California is a perfect place for growing lemon trees. They like the sunshine and grow happily here. I always see lush lemon trees with plenty of lemons in people's backyard. Meyer lemon is California's special. They were imported from China and improved in California. They have a sweeter and more floral taste than other lemons. Their skin is smoothy, fragrant and thin, colored a deep yellow with a slight orange tint when they are ripe.
My friends told me they had so many lemons that they didn't know what to do with them. If you like the sourness and fresh aroma of lemon, you will like to use them for making lemon tart. It's made of a sweet dough crust and lemon curd which contains lemon juice, eggs, sugar and butter. Lemon tart is usually decorated with meringue made with egg whites and sugar. The meringue becomes golden after baked a few seconds in the oven, which makes the tart more pretty, but too sweet for my taste.
Lemon tarts are one of the most common tarts in the pastry shops in France, among apple tarts, pear tarts, apricot tarts, etc. I wonder when people started to use lemon cream to fill the tart shell for the first time.
While I was looking for the origin of this tart, I found the earliest version of lemon tart is called Key Lime Pie, dated in 1850s in Florida, Unite States. Key Lime Pie is made of Key limes juice, egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk in a pie crust, with a meringue topping. The ship savager, William Curry, who lived at Key West, Florida, first wrote down the recipe of Key Lime Pie. His cook Aunt Sally learned this recipe from the local fishermen and renovated it. I wonder if the French lemon tart was inspired by the American lime pie.
Lemon tarts are one of the most common tarts in the pastry shops in France, among apple tarts, pear tarts, apricot tarts, etc. I wonder when people started to use lemon cream to fill the tart shell for the first time.
While I was looking for the origin of this tart, I found the earliest version of lemon tart is called Key Lime Pie, dated in 1850s in Florida, Unite States. Key Lime Pie is made of Key limes juice, egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk in a pie crust, with a meringue topping. The ship savager, William Curry, who lived at Key West, Florida, first wrote down the recipe of Key Lime Pie. His cook Aunt Sally learned this recipe from the local fishermen and renovated it. I wonder if the French lemon tart was inspired by the American lime pie.
While in France, Monton, a city in the southern is famous for lemon festival in every February. It has a reputation of high quality lemons and their products, such as lemon jam, lemon flavored olive oil, lemon flavored vodka, etc. It mush have a long tradition of making lemon tarts too.
Zozo and Monica gave me a lot of lemons from their backyard, so I was able to make a lemon tart for my friends. They like the crunchy of sweet dough and freshness of lemon cream. I like the smiles on their faces. I think a lemon tart has a taste of sunshine and it's a great gift of our nature.
Zozo and Monica gave me a lot of lemons from their backyard, so I was able to make a lemon tart for my friends. They like the crunchy of sweet dough and freshness of lemon cream. I like the smiles on their faces. I think a lemon tart has a taste of sunshine and it's a great gift of our nature.
