Update: This is an old post, but as of 2019 this recipe is still a favorite. In fact, my daughter now makes it! You can find the recipe on Serious Eats or better yet, in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home To Yours.
Today we went to a food blogger potluck at “The Soup Peddler’s” house. David’s contributions, other than his house and yard and everything else, were some boneless whole chickens with various Cajun stuffings. The chickens were given to him by a friend/customer who’d spent an entire day shopping for them. Impressive? Yes, but not as impressive as the fact that there is such thing as boneless whole chickens. I wish we had them in Austin, because carving chicken is a lot more fun when it’s boneless and the presentation was interesting. I’ve never seen a Turducken, but I’m thinking it looks like those chickens. There was lots of other great food as well. For now, I will tell you about dessert.
These are the desserts I remember — sugar cookies shaped like Texas, a strawberry tart, lots of beautifully decorated and interestingly flavored cupcakes including Pina Colada and Irish Car Bomb, a blackberry cobbler, chocolate cookies, beignets from Cissi’s Market, a cake, MORE cupcakes and there were definitely others that appeared after I’d left. My contribution, along with chipotle peanut butter cookies and blondies, was this lemon tart from Dorie Greenspan’s book.
Dorie’s tart was smooth and lemony and very simple to prepare, though you do have to stand at the stove and whisk for 10 minutes. It’s also great because it can be made ahead, but I’m not sure I’d make it ahead for a potluck because the tart isn’t ideal for being carried. Luckily, I had an insulated bag and some ice packs and the tart made it to the party okay, but this seems better for a party at home where you can garnish each serving with fresh, cold fruit. People seemed to like it, but I didn’t go around taking a survey so it’s hard to say. Todd liked it and was bummed he had to give it up for the potluck. I’m inspired to make more tarts!
Here’s a photo of it before I packed it up. Next time I will garnish it with fresh fruit and will probably serve it at home rather than at a potluck. But it was definitely good.
Anna, I just noticed your Breezy Lemon-Berry Dessert was printed in the Taste of Home Bonus book. Woo Hoo!!!!
Lemon sounds perfectly tempting this week, Anna.
Hi, Anna! It was great to finally meet you at the potluck. Since I’m always on the lookout for great lemony desserts to bake for my mom, I had to take a taste of this tart filling and it was outstanding. She will love it, and I will love getting a mini workout whisking away at the stovetop.
Hi Anna,
It was nice to meet you on Sunday, and your lemon tart was fantastic! Very nice balance of sweet and tart. Did you get any answers about the two blondie versions?
-Lisa
Mm… that chicken sounds delicious.
And I’ve made that tart before and it was good, but I like Dorie’s Tartest Lemon Tart more, which is surprising as I’m not a huge lemon dessert-lover. (It’s the one that uses the whole lemon, pith and all)
Anna – It was so great to meet you and your lovely family yesterday. Thank you so much for making the tart and then sharing it with us. It was the perfect combination of lemon and cream and I’m looking forward to trying it myself.
Sounds like such a great time, Anna! I’ve never heard of whole boneless chickens either. Wow, how does such a thing exist, and why don’t I know where to find them? And this tart, of course, looks spectacular!
Here you go — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3aTtJUjnNU
Your tart is making my mouth water…bet it was very good! I bought Dorie’s book when you first starting blogging about it. Wonderful recipe book…thanks. Hmmm…having ladies for lunch this week…the tart would be perfect, wouldn’t it? Thanks!
Katrina, I feel like trying another tart now. Dorie’s was so good. I have a bunch of tart recipes that I just haven’t made lately, including a great strawberry rhubarb tart recipe from Once Upon a Tart.
Emily, you’ve probably memorized that recipe by now.
Laurie and Louise, turducken sounds funny, but what I really need to search for are the boneless whole chickens.
Gina, that’s crazy! Now if only I’d made the car bomb cupcakes. Those were Emma’s favorite and I think Addie, the food editor here in Austin, liked them too. Those were made by Jenii.
http://misohungrynow.blogspot.com/2009/05/irish-carbombs-go-boom.html
Louise (and Sue)
About the blondie taste test, I cut the blondies into triangles and squares. People who I asked said they liked the squares better. The squares were CI. One thing I’ve learned is people I know (and myself) are leaning towards blondies made with melted butter rather than creamed.
The tart looks great and I love lemon. I hope you got some opinions on the blondies and blog about the results today. And, I’ll have to dig out some photos of our Christmas dinners. We’ve been having turducken from Heberts the last several years. http://www.hebertsmeats.com They’re fantastic.
Man, we must be on the same wavelength! I made the culturally-insensitive-but yummy “Irish Car Bomb” cupcakes over spring break, and I made that SINFUL lemon tart from Dorie for Easter! YUM!!
Here’s what mine looked like:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UMEpTib9nWY/SfaOeqpQ7jI/AAAAAAAADJM/xc_RuXpQZko/s1600-h/lemontartslice.JPG
The tart looks so smooth! I like lemon desserts and don’t make them enough. I wish I had more excuses to make desserts.
Did you get any feedback on your blondies? It sounds like there were lots of desserts.
Turducken is fantastic………….
Lemon desserts are my absolute favorite. Also: made my zillionth batch of pumpkin-chocolate-chip cookies. They have changed my life. For the Wonderful!
Looks GREAT. After Dorie’s yummy tartest tart we just did for TWD, that was de-lish, I’ll have to try this one, too, sometime!