home is where the tart is

as long as i'm talking about tarts i'll mention a sweet one. John really loves this tart book called "tarts, sweet and savory" and another of the last ones he made was a lemon cheese tart. Maxine Clark is the author of this book and she has a long history as a leading food writer and teacher. the hardest thing about this recipe is the "blind baking" of the crust, which is not really all that difficult. it basically entails first cooking the crust without the filling in it, or "blind", so that it stays crisp after the whole tart is cooked WITH the filling. all you do is cover the tart shell with beans or rice or these special marbles, and cook it before pouring in the filling and baking it again. you fill the shell with these beans or whatever so that the tart shell does not bubble up as it is being baked "blind". this usually has to be done with tarts and its an essential step. one of the first tarts he ever made from this book is an apple one and it is absolutely delish; but the book says its a "french" apple tart and i'm like, what the fuck?! the only thing french about it is the fact that the book author called it "tarte aux pommes" which basically means "apple tart" in french but SO WHAT?! i mean, if i called it "tartaleta de manzanas" (which is just "apple tart" in spanish) would i say it was a spanish apple tart?! fuck no! it's still just a damn apple fucking tart!!! when you're in china they don't call the food there "chinese food" it's just FOOD! WHATEVER! anyway, as i said this is a really easy tart recipe so i'm including it below, plus a picture of how ours came out.

THE RECIPE

1 shortcrust pastry and 9 inch false bottom tart pan
1 lemon
1/3 cup sugar
12oz or 1 and 1/2 cup of cream cheese of cottage cheese
1 large egg plus 3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

bring the dough to room temperature, and preheat the oven to 375 degrees

roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface and use to line the tart pan. prick the base, then chill or freeze for 15 minutes and bake blind (about 10-12 minutes).
peel the zest from the lemon leaving behind any white pith, and squeeze the juice. put the zest and sugar into a food processor or small blender, and blend until the sugar and zest mixture looks damp.
add the lemon juice and blend again-the lemon zest should be completely dissolved into the sugar. add the cheese, egg yolks, whole egg, and vanilla extract. blend until smooth and pour into the baked crust.
bake for about 25 minutes until just set and lightly browned on top. remove from the oven and let cool.