Tartest Lemon Tart with Thyme
After a run of excellent results in the weekly baking group, Tuesdays with Dorie, this week’s recipe fell a little short for me. It is definitely tart and lemony, but maybe just a little too tart for my taste buds. The filling is made with the whole darn lemon!
The entire lemon, peel and all, is processed to a smooth batter with likely companions; sugar, eggs, cream and butter. I am not a big fan of orange marmalade because of the bitter peel flavor, and that is what I picked up with this filling which I think is what made it not so appealing to me. I will admit that I did add my own little twist to the recipe by infusing the cream with fresh thyme. The thyme added a very subtle herby note that I thought played nicely against the lemon flavor, but the lemon flavor was a bit too bitter for me.
The recipe specified 1 ½ lemons, which I felt was a bit ambiguous and I would have preferred to have had a weight to provide some standardization. My lemons were small so I used two of them, which may have actually been too much. I don’t know.
The other issue I had with this recipe was the mess it made when baking. The recipe warns the filling will bubble up and quite likely flow over the sides of the tart pan, so I baked the tart on a sheet pan to catch any overrun and it’s good I did. The tart does not look pretty right out of the oven with filling overflowing and burning onto the sheet pan below. The complicating factor with the overflow is the tart is essentially seared to the top edge of the tart pan making it rather challenging to release. If the taste had been out of this world, I would happily overlook the mess, but I think this will just be one, of very few recipes in the book, that I probably won’t make again. I suspect anyone who loves marmalade will go nuts for this tart, so if that’s you, you should visit Barb of Babette Feasts for the recipe and give it a try. You can also see the results and opinions of the other bakers by visiting the Tuesdays with Dorie blog roll. The crust for the tart, however, was excellent!
Over 350 baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours . 73 recipes completed 148 to go!
All photos by David Peterman unless otherwise noted
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May 12th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Sorry you didn’t love this one. I still think it looks lovely. Well done!
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May 12th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Hi Carol! How are you?
That is too bad that the recipe ended up being too tart for you. Mine turned out well, maybe it has something to do with the buttermilk instead of heavy cream and my lemons.
I love how you incorporated thyme into this. So creative!
I agree with you on the crust, excellent stuff.
Another beautiful looking tart!
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May 12th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Ooo thyme. What an inspiration! Sorry this wasn’t the best for you, but glad you participated.
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May 12th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Lovely, lovely, lovely. Thyme…I bet that was so good. I plant both thyme and LEMON THYME each year, and I am thinking that lemon thyme has just found a new home! I agree about needing the size of the lemon thing…mine were huge but I used one and a half, thinking that maybe one would have been enough. Mine did not boil over at all…I think my tart pan is deeper than most maybe. What a lovely tart you made!
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May 12th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
See… I didn’t want to risk it and supremed my lemon, just in case it would be toooo tart! lol
I’m sorry yours turned out to be just that… it’s a shame, cause it looks pretty darn great!
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May 12th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
It looked beautiful, and I’m sorry it wasn’t huge success for you. Nice try, though!! Very pretty.
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May 12th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Your tart looks great! Too bad it wasn’t your thing. I like the thyme addition.
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May 13th, 2009 at 3:25 am
I like weights for recipes too! The tarts looks really pretty.
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May 13th, 2009 at 4:34 am
I don’t love marmalade, so I think it’s OK that I skipped this recipe. Your tart is gorgeous, but it’s too bad that you didn’t enjoy it.
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May 13th, 2009 at 9:22 am
It looks just beautiful! I found that serving it with ice cream was a nice tough and cut the tartness. Great job even if it wasn’t your favorite thing!
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May 13th, 2009 at 9:24 am
Your tart is gorgeous! This one was a flop for me too – way too bitter!
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May 24th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
I actually loved the tartness of this recipe. Yours is soooo beautiful.
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