This bookish feature is an original by me! I had the epiphany for this the other day when I was writing out my 15 bookish confessions. (See #7) A lot of times I like to go “beyond the book” and do something that will connect me with the book and characters a little more. It will pop up on Mondays! Be on the look out for which books caught my eye and made me go beyond just reading it!
“Setting the towels aside, she picked through the curled, sugared lemon peels laid out on parchment and arranged them like rose blossoms on the tarts, settling each strip into the still-warm center. The aromas of sweet citrus and buttery, flaky crust curled beneath her nose.
She stepped back to admire her work.”
So y’all knew it was only a matter of time before I did a Beyond the Book on a Marissa Meyer book. I wanted to make sure that when I did it, it was just as perfect as she was. And with Heartless featuring all the desserts, I figured this would be the best book and would be best done during Thanksgiving! So, I connected Heartless and my family’s Thanksgiving celebration!
Normally my mom does about 5 large lemon meringue pies, but this year I had been BEGGING her to make some tarts instead because DUH I just read Heartless and was craving them. But my mom said nope, you’re making them and Thanksgiving would be the perfect time.
So, here’s my adventure of making Cath’s Lemon Tarts <3
1. First I made the inside of the tarts. This took the longest. We had to use a double broiler and sugar and milk at just the right temp. We started at 8 am! It looks like this because we were making the middle part right then.
2. While we were waiting on that to be made, we rolled a lot of lemons and made them really squishy and then used the juicer to get that much lemon juice out of it. (You can also use the little containers of juice that they sell, it’s up to you!) We also threw the tart shells in the oven to make them a little brown.
3. Then we took the filling off the heat and started adding it to the tart shells.
4. They were already looking good enough to eat, but we had one more step: THE MERINGUE! We made that out of sugar and egg whites and topped the lemon tarts with it.
5. Next came the oven to brown the meringue a little and make it a little hard.
AND THENNN….
They were done and ready to eat! My entire family enjoyed them and I already want to make some more! (I normally like mine a little more brown, but my aunt complained last year I made them too dark lmao)
(For the real recipe, go here: Grandma’s Lemon Meringue Pie. Just be sure to replace the PIE shell with TART shells)
So if you’re like me and craving desserts after you read Heartless, take initiative and MAKE SOME!
Have you ever had such a connection with a book that you had to go beyond just reading it?
Join me on Mondays with Beyond the Book!
Those look so good! I admit heartless made me want to bake but I lack the confidence.