Please welcome Sonya Hemmings of the Hemmings Half Dozen blog. Sonya lives in Arizona with her sweet family, and as you will soon learn, a bountiful lemon tree. I’m really excited that she’s sharing her real-food makeover of a beloved lemon tart recipe. Her goal was to maximize its nutrition without sacrificing the delicious taste. Did she succeed? I’d say so! In this guest post, she shares the side by side comparison, complete with a tell-tale picture and family responses. This is a very fun read!
When my husband, Shawn, and I moved into our home in 1997, we soon learned that life would be giving us lemons—literally and liberally, in the form of fruit from an established and prolific backyard tree. We were excited (and admittedly a little overwhelmed) by our bountiful first harvest, but we quickly tackled the task of picking and preserving all we could of the crop.
We juiced and zested loads of lemons, freezing it all for year-round use. That activity has now become an annual tradition in our household—where, yes, we do make a lot of lemonade, and where we also collect recipes and cookbooks that feature lemons.
Among our favorites is a dessert called Tiny Lemon Tarts from The Lemon Lovers Cookbook by Peg Bailey. Each bite-size pastry cup cradles a delicious custard-like filling that perfectly marries sweet and tart in a morsel of sunshine-y goodness.
So why, you might wonder, would I mess with a recipe we already know and love? Well, my recent foray into real-food cooking got me thinking that there might be room for improvement. The key would be to adapt the recipe using traditional preparation methods and optimal ingredients without sacrificing the delicious taste to which we’d become accustomed.
To find out whether that was possible, I decided to make two batches—one following the original recipe and using typical ingredients, and another making real-food substitutions. The only ingredients the two batches would have in common were the juice and zest from our own lemons. Following are the lists of the remaining items.
Original ingredients:
- Butter (store brand)
- Cream cheese (store brand)
- All-purpose flour (unbleached King Arthur brand)
- Salt (iodized)
- Sugar (refined)
- Eggs (store brand)
Real-food substitutions:
- Grass-fed butter (Kerrygold brand)
- Yogurt cheese (made by draining whey from plain Whole Foods 365 brand)
- Sprouted whole wheat pastry flour (made from sprouted and dehydrated soft white wheat berries)
- Sea salt (Celtic brand)
- Evaporated cane juice (less-refined sugar)
- Eggs (from pasture-raised chickens)
When each batch was completed and cooled, I asked my family members to compare them. Shawn and three of our four children happily complied. (Our oldest son, Kellen, 9, is allergic to dairy, eggs and wheat—plus he’s not a big lemon-flavor fan—so he opted out.) Without revealing which batch was the original or the altered, I asked them first to look at the tarts and describe any differences they noticed.
They all remarked on the deeper yellow color of the filling in one batch (the real-food tarts, because of the grass-fed butter and golden yolks of the pastured eggs). Then came the tasting. All of us—including me, who knew exactly what tweaks had been made—were surprised at the difference! Shawn was the first to comment that the pastry in the original batch had a slightly bitter aftertaste that we hadn’t noticed before we tried it side-by-side with the altered version.
The sprouted flour definitely made for a more tender, flaky and delicious pastry that allowed the flavor of the filling to shine. “This one tastes more lemon-y,” said Kerrick, 7, and Kennah, 4—while Keillor, 2, gave us a crumb-filled grin and nodded in agreement.
My conclusion after this experiment: It is possible to make a good thing even better while, at the same time, making it healthier. Of course, I kind of already knew that. But it was fun to watch my sometimes wary and change-resistant family members reach the same conclusion—and enjoy their dessert, too.
Which is which? Can you tell the original tart from the real-food version? The hint is in the tint—of yellow.
I have really spotty internet right now, so I may not be available to moderate or respond to comments on this post or others for the time being. But please do comment, and I’ll let Sonya know to be watching out for what’s said or any questions. And I’ll see you all here on Thursday (hopefully)!
About Sonya
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These look great! I love lemon anything.
.-= Paula´s last blog post… 122/365 Golf Anyone? =-.
I so want to make these, I just need to get a dehydrator so that I can dry the sprouted wheat to grind it! This type of comparison is exactly what I am trying to do while we transition to real food, this makeover is inspiring….it can be done!! Thanks for the motivation!
Paula—Thank you! (And me, too!)
Janine—I’m so glad you were inspired! Yes, it can be done! A dehydrator helps tremendously. I tried oven-drying my sprouted grain before I purchased a dehydrator, but I always got the grain a little too crispy. One technique that did work a little better with my oven was to turn it on (without the grain inside) to about 350. When it reached that temperature, I would turn the oven off completely and then put the grain inside to begin the dehydrating process as the oven cooled. I repeated this process a couple of times until the grain was dried. It’s kind of a pain because you have to babysit the process quite a lot, but you might want to try it!
—Sonya
These look delicious! I have yet to try sprouted grain, but after doing Wardeh’s eCourse and experimenting with soaking grains, I find myself thinking quite a lot about using sprouted grain instead, especially for doughs that are thicker (like biscuits, or pastry crust!), where you want to keep it tender and flaky. So nice to see that it really can work great for something like that! Now, just need to get a dehyrator and a grinder!
Robin—They are so good! I hope you are able to get a dehydrator and grinder soon so that you can try them—and all of the other ideas you have in mind!
—Sonya
So, where’s the recipe?! They look great…
leih
oh, how fortunate you are to have a lemon tree! your tarts look divine. make my mouth water just looking at the pic! yeah to a successful switch-over!
