BANANA LEMON TART

SUNDAY ROAST is getting popular here at Skylark Farm and i like to keep as fresh with ideas for desserts as i can.
Having been given some soft lemons from the farmshop at the weekend i googled recipes with lemon in and came up with BANANA LEMON TART.

First thing needed is sweet shortcrust pastry.
*250g Plain Flour
*50g Icing Sugar
*125g Butter
*1 Large Free Range Egg (beaten)
*Splash Milk

Sieve the flour and sugar.
Rub in the butter.
Add the egg and milk to form a dough.
Wrap in clingfilm and rest for 1 hour in the fridge.
The lemon flavouring in the tart comes in the form of lemon curd so whilst the sweet pastry was chilling i popped over to one of my favourite blogs RosMadeMe where i knew Ros had a recipe for making lemon curd. You can find that recipe here
SO, having made my lemon curd i began on the tart.

First roll out the pastry dough and lay into a 9ins flan dish. Prick the bottom of the tart case. Bake blind on 160C (Fan Oven)/325F/Gas Mark 3 for 10 minutes, then remove the paper and beans. Bake for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Spread 4Tbsps Strawberry Jam over the base of the pastry case.

Slice 3 Ripe Bananas and arrange evenly on the top.

Take your Lemon Curd from the chiller and measure out 5Tbsps.

Whisk in 2 beaten Free Range Eggs and 250g Creme Fraiche or Fromage Frais (entirely your preference).

Pour over the bananas.

Pop it back in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the filling is set and slightly browned.

Banana Lemon Tart

Leave to cool to room temperature before serving.

Once again i'm entering into Handmade Monday to see what the crafting community have been up to this week.

Frosted Banana Bars

Still using up the damaged goods from the farm shop these bananas look rather brown and cannot remain on the shelves for sale so they got given to me.

Such a shame when beneath the outer layer is still a lovely white, firm banana.

So i looked for a recipe to use the bananas in and came across a lovely one in this "cakes and bakes" book by Hamlyn called Frosted Banana Bars.

For the Base

60z Butter (room temperature)

6oz Caster Sugar

3 Eggs (beaten)

8oz Self-Raising Flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

2 Bananas (10oz) roughly mashed

For The Frosting

2oz Butter
1oz Cocoa Powder

8oz Icing Sugar

1-2 Tbsp Milk

Star Shaped Sprinkles

Method

Cream the butter and sugar together. Gradually and alternatively mix in spoonfuls of beaten egg and flour until the mixture is smooth. Add the baking powder and mashed banana and mix well.

Spoon the mixture into a 7 x 11ins roasting tin lined with nonstick baking paper and smooth out the surface level. Bake at 180C/350F/gas mark 4 for 25-30 ins til well risen, golden and springs back when gently pressed with a fingertip. Leave to cool in the tin.

For the frosting, heat the butter in a small saucepan then stir in the cocoa powder. Remove from the heat and mix in the icing sugar. Return to the heat, stir til melted and add enough milk to mix to a smooth spreadable icing.

Pour the icing over the top of the cake and spread the surface level. Sprinkle the star shapes over and leave to cool and harden.

The recipe says cut into 16 but i cut into 8 so people got a lovely big slice!

Tasted lovely i can assure you so give it a go!