lemons, lemons, lemons

The other day I had a bit of a bake up and went a bit lemony.

I made a lemon tart, lemon ice cream and candied lemon slices.

The lemon tart recipe came from a free Coles recipe booklet.

I made my own pastry instead of using the frozen pastry they suggested.

I halved the pastry recipe from the apple pie and left out the egg as I wanted a shorter pastry- this seemed to work well.

The recipe is as follows

Lemon Tart

1 sheet frozen pastry

4 eggs

1/2 C caster sugar

1/2 C lemon juice

finely grated lemon rind from 1 lemon

1/2 C cream

1. Preheat oven to 180 C or 160 C fan. Grease a 22cm pie dish

2. Line dish with pastry. Trim edges. Chill for 15minutes.

3. Blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove paper and weights and bake for a further 5 minutes. Cool in pan.

4. Mix together eggs, sugar, juice, rind and cream. Pour into tart shell. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until just set, but still a little wobbly. Cool in pan.

5. Dust tart with icing sugar. Serve in wedges with thick cream.

I found the recipe for the lemon ice cream on the internet, but I am not sure where from.

It was very nice with a nice lemon flavour but not sour and easy to make.

Lemon Ice Cream

Juice and grated rind of 1 large lemon

1C white sugar

1 cup milk

250ml thickened cream chilled

1. Blend the lemon rind and sugar in a food processor until the rind is very fine.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the lemon rind sugar and milk until the sugar has dissolved, then stir in the lemon juice.

3. In a separate bowl, whip the cream until stiff but not grainy. Gently fold the whipped cream into the lemon mixture until evenly blended.

4. Pour the mixture into a loaf tin (I used two very small loaf tins lined with plastic wrap) and cover with plastic wrap. Freeze for 3 hrs until firm.

I just tipped it out of the tin and sliced it to serve.

I also attempted to make candied lemon slices, they were going along fine and then all of a sudden they sugar went brown- so next time I will need to keep a closer eye on them, they were still fine however even if they were a little crunchy. I think this recipe came from Martha Stewart.

Candied Lemon Slices
 1 large lemon
1 C sugar

1. Prepare an ice water bath; set aside. Using a mandoline, v sliver or sharp knife slice lemon into 12 paper thin slices; discard seeds and ends of rind.
2. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and add lemon slices; stir until softened, about 1 minute. Drain, and  immediately  plunge slices into ice-water bath. Drain.
3.Bring sugar and 1 C water to a boil in a medium skillet, swirling to dissolve sugar. When liquid is clear and bubbling, reduce heat to medium-low. Add lemon slices, arranging them in one layer with tongs. Simmer (do not let boil) until rinds are translucent, about 1 hr.
4.Transfer to a baking sheet lined with non stick baking paper. Let stand ready to serve.
Although I had the heat really low- the sugar went brown at about the 20 minute mark so will have to look at this next time I cook it- maybe a thicker pan and a simmer mat?

These looked pretty on the tart after it was cooked

Amended to add- I have just seen a recipe in BHG for candied lemons and they only cook it for 6 minutes- so will give this a go and let you know how I get on.

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