Although I love cooking and baking with the children I really do enjoy time alone in the kitchen. Last Friday I had one of those magical baking days where I quietly baked 'alone' for hours in preparation for Hoover's birthday party the following day. The oven gently warmed the house whilst outside the heavens opened up and my parched garden finally got a long overdue soak. There is nothing I love more than to lose myself in the kitchen to the mesmeric sound of the rain falling on our tin roof.

But before I could roll up my sleeves and start baking, I first had to attend the annual Easter school play that morning and then make a mad dash to Dan Murphy to stock up on wine for the party. Then there was one last visit to the greengrocer to pick up the last couple of bits and pieces before coming home to sort lolly bags, hide a weeks worth of ironing, give the floors the once over and then settle in and bake.

I have learnt from previous experience that if there is a short cut then I would be a fool not to take it. In this instance my short cut was to use ready made shortcrust pastry.  Needless to say there is ready made mass produced shortcrust pastry and then there is hand made Carême pastry. So when it came to the lemon tart I went with the dark chocolate shortcrust pastry made by William and Claire Wood in Barossa Valley in South Australia.


Catherine's Lemon Tart

This is my dear friend Catherine's legendary Lemon Tart recipe. Normally I would make my own shortcrust pastry, but because I was flapping around the kitchen last Friday trying to get everything done for Hoover's party I decided to use ready made dark chocolate shortcrust pastry instead. The result - a Lemon Tart to die for.
 

Ingredients

Shortcrust pastry

115g of unsalted butter
1/3 cup castor sugar
1 organic egg yolk
½ tsp vanilla extract
185g plain flour, sifted


Lemon Filling

3 organic eggs
1 organic egg yolk
125g castor sugar
125ml of lemon juice
300ml thick cream lightly whipped

 
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4

2. Place flour, sugar and butter in the Magimix or food processor and process for 10-15 seconds or until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract and continue to process until the pastry clings together and forms a ball. Remove pastry from the machine and knead it gently to form a smooth ball. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

3. Lightly flour work surface and rolling pin and roll pastry to a thickness of 2-3mm. Line 28cm diameter tart tin with pastry, trim the edges and then blind bake for 15 minutes until pale golden. Remove paper and weights and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Remove and cool.

4. To make the lemon filling whisk eggs and sugar together until well combined and then add the lightly whipped cream and lemon juice and whisk for 3-5 minutes.

5. Pour lemon filling into the tart case. Reduce the oven to150C/302F/Gasmark 2 and bake for 30 minutes. Remove tart from the oven and allow to cool. Dust lightly with icing sugar before serving.