A bit of scrummy baking

After a weekend of painting I am sick of the sight of brushes, paint pots, plastic and mess. So Monday started the "get the house back into order" blitz. And being me if I can procrastinate and not finish anything then watch out. So yesterday procrastination or delaying tactics were in play big time.

So I sat and had a coffee and watched "Rachel Allen Bake" off Choice TV. I thought -surely I can do that. So I made the short pastry ( in the last few years I have been cheating and buying pastry) and then made the filling. It was the yummiest Lemon Slice I think I have had. A lot of slices are to have with a cup of tea like a biscuit - this is not so. This is more like a dessert slice. My experience of lemon slices is that they are really rich with lots of butter and cream to set it. Not this.

It is creamy but really light. Sweet but still having the tartness of the lemon shine through. Then because the oven was on and I was not sure if the kids would have this for dessert I made some chocolate brownie too.

One thing about Rachel Allen was she said to use glad wrap for the lining when blind baking. She said it would not melt. Well I tried it. It did not melt onto the pastry or the beans but it sure shrank and melted on itself. Never again!!!!

Pastry
200g flour
100g chilled butter cubed. Rub butter into flour. Add
1 T icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
break 1 egg into little bowl and whisk. Add half the egg to the pastry and with your hands just start mixing. Add the other half and bring the dough to the point where it is clumpy. Pile it onto some gladwrap and wrap it so that it is the shape of a saucer. Push the dough once wrapped and the clumps will stick together. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll it  out and put it into your 20-25cm flan tin with loose bottom. Line the pastry with baking paper - put in your blind baking beans and bake in the oven for 20 min at 180oC. Remove from oven and brush with beaten egg to seal the pastry. Pop back in the oven for 2-3 minutes. (this stops the pastry getting wet and soggy). Remove from oven. Lower oven to 160oC and put the liquid filling in. Bake for 25-35min. It should still wobble when cooked as it will keep cooking on removal.

Filling
3 eggs and 125g castor sugar whisked together. Add the zest of 1 lemon, juice 3 lemons and juice of 1 orange. Then whisk in 150ml cream. Taste the filling and add 1 T castor sugar if you need it.

Serve when cool and sprinkle with icing sugar.

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