Monday, May 7, 2007

Yellow For A Good Cause

I haven't been participating too much in the blogging events as of late. Part of that, of course, has been my budgetary restrictions. But also, I just haven't felt inspired to be creative. This time though, I was inspired and moved. Barbara of winosandfoodies is hosting a one-off event in honor of Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong Day- which is May 16th. You can read more about her details here, but the long and short is that us bloggers were asked to make something from a yellow food to help raise awareness for cancer. That is definitely a cause I can get behind.

As luck would have it, just last week Abigail mentioned to me that we had never made a lemon pie together. And the second she said that, I knew that lemons were going to be my yellow food for A Taste of Yellow. I had planned to make a pie, but then that mail-lady left that package on my doorstep and Dorie Greenspan was beckoning. Before I even opened up the book, I knew Dorie was going to have something delightful and lemony for me to make. Sure enough, she did. How could I not try a recipe titled "The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart." I mean, come on! Just two lines into the description and Dorie was mentioning that French pastry genius Pierre Herme was responsible for this tart and well, I just had to do it.

I encountered a problem right off the bat. Even though I had all of the ingredients necessary for this tart on hand, (yes! On hand!) I lacked the one essential bit of equipment- a tart pan. So I opted to press my tart dough into a mini muffin pan and make The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tartlettes. The tart dough worked perfectly, and the lemon cream, while a bit time consuming, was very easy to put together. One recipe into this book and I adore Dorie Greenspan. She has a way of directing you that feels like your grandmother is in the kitchen guiding you. The recipes are written in a comfortable conversational tone with no detail left out. I knew exactly how the lemon cream was going to come together before I even began. After reading for months on other blogs, I can finally say that I see the obsession... Baking From my home to yours is a gem written by a gem.
I topped my tartlettes with honeyed strawberries and had a delightful dessert for company. Now normally, this is the part in my blog post where I direct you to my Recipe Trove for the recipe, but I'm not doing that this time. See, I have a personal policy that recipes from other bloggers get credit where credit is due, and since Dorie has recently joined the ranks of us bloggers, I don't quite feel right about posting this extraordinary recipe. So. If you have this book, do check out the recipe for The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart (page 331). If you don't have the book, and you beg me mercilessly, I may be persuaded to e-mail this recipe your way. In the meantime, please head over to Winosandfoodies on May 16th for a complete round-up of A Taste Of Yellow, and consider supporting other LiveStrong activities in your area.

5 comments:

Helene said...

Great post! I have made that lemon cream so many times...mainly because I can't stop scooping it out...

Erika W. said...

Thanks Helen! The cream is amazing, isn't it! I didn't use it all in the tartlettes, so I'm trying to decide what to do with it. Meanwhile, a spoon is working just fine as a vehicle. :-)

Unknown said...

I love the little tartlettes! Such a good idea...I may be tempted to do this sometime as I don't have a tart pan either!

Unknown said...

Erika this is a lovely entry. Clever of you to make mini tartlettes. Thank you for your support.

Erika W. said...

Claire- the tart crust is worth it!! I think if you even lined an 8x8 pan with heavy duty foil so you could remove it- that would work as well.

Thanks Barbara! Happy to join in!