Remember my rant about unreliable recipes? Well, here is a new one! Returning from the Côte d'Azur my neighbor brought me this:
Lovely, ripe and juicy lemons from Menton where the annual Lemon Festival is in full swing right now. Imagine, they use 140 tonnes of oranges and lemons there every year to decorate the huge floats! To do my bit of celebrating I decided to try out a new recipe for Tarte au Citron - Lemon Tart I had just found in one of my cookbooks. All went well until the last step that asked for decorating the already baked tart with lemon slices, powdering it with confectioner's sugar and passing the tart under the grill "for 3 to 5 minutes". Now hold your breath - this is the before picture.
Trusting soul that I am I put the tart under the grill and went just around the corner to empty the washing machine. Came back after no more than two minutes and had this:
DO NOT EVER TRUST A RECIPE !!!
Today I tried again. Only this time I stood right by the oven and guess what? It did take exactly one minute to caramelize the sugar! And tasted just like a Tarte au Citron should: tart and lemony and with just a hint of sweetness! And that cookbook? Went into the trash can, just like that first Tarte.
You made me smile. I certainly think you have to look at recipes with some skepticism until you have made it for yourself. You never know how well the recipe was tested before being published.
ReplyDeleteI have seen some pictures from the Menton citrus festival and their creations depicting various regions of France are quite amazing.
There are recipes and there are stoves....
ReplyDeleteI can just imagine the tart and sweet taste; would love to see Menton's festival.
Rita
I love lemon tarts. Sorry about the first one but persistance pays. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day.
ReplyDeletegreat looking tarte, feel inspired to make one myself and it is encouraging to see others do have little glitches like myself. ; )
ReplyDeleteBeautiful this tart. Great job and love the display of the lemons too! Lemon tart is always such a nice dessert and the French are always the best at it.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice weekend!
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ReplyDeleteI would love to try this sometime it looks and sounds delicious. You should see what I've done with my Maple Chicken and Ribs.
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I hate that when you turn your back for 30 seconds longer than you should....
ReplyDeleteThis recipe sounds fantastic, we both love lemons so I am sure it would go down well in this house. Diane
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