Lemon Tart

Today's yumminess is thanks to a Stephanie Alexander recipe whizzed up in the Thermie. 

Thermie is such a useful tool in the kitchen, you don't have to stick to Thermie recipes like some people might think... 

This lemon tart was very quick and easy to make, it shouldn't be reserved for special occasions!

Lemon Tart

Pastry

Place 240gms of plain flour, 180gms a unsalted butter and salt into the bowl 10 sec sp 5 or until it looks like bread crumbs. (I never have unsalted butter, I just use normal butter and leave out the salt? No ones ever complained!)

Set to interval speed and add 1 tablespoon of water at a time until the dough just comes together, should be about 2 tablespoons. Don't mix for any longer than need be, less is best!

Tip it out onto the bench and knead lightly until it comes together in a big ball.

Roll it out on a sheet of baking paper until its big enough to fit in your flan tin, the type with the loose bottom. Using the baking paper to help, flip the pastry into the case and press in cutting off any excess around the top. 

Pop it into the freezer for 20 minutes. While its in there pre heat your oven to 200 degrees. 

After the 20 minutes is up, blind bake your pastry for 20 minutes, take it out of the oven then turn your oven down to 160.

Filling

Place the peel (no pith, I use a potato peeler) from 3 lemons and 250 gms of castor sugar ( I used normal raw sugar and it was fine) in the bowl and mill sp 10 for 20 or so seconds.

Insert the butterfly and add 6 eggs, give it a quick wizz on sp 4 for a few seconds. Add the juice of the 3 lemons and 160gm of cream, give it another quick mix on sp 4 10 or 15 seconds.

Bringing it together

Pour the lemon mixture into your lovely pastry case and cook for 35 - 45 minutes. Cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes before serving..

Dust with icing sugar or slather in cream...enjoy!

A quick note....

Thank you to everyone thats been following along and letting me know how much they enjoy my posts! One of my first thoughts for this blog was that I wanted to keep it as real as I could. With photography being another love of mine its could be tempting to 'food style' before snapping pics of the final product. But I think that the Internet gives us a skewed view of the world, which translates into us putting pressure on ourselves to be perfect. So in short, my benches may be messy and photos taken with my phone, but you will see things just as they are and just as we eat them. No garnish! 

Happy Cooking!

Roast Chicken Dinner Pie and the always delicious Chocolate Pudding

I first made the Roast Chicken Dinner Pie after making a huge roast dinner and everyone coming down with a bug and going to bed early leaving me with a heap of yummy food and no one to eat it!  Re-heating food is never appealing to me for some reason, but wrapping it in pastry is perfectly acceptable! 

This time when I made the roast dinner I cooked heaps of extra vegies just so I could make this pie again, its scrumptious! I used baked carrot, parsnip, sweet potato, onion, 4 cloves of garlic, left over peas, cauliflower and cheese ( this part in the most important!) leftover chicken and gravy.  You could add potato ( I don't like it much!) pumpkin ( my sis in law doesn't like it!) corn, broccoli, beans..... whatever!

First of all pre heat your oven to 180, then make a batch of puff pastry from the EDC and pop it in the fridge. Then make shortcrust pastry from the EDC, roll it out on glad wrap and line your beautiful pie dish (thanks Andrea!) Remove the gladwrap and cover with a sheet of baking paper, fill with rice or beans or pies weights! and blind bake at 180 for 10 minutes, remove paper and weights and bake for another 10.

 Mix all your chopped vegies and chicken and gravy together. 

It shouldn't be too dry, if it is make up some extra gravy or cheese sauce and add it in...here's what mine looked like...

This is just a regular bowl...I didn't chop it using the thermomix!

Pile it into your pie dish... I like to pile it up high!!

Roll out your puff pastry on glad wrap and cover up that yummyness!

I like to cut a big cross in the top to let the steam out. It helps the pastry cook better!

Bake it until its nice and brown and warm inside, approx 30 minutes.

One day you can have some Bonnie! 

Dessert tonight was good Ole' Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding! The same recipe I have always used but I Thermied it for the first time...

1. Pre Heat oven to 180
2. using the butterfly on sp 4 cream 1/4 cup of butter ( I just guess!) and 1/2 cup of sugar 
3. while its running add and egg and 1 tsp of vanilla, give it a scrape down and another quick mix
4. add 1 cup of SR Flour, 1/2 cup of milk and 2 dessert spoons of cocoa and mix for 1 minute on sp 4 giving it a scrape down if needed.
5. put mixture into a casserole dish
6. without cleaning out your jug add 2 cups of hot water, 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 dessertspoons of cocoa and mix on sp 4 for 30 sec. 
7. tip out onto cake mixture and bake in oven for 30 min or so
8. add a massive amount of cream and pat yourself on the back while you eat it for making something everyone will love that's wonderfully frugal.....

 Happy Cooking!