Gerry Krueger's legendary luscious lemon sponge tart....

I guarantee that this dessert will become a legend among the lemon lovers of your friends and family.  The sponge is like eating a lemon cloud.

Put a pie crust in 10" tart pan with removable bottom (I use either a high sided 10" or lower sided 11-12" one.  Put crust to top of sides. 



Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
6 T. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
2 T. lemon zest
4 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 T. butter, melted
1/2 t. salt
2 cup milk
4 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix together the sugar and flour
Add the lemon juice and zest, eggs yolks, butter and salt.  Mix well.  Mix in the milk. (This batter will seem impossibly thin but that is how it is)

Using clean beaters and bowl, beat egg whites until firm: fold gently into batter.

Pour into prepared pan  Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 300 degrees, and bake for an additional 45 or until the top is golden and the sponge filling springs back to a  light touch

Meantime prepare lemon curd and chill it.  Spread on top of cooled sponge.  Sprinkled with slivered almonds. (optional)

Lemon Curd (This will always be your "go-to" recipe for lemon curd...the absolute best.  I make it and put it in small jars for hostess gifts.)

1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
2 t. finely grated lemon zest
1/2 c.  sugar
3 large eggs and 1 egg yolk
6 T. butter cut into bits

Whisk together juice, zest, sugar, and eggs in 2-quart heavy saucepan.  Stir in butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking constantly until curd is thick and the first bubbles appear on the surface, about 6 minutes.  At this point I put it through a fine sieve into a bowl and chill, covered with plastic wrap  When both  tart and curd are chilled spread curd on top of sponge tart.

Tart is best served chilled and can even be made ahead, frozen, and served slightly thawed...

Progress and dreaded glue gun...

 Well I have all the pages hand sewn to the spine which was an relative easy job because I had the sew lines well marked with stitching. Now I will cover this side of the spine with black felt. and then add the covers.         The 1/4" spacing I chose was about right but I could have added a tad more even.

 

The cover are done except for the final touches... "Glue gunning" was a skill I hadn't ever mastered and it has been about 20 years since I used one.. But I had to have a few damaged brain cells when I thought could see well enough to sew with black thread on black ribbon to bind the pages...

I used a glue gun (rather badly) to apply both the ribbon binding and the trim\ The glue came out in lines too thin or to heavy so I need practice for sure on my trigger control.



In the process I managed to burn about every finger, glue the glue gun to the stand, glue the glue gun to the table and even glue a block to the table.  I ended up with bits of unwanted glue several places. I'm hoping I will improve with practice..  With all the improvements to technology over the years I thought maybe someone had invented a better glue gun....NOT!!

So I went to Google to see if there were helpful tips and there were many sites... Most all cautioned not to touch the hot glue gun which I think is quite obvious and the rest of the tips were about as helpful... like: "If sitting down while working, make sure you wear long pants to avoid burns from any stray drips of hot glue. "

 However there were a few that were new to me.
1.Vaseline on the tip of the glue gun to prevent little glue hairs.
2. Try rubbing alcohol to remove unwanted glue which I will definitely need to try.
3. Store your glue sticks in a spot with low humidity to prevent glue hairs.
4.  Use a hair dryer to soften unwanted glue spots.

When I posted about my Valentine Dinner I forgot to add photo of my all time favorite dessert... Lemon Sponge Tart..  I thought the recipe was on the site but I couldn't find it so I will type it to share... Particularly great recipe if you need a mostly gluten-free dessert. If a lemon lover like me you NEED this recipe.

I confess... I did it AGAIN!!!

Yes indeed...walking through Costco I again put a big bag of lemons in my cart.  Since I blog about this foolhardy compulsion about once a year, you would think I would remember just how much baking I had to do to use up a whole bag of lemons. 

So I began this morning and made a Lemon Sour Cream Pie.... and tonight we'll have lemon risotto for dinner..  That takes 3 lemons...which leaves about 10 large ones left.

I always do my favorite Lemon Sponge tart....this dirties about 6 bowls and makes a disaster area of the kitchen.

 And then I make mini-loaves of Sour Cream Lemon Pound cake...
I usually do a couple batches of these and freeze them.. But my freezer died just before I left for Houston. and I haven't replaced it yet... That will use 4 more lemons... 6 left

I have yet to find the perfect recipe for lemon cookies,.  Last year I made Pecan-oatmeal-lemon cookies....good but not real lemony.. If you have a good recipe for lemon cookies...send it to me..

Then there will have to be some lemon curd and lemon gelato (whoops..no freezer - no gelato).    I just might  use them up as always.... It always happens in the winter... I think it is a seasonal disorder... On a grey day a bag of yellow lemons looks the solution to all my problems...