Razzleberry Lemon Custard Tart

How about a recipe?  It’s been awhile.  :)  I found this gem at Lick the Bowl Good. I’m certain most of you have taken a gander at Monica’s blog but if you haven’t yet you are missing out on a delicious blog! 

I pretty much followed the recipe as written. I did have to use a 10 springform pan instead of the 9 inch as I didn’t have one. Or it could just be that my baking pan situation is out of control and I can’t remember that I have one.  My other change was swapping out the blueberries for raspberries and blackberries. If you’ll notice from my photo I probably should have gone with a smaller pan.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it until after I had already pre-baked my crust and poured in the custard.  It also didn’t help that my blackberries were HUGE!

Razzleberry Lemon Custard Tart, adapted from Lick the Bowl Good (printable recipe)

• 3 cups fresh or frozen berries (1 pound, I used a combination of raspberry & blackberry)

Shortbread Crust:

• 1 stick plus 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Lemon Custard:

• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• Zest and juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup juice)
• Powdered sugar, for dusting

Drain the blueberries in a strainer set over a bowl. Preheat the oven to 400°.

For the shortbread crust:  Using your fingers, combine the butter, 1/2 cup of the sugar and 1 & 1/2 cups of the flour and blend together until coarse crumbs form (You can use a pastry blender to incorporate the ingredients or a food processor works well too). Pour the mixture into an ungreased nonstick 9-inch springform or cake pan (If you do not have a 9 inch I suggest going with a slightly smaller pan and baking for a little longer.) and press down evenly to form a crust. Bake the shortbread crust until lightly golden, about 20 minutes.
Remove the shortbread from the oven and reduce the temperature to 325°. Scatter the drained berries evenly over the baked shortbread.

For the lemon custard:  Beat the eggs with the 3/4 cup of sugar until thick and pale yellow. (Here’s where I always stray from the recipe.  I mix the zest with the sugar, giving it a stronger lemon flavor.) Whisk in the lemon zest, the lemon juice, and the 1/4 cup of flour. Pour the lemon cream over the berries.
Bake the tart until the custard is set, about 30 minutes. (See note below) Let cool completely, then dust with powdered sugar. (I forgot to.)

NOTE:  It may take longer than 30 minutes to bake.  The top of the custard doesn't brown much so it's hard to tell if it's done, but it shouldn't be wet and liquidy. The custard is done when it firms up in the center. I gave my pan a gentle shake to check.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the four of us might have polished this off in one day. Maybe……  :)

Babygirl’s Strawberry Topped Cheesy Lemon Pie

This beauty is brought to you by my babygirl.  She not only made the pie by herself, she also took the photos.  ( I edited them in Picasa.)  In keeping with the theme of today’s post I’m going to allow McKenna, aka Babygirl tell you all about her pie.

Hi! This is Babygirl and I really loved this pie that I made.  It was fun and a little easy but it was more fun. Instead of just tossing the berries on top I wanted to make a flower with strawberries. (Well my mommy told me about it and I like the idea so I went with it.) It was hard making the strawberry flower because you have to pick the right strawberry slices. If you want to make the strawberry flower you can find it on Ms. Monica’s blog. If you have any questions send them to my mama and say that they are for me. Thank you. Babygirl out.

Here’s the adapted recipe by Babygirl: 

 Strawberry Topped Cheesy Lemon Pie, printable recipe

Ingredients:

• 18 graham cracker squares, crushed
• 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted
• 3 TBS granulated sugar
• 1 lemon, zested & juiced
• 16 oz cream cheese (2 8 oz blocks) at room temperature
• 14oz sweetened condensed milk (1 can)
• Various berries for decoration

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place graham cracker crumbs in a medium sized bowl, sprinkle sugar over top, and pour in melted sugar.  Stir well with a wooden spoon.  Once the mixture is even in color place it into a 9 inch pie pan.  Using your fingers pat crust  mixture into place covering the bottom of the pie pan and completely up the sides.  Once the crust has been shape, bake for 6 to 7 minutes.  Remove from the oven and set  on cooling rack. Allow to cool completely. Meanwhile place cream cheese in a medium bowl and beat until smooth.  Add sweetened condensed milk and beat well, about 1 minute. Scrap down sides of bowl and add in lemon zest and juice.  Beat until smooth scraping down sides as needed.  Pour cream mixture into cooled pie crust and smooth out top.  Chill in the fridge at least 3 hours.  After the 3 hours or prior to serving top with fresh berries.

The original un-adapted recipe can be found in William Sonoma’s Sweet Treats.  This is a great book for young kids interested in baking.  Babygirl has successful made 5 or 6 recipes out of it!

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A proud Mommy moment, Babygirl was awarded The Presidential Award for Educational Excellence!  Only 20 out of 99 fifth graders in her school received it!  :) YAY!

Disappearing Strawberry Shortcake Cake

I first saw this lovely cake on the blog, The Kitchen Sink Recipes and then again on Monica’s blog, Lick the Bowl Good.  I don’t recall The Kitchen Sink Recipes mentioning any problems with her strawberries sinking but I know Monica said that some of her berries did.  I spent a lot of time arranging my strawberries in a pretty pattern and matching up like sizes.  My strawberries? They disappeared altogether.  So much so that when I took the cake out of the oven Babygirl exclaimed, “What happened to the strawberries? Ooooo, you messed up!”  Too funny.  She said it like I was in trouble. The reason she thought I messed up was because before baking my cake I showed Babygirl Monica’s photos of her cake. 

Despite the fact that my strawberries sunk the cake was a hit with all three of my children and the Twins’ friend, Deacon who happened to be spending  the night.  I had one slice and they gobbled up the rest leaving nary a crumb.  My favorite part was the crust that formed on top from the raw sugar.  I wasn’t crazy about the berry portion but that’s not surprising as warm mushy fruit usually doesn’t do it for me.  I prefer for the berries to be pureed and then added.  I have though recently made several yummy desserts with blackberries that Babygirl and Jalen picked and brought back to me from PopPop’s farm in NC.  I  really liked them so maybe it was just the strawberries this time.  I’ll be telling you more about them at a later time.

 

Disappearing Strawberry Shortcake Cake

• 6 Tbs unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pie plate
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tbs raw sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (I go the milk & vinegar route)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste) 
• 1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.

Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, buttermilk, and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to buttered pie plate. Arrange strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons raw or granulated sugar over berries.

Bake cake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 1 hour. Let cool in pie plate on a wire rack. Cut into wedges. Cake can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, up to 2 days.

NOTE: You can use all strawberries (1 pound) or a combination of berries that you prefer. Use enough to cover the top of the batter and pray that your berries don’t disappear. If your berries should disappear flip it out of the pie plate and call it a upside down cake.   (Wish I would have thought of that BEFORE.)

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