Leih—The original recipe is copyrighted material, so it would be illegal for me to post it in its entirety. And because my alterations to the recipe only involved ingredient substitutions and not major changes in the method, I can’t lay claim to the makeover as entirely my work, either. The cookbook might be available at your local library or bookstore. It is definitely available through Amazon.com. Sorry I couldn’t share the complete recipe!
Erin—We do feel very lucky to have our lemon tree! And we definitely love the new and improved tarts!
—Sonya
Sonya,
Oh boy do these look yummy! I think the Lord had you in mind for those fruit trees from the beginning, knowing you’d make such yummy & healthy foods from them.
Thanks, Robin! Isn’t it amazing what the Lord has in mind for each one of us—even if it takes us awhile to get around to realizing it sometimes.
—Sonya
Sonya, can you share the recipe or offer a link?
I love your lemon ? tart make-over!
Thanks
Sorry, Jami! See my note to Leih above regarding the copyright of the recipe. Glad you liked the makeover, and I hope it inspires you to try some of your own!
—Sonya
Jami – We should see if the library carries this book! Sonya can’t share it because of the copyright. But I’ll see if I can find the book somewhere…
Thanks for sharing, I’ll definately love to try this out
You’re welcome, Jessica! I hope you do try it!
—Sonya
Wow, oh my, oh geez. Now I am going to have to find room in my kitchen for a tart pan, too… (I blame Wardeh–and the wonderful ecourse–for the recent additions to my kitchen, including sprouting jars, dehydrator, etc. The wish list does continue to grow!)
I suspected from the first picture that the deeper yellow one was the more nourishing version–I guess I’m developing an “eye” for the better stuff? It’s funny that your family noticed the aftertaste when prepared with the original ingredients–I have always felt that there was a not-too-complementary “bite” after having “modern-traditionally-prepared” tarts. What a blessing to know that I can look forward to enjoying these without that bitterness!
I am definitely going to be making lemon tarts soon; alas, where we live, we have to rely on lemons shipped from… probably shipped from where you live, Sonya! So much for the L in GNOWFGLINS, but, it really is a special treat, and not a staple anyway (well, not for us like it is for you!), right? Thanks for posting–what a perfect way to teach the family (by comparison) that better really can be BETTER!
Hi, Dani! You’re so funny! I can totally relate to your wish list, as the “Wardeh factor” has had a great impact on my kitchen, too!
And you do have a good eye for the good stuff! I hope you get a chance to try the tarts—and that you love them like we do.
—Sonya
Hey, Sonya!
That sounds like a great makeover. I wonder if I can have similar results doing all you did except I would like to use whole-wheat pastry flour instead. I have tried your Tiny Lemon Tarts 1.0 before and loved them, so I’m sure I’d love these even more. Remember that awesome lemon basket you made me? I think about that a lot, and still have some of the stuff from it. What I DON’T have is as many lemons as you got on your tree! Last year, we were overflowing with them, and I, too, devoted an entire day to juicing and freezing into cubes what we didn’t give away. But for some reason this year, we got a lot fewer, though they were much larger. Strange, huh?
.-= Wendy´s last blog post… The (priceless?) magic of Disney =-.
Wendy—I’m not sure it is possible to do a soaked version of the pastry using whole-wheat pastry flour, because there isn’t any liquid—thus, no way to use an acid (such as lemon juice or apple cider vinegar) to break down the phytic acid. That’s why I used sprouted grain to make my whole-wheat pastry flour instead: The sprouting process also breaks down the phytic acid, and it has some additional benefits (predigesting gluten, for one). I do remember the lemon-everything basket! That was really fun to put together.
If you need to supplement your lemon crop next year, you know how to find me. 
Love,
Sonya
Hi Wendy- If you have the Nourishing Traditions book, you could try making the yogurt dough on page 485 for the tart crust. Might just work!
Erin—That’s a great suggestion!
Wendy—I will take a look at that recipe in my copy of the book and see if it might work. If so, you can borrow NT from me.
—Sonya
Yes, I think the Nourishing Traditions recipe for “Yoghurt Dough” might work nicely for the tart shells. Another thought I had (and maybe Wardeh could weigh in here, too) would be to maybe substitute the homemade soft cheese we’ll be learning to make in the eCourse for the same amount of cream cheese in the original recipe. I used homemade yogurt cheese instead, but if you’ll be using unsprouted flour, perhaps the soft cheese (basically cultured raw milk drained of whey) would be a better option for making a soaked version of the pastry dough.
—Sonya
Sonya—I didn’t realize that when you “real-ized” the lemon tarts, that you soaked the pastry dough first. I had forgotten that step when I put it all together in my head.
Erin—Thanks for the yogurt dough suggestion. I’m intrigued, and I actually have my own copy of the book, so I’ll give it a try!
Wendy—I’m sorry if I didn’t explain that very well. I did NOT soak the pastry dough in either the original recipe or the makeover. I used sprouted flour for the real-food tart shells, so soaking wasn’t necessary. You had mentioned wanting to use whole wheat pastry flour (which I assumed meant unsprouted, in which case you WOULD want to soak the dough instead). The NT yogurt dough would possibly be a good option for accomplishing that. (As a cultured food, the yogurt would break down the phytic acid, so you wouldn’t need to worry about adding liquid, such as ACV.) I hope you try it and report back here about your results!
—Sonya