Lemon Tart with lemon french custard

Lemon tart with mandarines, it's a season dessert by the French Pastry Chef Christophe Felder.

I love citrus fruits and his recipe sounded great ! Who doesn't have a few lemons and mandarines ?

This recipe comes from the book "Exquises pâtisseries pour les fêtes" of Christophe Felder. 

 There is a lot of amazing recipes in it, even some muffins :)

I did my own cookie dough and I flavored it, but I followed all his steps for the lemon cream.

My cookie dough is mandarine flavoured, with the zests and a bit of juice.

I divided all the proportions by half and did 2 medium tarts instead of a big one.

  Preparation   I tried to follow his instructions, but it got harder than it is supposed to be... I felt like I lost a lot of time. But there is no difficulty in the recipe. It lacked of details, but I'll explain it clearly on this post. Still, it took me about 1 hour to prepare... mainly because of the mandarines.

  Tasting   I've never been disappointed by Christophe's recipes ! That cream is absolutely delicious, though too buttery for some people. It's a fresh, rich and buttery cream... it's an all-season dessert actually. A lot of flavor with a hint of sugar... I really don't think I could find better, unless there is less butter in it ahah. For the mandarines, I'm not convinced, it seemed like a nice touch but it's not worth it !

  Conclusion   I keep the recipe, without the mandarines :)

For a 9 inch pie : serves 6 to 8

Christophe Felder gives a recipe for the cookie dough :

Same as mine but +2tbsp of butter and no zests. Softened butter mix everything with a wooden spoon.

Keep 1 hour in the fridge, then cook at 350°F for 15minutes. Turn out when cooled.

   You will need :   

For the cookie dough

1lb of cookie dough with :

2 mandarine's rinds, shredded finely

3tbsp of grounded almond
1/2 cup white sugar

- instead of 2/3 cup -

For the lemon custard

5 meyer lemon's rind, finely shredded

1 1/4 cup sugar (270gr)

3 sticks of butter (350gr)

- it hurts ! -

5 eggs

2 mandarines
1/3 powdered gelatin bag (0.07oz/2gr)

Turn the oven on at 325°F

Making the dough

Finely peel the mandarine's zests with a cheese grate. Chop them.
Add it to the flour with grounded almonds and sugar. Then follow the recipe of cookie dough.

Flatten it on 0.2 inch (5mm) and place it in your buttered mold. Press gently on the sides so it won't fall.
Put 20 minutes in the oven.

Turn out when cooled.

Prepare the custard

Prepare the gelatin by following the instructions on the package.

While your dough is cooking, peel coarsely your lemons to get the rinds.
They may be thick, it doesn't matter... do as peeling an apple.

Cut the butter in dices, set aside.
Press lemon juice in a saucepan, with zests, gelatin, sugar and eggs beaten, whisk.

Turn the stove on at low/medium heat while stirring.

- ingrédients non battus - après battage - après cuisson -

After a "while" (15 to 20 minutes) the cream will thicken and start simmering.
Turn the stove off, add the diced butter and stir until homogeneous.
Use a strainer to pour in a bowl and remove the zests.
Once filtered, beat with an electric beater at medium speed for 1 minute.

Making the tart

Remove all the thin white skins from your mandarines.

- it takes a while ! -

Cut them in dices if too big. 

On your pre-cooked dough, Pour half of the custard, then the mandarines.

Keep the center of the tart without mandarines (circle of 2inches) so it will be beautiful when served. 

Pour the end of the custard, flatten it.

Decorate with a vanilla bean and a few mandarines... a rasperrie or whatever you have :)

Refrigerate 2 hours before serving !

Crème panachée with no eggs - chocolate & kirsch cream

Among the first recipes of Vovoï's cookbook, there is a creme panachée (mixed flavoured cream).

A really foamy cream, light and delicious. She made it chocolate & coffee, but I'm not a huge fan of coffee dessert, so I changed it to make a chocolate-vanilla cream the first try, and a kirsch-chocolate cream the second time.

Flavours can be easily changed depending on your taste. They are added at the end of the recipe.

The contrast of colour and of taste is really pleasant, black and white is always a pleasant mix :)

The recipe is easy and quick, the only thing you could miss is the flour dilution.

For 4 small yogurt-size cup

   You will need :   

17 fl. oz of whole milk (50cL)

1.1 oz of flour (~ 30gr) (1 big tbsp.) 

- diluted in 1.7fl oz.of not cold milk (5cL) -

0.9 oz of white sugar (2tbsp / 25gr)

Put the milk in a wet casserole to boil

- the boiling milk and the whisk will make the cream rising, you need to pick a casserole with high sides -

Dilute the flour by putting it in a bowl, digging a well in it and pour the milk (1.7 fl oz) little by little in it, blending with a spoon. Flour has to be perfectly diluted in the milk

As soon as the milk starts boiling, pour the milk/flour in it and use a whisk to mix it.

