Get Zesting in the Winter for Lemon Cheesecake Tart
Eating in season makes a lot of sense. Vegetables and fruits taste the best and are most nutritious and affordable when you enjoy them during the season in which they are grown and harvested.
During winter and early spring, when it comes to savory preparations like dinner, the choices are clear: Root vegetables, onions and garlic are plentiful in the colder months. Stew, anyone? But while the air is cold and the days are short, what should we do about dessert?
Citrus is the delicious answer. In the winter months, when fresh berries and peaches are all but a distant memory, turn your attention to lemons, limes and oranges to make your desserts shine, as they do in this bright cheesecake tart.
Get the Recipe: Lemon Cheesecake Tart
Here are a few tips to make the most of your citrus:
1: If you love lemon juice, you’re going to love the zest! It’s packed with natural oils that deliver big flavor. To get the most out of your lemon, invest in a good-quality zester, which finely grates the rind. Use just the outer yellow skin in desserts like tarts, cakes, cookies and custards.
2: Once you’ve removed the zest, wrap the lemon in plastic wrap for storage. Bald lemons tend to dry out, and you want to be able to use that lemon for juice another day.
3: If you’re using both the juice and the zest, be sure to zest the fruit first. It’s much easier that way. And, for the record, room-temperature fruit produces the most juice.
4: If you’re using the juice only, try candying the leftover peel.
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Samantha Seneviratne is a New York-based writer, recipe developer and food stylist. She is the author of The New Sugar and Spice (Ten Speed Press), a baking cookbook combining family stories and food history with recipes that reimagine dessert as a more balanced mix of sugar and spice. She blogs about dessert at Love, Cake.
