Meyer Lemon Tart

It’s cold and gray outside. Again. And it has been for weeks—months! I’m so ready for spring to be here. So ready for sunshine and warmer temperatures. I want to look out my back door and see a color other than white, brown, or gray. I’m tired of waking up to dreary skies and a freezing room, wanting nothing more than to burrow further under my pile of blankets and hibernate until April. Spring can’t get here soon enough!

But we did finally get a little taste of warmer weather last week. For about 3 days, temperatures got up into the 60s with blue skies. It was absolutely gorgeous! I even wore a dress to work and drove with the windows down! But of course, in true Ohio weather fashion, it snowed 2 days later. So here we are, back to overcast skies and winter coats again. The only bright spot in this endless drab—we’re still in prime citrus season!

I stumbled across a bag of Meyer lemons at the grocery store recently. I’d heard everyone rave about them--the smaller, sweeter cousins to the regular lemon--but I’d never actually tried any myself. There they were, though, in the produce section, their own little bag of 5 lemons just calling out to me. Begging me to take them home and turn them into something delicious. So of course, I had to buy them. And of course I had to use their delicious tartiness for, what else? A tart.

Those little lemon tartlets had been staring me in the face from the cover of Baked (by Matt Lewis) for years now, so I knew I wanted to start there. I was a little scared making lemon curd for the first time, but it was actually fairly easy to make. (Other than the mess I made juicing the lemons… But my counter got a good lemony scrub down and my kitchen smelled great!) I didn’t have the amaretti cookies, liqueur, or the almonds for Baked’s tart shell, so I used Smitten Kitchen’s Unshrinkable Tart Shell again. (Which may indeed be unshrinkable, but by no means is it unbreakable. I knocked a whole side off it the first time and had to make another.) Topped with simple meringue, it was delicious! The perfect not-too-tart bite of sunshine. I imagine it’s what spring tastes like.

I just have to keep telling myself, there’s only about a month left of winter.

Chocolate Raspberry Tart

Never assume that just because the ingredient list is short, the recipe is easy. Because chances are—it’s not. Somehow, what seems like a piece of cake will turn into a 2-day pain in the ass. Take this tart for example. Your basic tart dough: flour, sugar, butter, and egg. Your filling: chocolate, heavy cream, and raspberries. Simple! Well, maybe for some people. I managed to turn it into a dramatic multiple day affair.