Lemon Tart with White Chocolate Cream and Strawberries

Life has not changed much lately. The only one thing that seems to change with me, is my weight. Yup, I gained weight without noticing it until when I stepped on a scale two weeks ago, it has been a nightmare ever since. I am considerably petite and it has always been hard to find any clothing my size. Lately, I feel like my pants become tighter around the waist (I have to unbutton some of my pants when sitting down) and my upper arm looks as big as a baseball bat in pictures. It is time to finally put a regularity into my diet.

I never had to put a limit to what I am eating, I pretty much eat everything whenever I want. I don't generally exercise and I have been like that, sitting in my little cubicle for the past 5 years without gaining weight at all, until recently. My friend seems to think that it is the age factor, eeekk!! Well, I have not been drinking soda and I try to eat healthier.

M is very eager to put exercise in our regular routine lately (for health reason in general not so that I lose weight). We went on a 5-mile hike this past weekend and he wants to make that a regular thing every Saturday. It hurts to walk now even after 3 days. I am not so keen about doing this weekly as Saturday is such a precious time, but sadly, I think we both need it. Heck, I was out of breath walking from my building 2nd floor to the other building 3rd floor, it is embarrassing. At least I was prepared to bring water last week, unlike the week before. All he said was "we are going on a long walk, so wear your comfy shoes", and so I did. We've been taking a walk in Standford campus every week and I thought this was the same, just slightly longer. Needless to say, he took me hiking, with no water, with the sun right in front of us. That is such a poor planning. We walked 2-3miles before I decided that I was gonna die if we continued.

Ironically, in the middle of all this exercise and losing weight thing, it is also the time when my fridge is so full of desserts! I will have to write a separate blog post about them soon, but today I want to share with you this lemon tart with white chocolate cream and strawberries. I make lemon tart every year and this year is no exception. I've always and will always be using Pierre Herme's lemon tart, but I put a slight twist this year.

It started when M and I were in Japan a few months ago for the cherry blossom viewing after our business trip assignment.We visited Laduree, Sadaharu Aoki, Pierre Herme on a regular basis, pretty much everyday. M has always liked my lemon tart, but Sadaharu Aoki exceeds it (duh!). It was Spring time in Tokyo and they have some specials for their bakery items. Aoki's tart is usually simply just pate sucree, praline layer, and lemon cream (we've had it a few times before), but for the Spring Special, he put white chocolate cream and strawberries on top and M was in love with it. He ordered it in every single visit.

He's been asking me to make mine similar to Aoki's and it only took me 6 months to finally do it. I don't feel bad though cuz I've been trying to fatten him up with cheesecake after cheesecake and he gobbled them up rather quickly. It was hard to find out what kind of cream the white chocolate was and I don't even remember how sweet it was as it was 6 months ago. From the limited memory and pictures I have, I made whipped white chocolate ganache and the texture is very similar to Aoki's, M who remembers it pretty vividly agrees.

The lemon tarts were gone pretty quickly and I think I will need to make more soon. Some slight changes might follow. M is very very picky and specific, he likes mouth-puckering lemon tart I guess. It was pretty tart for me but he wants it even tarter with sour strawberries (yup, he actually refused the sweet and tasty ones!).

Lemon Tart with White Chocolate and Strawberries

 Lemon Tart -- refer to this recipe (you can also use regular lemons)

Whipped White Chocolate Ganache
180g white chocolate
200g+100g heavy cream
1/4 vanilla bean seeds (optional. I added this to cut the creaminess of the white chocolate a little bit)

• Boil 200g cream and the vanilla bean seeds and pour it onto the white chocolate
• Stir until melted and smooth
• Add the rest 100g of heavy cream, mix well and refrigerate overnight
• Whip the ganache until stiff and firm

Assemble
Fresh strawberries or raspberries
Halved hazelnut (for decoration only)

• Arrange strawberries (or raspberries) around the edge of the tart
• Pipe a rosette of white chocolate ganache in the middle
• Place halved hazelnut on top