Sunday 4 January 2015

Lemon & Ginger Crunch Tart

To see the New Year in, I hosted a bring and share supper night with my friends. I love hosting parties like this, it takes the pressure off hosting for everyone and means you can enjoy a selection of little bits of lots of different dishes. My friends pulled out all the stops and made sure everything they brought was also gluten free, which was a lovely gesture. We ended up with far too much food, but this creates the joy of leftovers for lunch the next day.

This lemon tart was my offering to the dessert selection. It’s one of my favourites, I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about it before. It’s very quick and simple to put together but results in a dessert that’s a cross between cheesecake and tarte au citron. It uses only 5 ingredients, 2 for the base and 3 for the topping, yet tastes like you have slaved away for ages.

The lemon topping is made from sweetened condensed milk, double cream and lots of lemon. The acidity in the lemon juice reacts with the cream, causing it to thicken almost instantly as you mix it together, creating a thick and zingy mixture that sets into a soft yet sliceable topping after a short chill in the fridge. It’s creamy, sweet and also extremely zingy which makes for a very refreshing tart.

The base is made of ginger biscuits, which is a lovely flavour pairing and adds gentle warmth against the zesty lemon topping. If you can find stem ginger biscuits, it’s even better as the little chunks of stem ginger adds a nice occasional chewy bite to the base when you come across one. Crunchy ginger base and zingy lemon topping, so simple yet so delicious.

Lemon & Ginger Crunch Tart
Ingredients
200g gluten free stem ginger biscuits
40g butter
1 x 397g tin sweetened condensed milk
125ml double cream
Zest & juice of 2 lemons

Method
Line the base of an 8inch/20cm springform tin or tart tin with greaseproof paper.
Blitz ginger biscuits in a food processor until they are broken into crumbs.
Melt the butter in a pan. Add the ginger biscuits to the pan and mix well to combine. Press the mixture into the base of the tin and press down well. Transfer to the fridge to chill.
Finely grate the zest off the lemons and add to a bowl along with the condensed milk and cream. Add the juice from both lemons and whisk together using a handheld whisk until thick and creamy. It should start to thicken up almost instantly into a smooth pourable cream.
Pour the lemon mix over the biscuit base and return to the fridge to set, around 6 hours.
Garnish with a slice of lemon before serving.

Makes 1 x 8inch/20cm tart

5 comments:

Gluten Free Alchemist said...

Yum! Everyone needs a quick 'pretend you've slaved away' recipe in their repertoire. So simple, but looks divine. They do a lovely stem ginger dark chocolate-coated GF cookie in the Tesco Finest range which is pretty decadent, but I bet they would be amazing crushed up into the base of this.... Bookmarked! Ginger.... dark chocolate.... lemon....

Choclette said...

I love potluck suppers. Everyone always seems to make an effort and there is usually something extra scrumptious you'd never have thought of. Your tart sounds scrumptious indeed. Though after having lots of lemon and ginger whilst I had the flu, I think I might need a break before trying this out. Hope you had a super Christmas and I wish you a very Happy New Year.

Johanna GGG said...

Wow this sounds delicious and your supper sounds lovely - funny to see this recipe today as we have been talking about what to make to please all the family including celiacs and cheesecake is top of the list - this looks quite similar to a cheesecake (only better - love condensed milk)

Emily said...

I love how simple this tart is + I love lemon and ginger together. This sounds fantastic!

plasterers bristol said...

mm yummy, i love this. Great recipe. Thanks for posting.

simon