On Friday, Adriano complained that we were running out of baking before the weekend and that I was to bake four things this time. So I did! I baked some muesli bars for a guest post, which I will tell you about when it happens. Then I cooked some basic chocolate chip cookies, a carrot cake with cream cheese topping and this lemon tart. I will post the other two recipes later in the week. All of them turned out well and I hope I made enough to keep him happy. He raced again today and won so a lot of calories are needed to replace those lost.
Until now I have been ad-free on this blog except one in the footer but in the last few days, you may have noticed an ad at the top of the blog as well. I belong to the Village Green Network, which is a wonderful group of hard-working women who blog about eating real food and living healthy. This network requires us all to have at least two ads to help towards the costs of running the organisation and I have decided to put one of them at the top of the blog. The Village Green ads will be the only ones that you will see on here.
As to the continuing saga of my neck, I have been to a specialist who has me on a regime to see if we can avoid a small procedure which involves frying the nerves around the troublesome joints. Apparently, it doesn’t affect anything except it removes the pain. I’ll go down that track if I have to but meanwhile I am hopeful that I won’t have to. It hasn’t been too bad since I have seen her but that may be the placebo effect.
Meanwhile another week of work awaits me and I must (mentally) prepare my neck for it.
LEMON TART
Ingredients
For the pastry
100gms/4.7oz white rice flour BUY HERE
33gms/1.16oz brown rice flour BUY HERE
22gms/0.8oz tapioca flour BUY HERE
45gms/1.6oz potato starch BUY HERE
pinch of salt
1 heaped tbsp sugar
100gms/3.5oz butter
1 medium egg
For the filling
150 grams butter, melted
1/2 cup lemon juice
grated rind of 2 lemons
5 eggs
1/2 cup castor sugar
Method
For the pastry
1. Blend all the dry ingredients in a food processor.
2. Add the butter cut into small pieces to the food processor and process until fine crumbs form.
3. Add the egg and process until it forms a dough.
4. Remove from the processor and add a little more rice flour if it is too wet – this depends on the size of your egg.
5. Press into a greased tart dish with a removable bottom and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 180°C/360°F.
7. Place baking paper in the base of the tart and fill with rice or dried beans and blind bake for 20 minutes.
For the filling
1. Beat all the ingredients together.
2. Pour into the prepared pastry shell.
3. Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until set.
4. Cool in the baking tin and then remove.
I’ve been ad-free too, but am currently rethinking that. Almost all the blogs I read have ads, and I don’t find them distracting – which has been the main reason I haven’t had any. I didn’t even notice that you had ads until you mentioned it! Anyway, lovely tart. Lemon is one of my favorite flavors. I do hope you solve your neck problem. It’s literally a pain in the neck!
Yes, it is a pain in the neck!!
I think we can be too purist with our blogs. The ads would only bring in a little money anyway but anything to offset the costs of running our blogs would be welcome.
That tart looks like it’ll be sweet and zingy! I can’t wait to try it x
It is sweet and zingy so do give it a try.
Congrats to Adriano on his win! That’s great news. I’m glad you’re getting a few things sorted with your neck. That’s a lot of baking in one day! I love lemon tarts and this looks wonderful xx
Thanks, the neck is not too bad today.
It was a lot of baking but i did two on Saturday and two on Sunday so didn’t feel too bad..
That sounds fab. I’m really looking forward to trying out your pastry recipe. Gluten-free pastry is ridiculously expensive to buy, so thanks heaps for a delicious, homemade option. Funnily enough I also baked a carrot cake (on Friday), and I was mostly pleased with it, but modified a couple of things and made it again today… and… success! “great minds think alike” 🙂
The pastry recipe is a good one. It holds together well. I have never tried a bought gluten-free one.
Great minds do indeed think alike. I used butter instead of oil and the rest is a bit different to mine. I used to love pineapple in my carrot cakes but I think it is on the prohibited list now – not completely sure. It’s not bad as far as fructose and fructans are concerned but isn’t actually on the list of fruits allowed on the low FODMAP diet. What have you seen about it?
Oh stink! I love pineapple. Is that a recent finding? In Sue Shepherd’s “Low FODMAP Recipes” book she has a recipe for banana fritters with pineapple, and on this document from 2012 (https://stanfordhospital.org/digestivehealth/nutrition/DH-Low-FODMAP-Diet-Handout.pdf) pineapple is listed as suitable. However… apparently cocoa is no longer on the suitable list, so I won’t be surprised if pineapple has also been bumped off. Do you know of a good source with updated lists? Thanks, Suzanne!!
I was looking at page 35 in her book where she lists suitable fruits and she doesn’t mention pineapple but if she then uses it in a recipe, it must be okay. I will give it a go since I love it and see how I feel. Cocoa is off the list – now it’s my turn to say oh stink! Does that mean chocolate is gone too? I must look at that website. It is such an evolving science. I had a reader tell me recently that almonds have just gone onto the no-go list too. I think the Monash University is still the most up-to-date as they are specifically researching it there.
I know! 🙁 I heard the news on fructosefreeme.com, where it says:
Update on Chocolate:
June 7, 2013: Cocoa powder recently tested moderately high in FODMAPs at the Monash University lab, which means food containing cocoa powder may no longer be considered suitable for a low-FODMAP diet. Here’s a link to what dietician Patsy Catsos has to say on the topic: https://www.ibsfree.net/ibsfree_at_last/2013/06/cocoa-powder-moderately-high-in-fodmaps-what-about-chocolate.html
That link that’s provided to the ibsfree website is quite detailed and helpful (and a bit over my head as well – I think I need to read it again to grasp it). Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I grew up thinking that eating “all things in moderation” was ok. My ‘moderate’ seems to be constantly shrinking 🙂 You may find that you can only handle a small amount of pineapple, depending on how you are with fructose, as it’s kinda high considering the fibre content.
I will have a look at that link after work. Thanks for doing this ‘homework’ for me. I appreciate it.
My pleasure 🙂 You’ve been SO super helpful to me on this low FODMAP journey.
Beautiful tart, I can practically taste the lemon!
Thanks, Laura. Lemon is so refreshing in a dessert.
What a picture perfect tart!!! I can’t wait to see your other baked goods as well. Fingers crossed you won’t need the procedure…glad your neck is feeling better.
Thanks, Liz. My neck is continuing to behave but it could be the medication. Tomorrow I come off it so we’ll see if it has helped long term. Fingers crossed.
I love “delicious obsessions” recipes! However, I was particularly interested in your comments about your NECK issues in this entry. I also have severe and almost constant neck pain. The doctor has essentially said that surgery may possibly be the only option, and not necessarily a good one. So, I was interested in your “nerve” comments. Can you enlighten me any further on that procedure?
I haven’t been to a surgeon – they usually want to operate or they aren’t interested in you. I have been to a musculoskeletal specialist and she told me about the procedure. They isolate which nerve is causing the pain and then inject into it to kill it. Your family doctor might not know about something so specialist. You will have to go to the right person. Surgery would be the very last desperate option, in my opinion.