in the fridge for up to three days, or in the freezer for up to three weeks.  For freezing, roll the dough out into sheets and wrap them in plastic film.

Traditional Pumpkin Pie

- makes 6 to 8 servings -
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours

Ingredients:

1 9-inch single pie crust, partially baked and cooled
2 cups (canned) unsweetened pumpkin puree
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup sour cream
Pumpkin Pie Spice – As much as you like depending on how spicy you like your pie!
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat and put the pie plate on it.
2. Put all of the filling ingredients in mixer, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Alternatively, you can whisk the ingredients together vigorously in a mixing bowl. Rap either the work bowl or mixing bowl against the counter to burst any surface bubbles, and pour the filling into the crust.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 300°F and continue to bake for 35 to 45 minutes longer, or until a knife inserted close to the center comes out clean. (If you don’t want to create a slash in your masterpiece, tap the pan gently—if the custard doesn’t jiggle, or only jiggles a teensy bit in the very center, it’s done.) Transfer the pie to a rack and cool to room temperature.

Storing: Like most pies, this one is best served the day it is made. However, you can make the pie early in the day and keep it refrigerated until needed.

Happy Thanksgiving =)