The boiling must start again, keep using your whisk for 5 minutes while boiling.

Be careful the milk isn't burning/cooking on the inner surface.

After those 5 minutes, turn the heat off and keep mixing for 1 to 2 minutes,

Then pour your cream in to separate bowl, it's time to flavour it

- if you have some issues with the flour you can filter it -

 For the chocolate part, melt 1.0 to 1.4 oz of chocolate and mix it with it

for the vanilla half, add 1tsp. of vanilla extract and mix it with it

- for the kirsch half, 2tsp of kirsch -

Pour at the same time in your recipient/yogurt pot.

Let it rest in the fridge for at least 8 hours

This cream reminds me, at the taste and texture to the "viennois" I used to buy in stores, 

- the part under the whipped cream -

You cans erve it with a whipped cream, some  langues de chats or cigarettes :)

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Suggestions

chocolate and raspberries (mix raspberries and sugar together and add it to the cream)

chocolate and mint (1tsp of mint extract)

chocolate and orange (grated frozen orange)

lemon and raspberries (2tbsp of lemon juice)

coconut ?

You can do almost everything !

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Crème pâtissière - French pastry cream

As I announced, here comes the recipe of the second famous cream !

The creme patissiere is considered "cooked", compared to the creme anglaise, it's thicker, creamier.

You can spread it on tarts... it kind of has the same consistency as mayonnaise.

It's also useful in recipe like the gâteau basque, the frangipane, or the chocolate puff (éclair au chocolat) etc. It can be vanilla, lemon, chocolate, coffee.... flavoured 

I will give you the classic vanilla recipe that you can use for a fruit tart for example !

For a big pie, multiply it so you will use 5 or 6 egg yolks. (Twice more than what I've written)

   You will need :   

For 3 egg yolks,

8.5 fl oz. of milk (25cL)

2 tbsp. of cooking starch

3tbsp of sugar

1/2 vanilla pod

Put you milk to boil in a wet casserole with the grated vanilla pod

Work in a bowl the sugar with the eggyolks until white and foamy

Then add the starch in it and mix it well

Verse the boiling milk in that bowl

- after removing the vanilla pod -

Mix a bit and put verything back in the casserole,

let it cook while mixing whith a whisk,

let it 2 minutes while boiling,

medium temperature once it boils

- still mixing it with your whisk -

Never stop mixing 

- Be careful it's not cooking on the inner surface, grate everywhere -

Let it get cooler in a bowl, covered with a plastic film 

or with powdered sugar to avoid a crust

You can spread it on your tart (pre-cooked, shortcrust or cookie dough)

You can keep it 3 to 4 days in the fridge

- on the picture above, it's a vanilla shortcrust dough -

- don't put too much cream ;) -

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Suggestions

For a chocolate cream, you can add 4oz of chocolate to melt in the milk

For a coffee one, add 1tsp of coffee extract in the milk.

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Crème anglaise - Light custard

In the basics family, here comes the crème anglaise ! (english cream)

A little sweetness for you, your guests and your desserts
(chocolate, fruits... everything actually) Its vanilla touch goes with everything...
I've put some in my yogurt and fresh berries this morning.... :p

For a correct amount (6 to 8 servings)

It takes around 20 minutes to make

  You will need :   

3 egg yolks

0.4 cup of sugar (3.2 oz. / 90gr)

- I put 1/3 cup of regular and 1 pack of vanilla sugar (12gr) -

10 fl oz. of milk (30cL)

- 2% reduced fat milk -

 2 fl oz. of heavy whipping cream (6cL)

1/2 vanilla bean, opened and grated

- or 2 tsp. vanilla extract -

In a wet casserole,

- so the milk won't stick the inner surface -

Put the milk, the cream and the vanilla bean/extract 

- that you have grated inside the milk of course -

Put it on medium/high temperature, until it boils

In the meantime, put the yolks and the sugar in a medium bowl and beat it until it gets creamy and white

Once the milk/cream is starting to boil, remove the vanilla bean,

 and pour the milk in the egg/sugar bowl, mix it

Once it's homogeneous, put everything back in the casserole on medium temperature

And mix it non-stop for 5 minutes with a wooden spoon

- it must not boil, or stick/cook on the inner surface, that's why it's important to mix it and keep it smooth -

After 5 minutes, it will be a bit thicker,
and you can pour it in a bowl while filtering it
Let it cool down

You can't keep it a long time in the fridge, so enjoy it :)

- on a chocolate cake topped with a raspberrie :) -