I love my festive sugar. I love the chocolate. I love the gingerbread. I love the cakes. Love it all. But even a junkie such as I reaches a point, around about December 30th I think, where I simply have had enough. And I say thee nay, Quality Street! And I say thee nay, Celebrations! And I say thee nay, Gingerbread!
Well, today was December 30th and I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore. So I reached for one of my favourite non-festive, Festive season recipes. Citron Tart. It’s a lovely fresh dessert and very easy to make. All the pastry-related bits can be done the night before and when it’s finished it will sit happily in your fridge for a day. It’s a great treat if you want something you can make well in advance and forget about. The ingredients are as follows:
As you can see, it passes my important all-the-ingredients-can-be-bought-in-a-Spar rule. First of all, make your pastry using the flour, icing sugar, egg yolks and water. Ball it up, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for a half-hour. Take it out, roll it and line your greased pie plate. Prick the base with a fork and return to the fridge for another half-hour. Then do your blind baking, a step I really quite dislike. Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper, fill with baking beans and bake for 20 minutes at 160c or gas mark 3.
Take out your pastry case, remove the beans and the greaseproof and brush with beaten egg. Return to the oven for a further five minutes. While all this baking is going on make your filling by whisking the caster sugar and eggs together. 
Add the lemon jest, lemon juice and cream. Whisk again until it’s all nicely incorporated and set aside until the foam settles a little.
Reduce your oven heat to 140c or gas mark 1. Pour the filling into the pastry case and bake for around 30 minutes or until the filling is nicely set.
The … ahem … brulee effect on the top is not in the original recipe and was of course completely intentional on my part. I often go for a more … um… caramelised finish than the recipe calls for because I believe this really concentrates the flavours. It’s not a technique favoured by say, conventional, hide-bound chefs who watch the clock when they are baking, but I do see it catching on.
Grieving Without Gods 