sunday supper and blind baking tips

Thanks to two varieties of lemon trees in our backyard, we have a lemon glut. What better excuse to make Lemon Tart?

The recipe calls for blind baking of the crust, which sometimes can be a little tricky. I've picked up a few tips along the way, as shown below. For those who aren't familiar with blind baking, this is the process of cooking the pie crust before adding the filling.

• Although some recipes state you should line your crust with baking paper, I always use foil. The reason for this is that it can be moulded to fit right in the corners of the tin and folded down tightly over the sides. Another reason for doing this is that the foil conducts heat better than the baking paper.


• Pop in an oven sheet when you preheat the oven and place your pie tin on to that, rather than just the shelf of the oven. This will cook your base quicker, as otherwise the sides may be ready before the base.


• I fill the pie crust with metal nuts (as in nuts and bolts) rather than rice or pulses. Again, this is for the heat transferrance benefit.

Depending on the recipe, the paper / foil and nuts / rice, etc. is removed and the crust baked for another 10 minutes or so to brown it up. At this point, have a quick look at your crust to see if it has cracked or shrunk and any holes have opened up. For obvious reasons, you don't want any holes when a liquid filling is to be added. Reserve a little of your pastry after trimming it up to fit to the tin so that you can patch up any holes.

If after a few minutes of baking the sides of the crust are becoming too brown (remember they will be exposed when the filling is baked, use a little of the foil to fold along the edges to protect them.

The lemon tart recipe comes from Donna Hay, Modern Classics 2, which is a fantastic book. I use this book for desserts more than any other.

2 cups plain flour
150g cold butter, chopped
3 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar
2-3 tablespoons iced water

Filling

3/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup cream
3 eggs, lightly beaten

Place the flour, butter and sugar in a food processor and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water and process in short bursts until the pastry just comes together. Turn out and bring together to form a ball. Flatten the pastry, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface until 2mm thick.

Place pastry in a 22cm fluted removable base tin. Prick the base with a fork. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Line the pastry with non-stick baking paper (foil for me), fill with baking weights (nuts) and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the weights and paper and bake for a further 2-3 minutes or until golden. Set aside.

Reduce the oven to 140 degrees C.

To make the lemon filling, place the sugar and lemon juice in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Add the egg and cream and stir for 5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Pour the mixture through a strainer into the tart shell . Bake for 20 minutes or until just set.

Allow to cool and refrigerate until completely set. Serve with whipped cream. Yum!

More Sunday Suppers here.