Vanilla sugar sprinkled lemon tartlets....

There is nothing as satisfying as rolling out my own pastry rather than using thawed frozen pastry. It took me quite a while to get that perfect consistency after countless trials on using the right ingredients. Tried variations using butter, margarine and lard. Butter gave me the best results flavourwise. Margarine resulted in a flaky texture and lard resulted in a much flakier texture. I also realized never to add the exact amount of liquid mentioned in a recipe while making pastry. It can get too wet. Adding a little at a time judging by your touch for a not too wet not too dry consistency. If the dough is too wet, the end result could result in a tough pastry. A too dry dough results in a cracked pastry. Resting the dough is the ideal thing to do in order to get the gluten working.These were what I learned through my trials and what I have for you today are lemon tarts.

What you need are:( From Tarts and Pies)
For the shells

200g AP Flour
100g Butter
1 egg yolk
2 T cold water
1 t salt

Sift the flour and salt. Rub in the butter with your finger tips lifting them into the air above the bowl. In doing so, more air is introduced lending a lighter texture to the pastry. The lesser the handling the more the chance of getting a lighter texture. Stir in the egg yolk. Add  enough water to get the right consistency. Wrap in a cling film and rest the dough for half an hour. With the above I lined 6 tatrtet tins and one  5" tart tin. Roll the dough and line the tart tins and prick the bases with a fork. The tartlets were baked along with the filling while the tart was blind baked in order to prevent an under baked base. Line the tart dough with a film containing beans a nd bake for 5 minutes. The base dries out and turns a light golden brown.

For the filling

2 eggs
300 g sugar
rind and zest of 2 lemons
150 g butter

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Stir in the rind and the zest. Melt the butter and stir into the mixture. Divide this mixture among the prepared bases and bake in a preheated oven (180 degree C) for 20 minutes until the filling sets.

Meanwhile melt 2 T with 1 t of water/ add in sliced lemons and allow the liquid to boil. Switch off the stove and let the lemon slices remain in the sugar syrup. While serving remove the lemon slices and serve them arranged on the tart. Slice the tarts only after they are cooled completely.

I have this jar of powdered sugar with slit vanilla beans lending the sugar a wonderful flavour of vanilla. It even perks up my irritant moods that are so frequent nowadays... so a sprinkling of vanilla sugar did perk up the already delightful tartlets.