Food & Wine
Date and lemon tart
This Middle Eastern inspired date and lemon tart dessert is a delicious way to finish any meal and will really impress guests at your next dinner party.
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup caster sugar
- 125g butter
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 egg
- 1 ¼ cups flour
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 150g caster sugar
- ¾ cup lemon juice
- ½ cup cream
- 12 fresh dates, stoned and halved
- Icing sugar to serve
- Clotted cream to serve
Method:
- For the pastry process sugar, butter, zest and cinnamon in a food processor until well mixed.
- Add the egg and process until smooth.
- Add the flour and process until the mixture just forms a ball, then remove from the processor, form into a flat disc and wrap in plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate until firm enough to roll out.
- Roll the pastry out on a well-floured surface; use it to line a 28cm-diameter, loose-bottomed tart tin. This is very short pastry – if you have trouble getting it into the tin, just pick it up in pieces with a fish slice and patch it into the tin, pressing the pastry in so it lines the tin evenly. Put the tin into the fridge until the pastry is cold and hard.
- Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line the tin with foil or ovenproof paper and fill with baking beans or weights. Bake blind for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is well cooked.
- Remove the lining paper and weights and then add the filling.
- For the filling, turn the oven down to 150°C.
- Put eggs, sugar, juice and cream into a bowl and stir until sugar dissolves (it does).
- Place dates cut side down in concentric circles in the bottom of the cooked pastry case.
- Carefully pour in the filling mixture.
- Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes or until the filling is completely set.
- Remove tart from the oven, cool and chill.
- Serve dusted with a thick drift of icing sugar and clotted cream if desired.
Doesn’t this recipe sound incredible! Have you tried a similar dish, and if so how did you find it? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you.
Written by Ray McVinnie. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.
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