Tuesdays with Dorie: Supposed to be Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding, But It's My Birthday and I Baked What I Wanted To, So It's The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart

      This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, from the cookbook Baking:  From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan is Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding, can be found on pages 410-411, and was chosen by Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle.  If you would like to try the recipe before buying the book, click on Lauren's site above and she will have it posted today. 

      All the TWD bloggers will be featuring this recipe this week.  Well, all the TWD bloggers, except me, of course, as it's my birthday and I decided I was going to bake what I wanted to because as you all know:  chocolate is not my favorite flavor.  By a long shot.  Or any shot. 

      So, rule breaker that I am this week, I decided last week that I was going to make one of the recipes which looked birthday-worthy that the TWD group baked before I joined the group last May.  I looked at the list, once, twice, several times, narrowed it down to two (Bill's Big Carrot Cake and The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart), and as you can see, the French Lemon Cream Tart was my pick.  Okay, I admit it, I had some additional help with the selection, as that Carrot Cake looked really really good also and I just couldn't decide. 

      OMW, this tart is SOOOO good.  I was debating on whether or not to tell the guys I actually made dessert this week, and just keep this one all for myself, hiding it in the "chicken parts" box.  But, no, that would not be nice, and not possible as Matt helped me make it last evening (turns out you really do need to make the tart shell and have it ready so you aren't trying to whisk the egg-sugar-lemon mixture over heat (a risky business at best all on its own) and deal with making the tart shell at the same time. 

 

 

      I am getting much better at making this tart crust now that we have done it several times and this one turned out perfectly.   

      Matt was fairly good at whisking, with no scrambling of the eggs at all...a very successful result on his first attempt at doing this.  It is fun to cook with your kids...we had a very nice time baking together.   We kept saying, "Oh, this lemon smells so wonderful!"  The filling has the most wonderfully rich lemon filling you can imagine...lemon is my favorite flavor, so this choice was perfect! 

      We cooled the filling in the refrigerator overnight and I assembled it this morning for breakfast because I wanted to get my post up before evening when we will serve it for my birthday dinner.  And, also, well...because we thought Lemon Cream Tart sounded like a fine breakfast.  Especially on a birthday!  The only thing I think would be finer would be to be eating this French Lemon Tart in France...maybe someday. 

      When I sliced into it, it was a bit loose, not like the one pictured in the book, so I will need to figure that out, but the taste was wonderful, and I really didn't care at all that it was a bit thinner than Dorie's version and spread a little...nope, not one little bit.  She states in the recipe that you can serve it right away or refrigerate it and then serve it.  I think that refrigerating it would firm up the filling, so later tonight, this will probably be more like the one in the photo with the added firmness from chilling. 

      This is a really great recipe...highly recommend trying it.  You will find it on pages 331-333 of Dorie's book.  

      Next week's recipe was chosen by Kim of Scrumptious Photography is Chocolate Cream Tart, and can be found on pages 352-353.  

     

Click here  and then click on individual bakers' blogs at the site if you would like to see more of this week's recipe and the various ways people interpreted their quest.  It is too late to join the online TWD baking blog, but you can always join us in spirit as the recipes for upcoming weeks are posted on the site and you can bake along in your own kitchen.  See you there!