Summer Berry Lemon Tart

This week's recipe is a variation on a Gordon Ramsay recipe. I baked a simple tart crust which, although ugly, is delicious. Then I added a recipe I found for lemon curd, which is an eggy custard without the milk and topped it off with fresh summer berries. In this case, strawberries and blueberries. The lemon curd is reminiscent of a lemon sauce my mother makes but has a thicker consistency.

Ingredients

Tart Crust

1. 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2. 1/8 teaspoon salt
3. 1/2 cup unsalted butter
4. 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
5. 1 large egg, lightly beaten

Lemon Curd Filling

1. 3 large eggs
2. 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons) (do not use the bottled lemon juice)
3. 1 tablespoon finely shredded lemon zest
4. 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
5. 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into small pieces

Directions

Tart Crust

1. In a medium bowl, sift or whisk together the flour and salt. Set aside.
2. Place the butter in your mixer and beat until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
3. Gradually add the beaten egg, beating just until incorporated. Don't over mix or the butter will separate and lighten in color.
4. Add flour mixture all at once and mix just until it forms a ball. Don't overwork or pastry will be hard when baked.
5. Flatten dough into disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes or until firm.
6. Roll out dough on parchment paper with rolling pin until 1/8" thick and roughly 1" larger than the sides of your pan.
7. Place your tart pan upside down on the dough and flip parchment paper. Press into the sides of the pan.
8. Chill in refrigerator for an additional 20 minutes.
9. Place a sheet of parchment paper ontop of chilled dough then add pie wieghts or uncooked rice to weigh dough down while baking. Bake in 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until crust edges turn golden brown.
10. Remove weights and cool crust on wire rack before filling.

Lemon Curd Filling

1. In a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and lemon juice until blended.
2. Cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick (like sour cream or a hollandaise sauce) This will take approximately 10 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine strainer to remove any lumps. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk into the mixture until the butter has melted.
4. Add the lemon zest and let cool. The lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools.
5. Cover immediately (so a skin doesn't form) and refrigerate for up to a week.

Pour cooled lemon curd filling into cooled pie crust and cover with your choice of berries. Refrigerate.

Patriotic Strawberry and Blueberry Trifle

This recipe is one I've made quite a few times before and I can't imagine an Independence Day without it. With that said, it's one of the few recipes that uses pre-made ingredients. In fact, I didn't bake anything for it, I use a pre-made Angel Food Cake (almost always from Publix). This is partly because I'm lazy and partly because Publix makes a better Angel Food cake than I've ever made.

To make this recipe you'll need an Angel Food cake, blueberries and strawberries, as well as the custard recipe below. Assemble the trifle by layering cake, berries, custard, cake, berries, and custard until you run out. Also, I used vanilla beans to flavor the custard because I ran out of vanilla extract (more on that tomorrow) and only had vanilla beans.



Custard Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (or seed scrapings from a vanilla bean)
  

Directions

1. Combine sugar and corn starch in saucepan (no heat).
2. Whisk in egg yolks.
3. Gradually whisk in 2 cups milk.
4. Cook over medium/low heat until boiling/thick, stirring constantly.
5. Remove from head and add vanilla.
6. Transfer to pyrex bowl, cover with plastic wrap (to prevent pudding skin from forming) and refrigerate.

Blueberry Muffins

I realized earlier in the week that I've never made proper blueberry muffins. This recipe calls for a streusel topping, like the coffee cake muffins a few weeks back that were so popular. I think I've perfected that type of topping with this incarnation. The key is to let your butter soften, really soften till it's french butter dish creamy. Then mix the flour, sugar and cinnamon with a fork until it's very crumbly, almost the consistency of brown sugar. Reactions tomorrow.



Ingredients

Batter

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Streusel topping

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, very softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F . Line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with streusel topping mixture.
3. To Make Streusel Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Blueberry Jam Filled Cherry Muffins

I was searching for a jam filled muffin to use the amazing blueberry preserves I purchased at Ikea recently and stumbled upon this recipe. The original called for mixed berry yogurt and strawberry milk. I substituted 2% milk and cherry yogurt, mainly because that was what I had on hand. The preparation is straightforward, prepare the batter, spoon muffin cups half full with batter, add a spoonful of preserves and then add the rest of the batter on top. I also added cold water to one of the empty muffin tins which helps them rise and the tops from burning. They took 18-19 minutes but, because poking a toothpick to determine doneness only gets you a jam covered toothpick, it's a judgment call.



Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 cup cherry flavored yogurt
1/4 cup milk
Ikea Blueberry preserves

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In another bowl, beat together egg and vanilla extract. Add melted butter, yogurt and milk, mix well. Add to flour mixture, stir just until blended.
4. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling half full. Add a spoonful of blueberry preserves; top with remaining batter.
5. Bake for 15 to 20 mins.

Blueberry and Blackberry Muffin

This recipe evolves from a recipe I stumbled across online for a standard blueberry muffin recipe. I made a few modifications and I think they came out nice. The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup of brown sugar but reviewers reported that doubling that to 1/2 a cup worked well. Instead of blueberries I used a mix of 2/3 blueberries and 1/3 blackberries (which I cut into pieces the size of blueberries) for about 2 1/4 cups of berries. I ended up baking for 23 minutes because of a preference for less done muffins around the office. Because of this (and the absurd amount of fruit I put in) they ended up being hard to release from the tin (I used spray canola oil in a nonstick pan) and if I had to do it over, I would use muffin papers.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/3 cups fresh blueberries
• 2/3 cup fresh blackberries
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Spray muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray, or use cupcake liners.
2. In a medium-size bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon. Stir in milk, egg, and oil. Continue stirring until the mixture is well blended. Fold in the berries. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups, 2/3 full.
3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until light golden brown.