Lemon butter tarts, three ways

Thursday I posted my recipe for Lemon Butter. Here are some easy tarts made using that butter. I bought the tart shells ready made from the bakery section in the supermarket, which makes life a lot easier. Heck if you don't want to make the lemon butter, you can even buy that in a jar at the supermarket!

Lemon tarts

This tart is the easiest. Just spoon in some lemon butter and put some whipped cream on top.

Lemon yogurt tart

This one is my favourite. Use half a cup of vanilla yogurt, mix it with half of cup of lemon butter. Spoon into the tart cases and top with mixed berries.

Lemon Butter cheesecakes 

For every 100 grams of cream cheese, add in a good tablespoon of lemon butter. Beat until fluffy. Spoon into tart cases and top with a sliced strawberry. Place a dab of cheesecake mix on top and place a blueberry to top it off.

Fancy wancy for not much effort.

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Lemon butter

Lemon butter or lemon curd, whatever you want to call it, is one of my childhood faves. I could just eat this stuff by the spoonful, straight from the jar.

I love getting free lemons. I love getting free anything, but my favourite is fresh produce that I can make something out of. Something to cook with to make delicious food.

You can substitute the lemon rind and juice, for any other citrus, like oranges or lime.
This recipe will make three small jars. Wash jars and lids in hot soapy water, then place in a 160C oven for 10 minutes, removing just before you place the hot lemon butter in them.

Lemon Butter

3 lemons
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175 gr butter

Finely grate the rind from the lemons, making sure not to get too much of the white pith just under the skin.

Juice the lemons, then sieve to get rid of the pulp and pips.

Place the juice, rind and sugar in a medium saucepan, on a low temperature. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the eggs and butter, continue to stir until the butter has melted.

Turn the heat up to a simmer and stir until the mixture thickens, about 10 minutes.
Place hot lemon curd into hot sterilised jars and seal.

Ways to use your lemon butter -

• mix with yogurt, mascarpone cheese, or cream cheese for a tart filling
• on toast
• on pancakes
• a glaze for a cake
• spoonfuls straight from the jar when no one is looking
• thinned down for an easy lemon sauce. Add in herbs, chilli, ginger, garlic etc.

This is how I used some! You will need -

A pack of 2, unfilled sponges

300 mls of cream, whipped with a half a teaspoon of vanilla essence

1 small jar of lemon butter

Cut each sponge in half. Spread the bottom layer with lemon butter, then spread with some whipped cream. Place the other half of sponge on top. Repeat layering the cake like this. 

Place the last, and top section of cake.

Mix about two teaspoons of lemon butter with the remaining cream, just so it is swirled through.

Place a thin layer of the lemon cream on the outside of the entire cake. This will ensure the crumbs are held in place. Spread the rest of the cream evenly over the outside of the cake. 

I made some decorations on the top with lemon butter. Decorate it how ever you would like. You could use strawberries, toasted almond slivers, coconut or grated chocolate for example.

Have you tried lemon butter?
What homemade goodness do you remember loving as a kid?

Lemon Meringue Pie

I went halves in a hogget with my sister, when the farmer dropped it off he gave us a dozen duck eggs each. Straight away I knew she wouldn't want them and sure enough when she came to pick up her half a sheep I heard, "I don't want duck eggs!". So I'm finding things to use them in.

I had made Lemon meringue pie before , so I gave it another whirl. This recipe is the easiest bits and pieces of a few recipes I found, the pastry base is the only part I kept from the last time I made it. I've left the recipe as normal chook eggs, I used duck yolk for the pastry and 3 duck eggs for the rest. It tastes so bloody good, too good, I can't see it lasting long.

I had some left over pastry so me and Izzy made some tarts, just for fun.
Apricot jam, coconut and choc chips. Very sweet!!

 Lemon Meringue Pie

Pastry (if you can't be bothered use a pre made base)

 

250 gr flour

1/4 cup icing sugar

150 gr cold butter chopped

1 tsp lemon zest

1 egg yolk

1-2 Tblsp iced water

Process flour, icing sugar, butter and zest until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of the water and process again until the pastry comes together. Add more water if needed. Knead until smooth and shape into a flat disc, wrap in cling wrap and refridgerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200. Roll out pastry until 3mm thick and press into a 24 cm pie dish. Prick the base using a fork, line with baking paper and fill with dry beans or rice. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove paper and rice and bake a further 5 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Let cool.

Lemon filling

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp corn flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups water

Zest and juice of 2 lemons

30 gr butter 

4 egg yolks, beaten

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar, flour, cornflour, and salt. Stir in water, lemon juice and lemon rind. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a boil. Stir in butter.

Place egg yolks in a small bowl and gradually whisk in half a cup of the hot sugar and flour mix. Whisk the egg yolk mix back into the saucepan, bring to the boil and continue to cook while stirring constantly until thick. Remove from the heat and pour filling into pastry shell.

Meringue

4 egg whites

 1/2 cup caster sugar

Beat whites until foamy. Add sugar gradually until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over pie, sealing the edges with white at the edges.

Bake pie for 10 minutes, or until meringue is golden brown.

Try stopping at one piece!!!!