Lemon Tart

Lena, this one is for you...

I took a leap of faith.  I was pretty sure that lemon curd and my new "tastes like shortbread cookie" pastry would marry together perfectly.  And they did.  Cue the food-gasm face.  We all made it.  And then we went back for seconds.

Lemon curd, it turns out, is probably one of the easiest desserts you will ever make.  Really, it is.  You don't HAVE to put it in a pie shell.  If you like make-work projects, you could make single-serving tart shells, but I'm not into that kind of labour.  Or, you could just serve lemon curd over plain full-fat yogurt, if you eat dairy.  Or coconut milk yogurt if you don't.  I LOVE it in plain yogurt.  You could serve it over some kind of paleo-ified cheesecake or raw vegan cheesecake for those of you who don't eat dairy/cream cheese (I can't touch the stuff--kills me every time).  The lemon curd would go fabulously on a number of things.  It could go over vanilla ice cream, if you wanted it to.    Can you imagine it if you mixed a bunch of shaved coconut into the crust so it made some kind of lemon-coconut square?  Yea, you're welcome.

So here's how simple it really is....  (You will recognize it's the same crust as the berry tart)

Ingredients:

Tart Shell:

3/4 c almond meal
1/3 c coconut flour
1/3 c tapioca starch
1/4 c butter, at room temperature
1 Tbs honey
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

Lemon Curd:

1/3 c honey
1/3 c butter
2 eggs + 3 egg yolks
pinch salt
2/3 c lemon juice

For the crust; heat oven to 325 degrees.  Mix all ingredients together, form into a ball and move to a pie plate.  Press dough down onto pie plate and up 1/2 of the sides.  Bake for 7 minutes.  Move to cooling rack and let cool.  It will not turn golden or puff up or anything.  Just trust that it's done.  Don't overcook it.

For the filling:  Using an electric mixer, combine the butter, eggs, salt and honey until smooth.  Add lemon juice.  Don't worry if it curdles a tiny bit at this point.  It'll sort itself out when you heat it.  Heat the mixture over a double boiler, whisking constantly, until it thickens enough to coat spoon (3-5 minutes).  Pour it into your prepared pie shell and refrigerate until cooled and firm (about 2 hours).