I LOVE lemon tarts.  My husband LOOOOOOOVES lemon tarts.  When we were in Paris, we both “discovered” this amazing dessert (Tarts au Citron!) so ever since then, I have been constantly trying new recipes to make awesome tarts at home.

Most of the time, lemon tart is a great dessert in the summer – refreshing, not too sweet, and just the right kick of lemony sourness.  But this time, in February, I had a hankering to make it for a friend’s dinner party.  They are often great at being my guinea pigs for new recipes!

The result?  it is delicious.  Just so smooth and the right amount of lemony-ness.  I just didn’t tell them how much butter went into it! (Ignorance is bliss for many dessert eaters!). Note that the original recipe actually uses Meyer Lemons.  Which is this beautiful sweet kind of lemons.  Well I couldn’t find any, so I used plain old yellow large lemons from the store. It works out just fine!

yes, joining the rest of the world in Pi Day celebration with Pies.  though it really was unintentional.  A month ago, friends were planning a gathering and 2 separate friends made dessert requests: Joyce with her Banana Cream Pie, and Mei with her Coconut Cream Pie.  How do I say no?  incidentally we were gathering on March 14th, 2015, so lo and behold, i’m making pies for Pi Day.

One of my old favs – Lemon Meringue pie – it’s been almost a year since I’ve last made one.  so I was a bit rusty at it and had to remember some of the techniques.

Since I needed the pie for a 6pm dinner party on a weeknight, I made the pastry the night before.  Cube the cold butter and shortening and then use a pastry cutter to blend it with the flour.  Avoid using hands to warm up the dough too much. Cut the egg water mixture with a knife, again avoid using hands.  Roll into 3 separate disks and saran wrap and store in fridge until needed.

Had a free sunday morning while Nick was at vball practice – looking for inspiration to bake something in my new oven…chatting with a friend who asks if I had made egg tarts before – answer is yes, but ages and ages ago.  Don’t recall the specific recipe so did some googling.  Tried to adapt from several people’s recipes.  Egg tarts are always a favourite with me – whenever I pass a chinese bakery, it’s always so tempting!  The best part of the egg tart is actually the shell – i’m not patient enough to make the puff pastry version, so I made the crumbly cookie version.  Guess you can also use the frozen pre-made ones – but where’s the fun in that?!

Posted the finished product on fb and several people asked how it was made – so thought I would post it here.

First step – pull out the tart trays I received as xmas gifts several years back, and assemble all the ingredients together