Home Care in River Oaks, TX

Enjoying a sweet treat together is one of the best parts of your elder care plan. Whether you want to enjoy a delicious snack in the middle of the afternoon or finish up dinner with something sweet, making and serving treats is a wonderful way to spend time with your elderly parents. It’s also a great way for them to spend time with grandchildren, learning to cook together and spending valuable quality time.

The heat and humidity of summertime can make it difficult to find meals, snacks, and desserts that do not feel heavy and overwhelming. Focusing on bright, fresh flavors such as citrus keeps food light and refreshing. This recipe is for individual lemon tarts. Their small size makes them perfect for no-mess serving and easy portion control, while the delicious lemon and shortbread flavor combination makes them indulgent even with a few bites.

The best part about this recipe is that you can create it all from scratch, or you can replace the lemon filling with a purchased lemon curd and the shortbread crust with purchased pastry shells to make the recipe faster and simpler. You can even get together the ingredients so that your parents and their elderly health care services provider can have fun creating these treats together.

What You’ll Need

For pastry:

• 3 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces cold unsalted butter
• 8 ounces cold vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup ice water
• Cheese grater
• Sifter
• Large mixing bowl
• Spoon
• Plastic wrap
• Rolling pin
• 6 4-inch tartlet pans
• Parchment paper
• Pie weights or dry beans
• Sharp knife

For filling:

• 2 cups lemon juice
• 6 whole eggs
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Whisk
• Medium saucepan
• Heat-resistant rubber spatula
• Mixing bowl
• Baking sheet
• Spoon

For meringue:

• 4 egg whites (reserve from separating the eggs for the egg yolks in the filling recipe)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup sugar
• Hand mixer or stand mixer
• Spoon or pastry bag with star tip

What to Do

1. Start by making the shortbread pastry
2. Sift the flour and the salt together into the mixing bowl
3. Use the cheese grater to grate the cold unsalted butter and the cold shortening into the flour. Make sure both ingredients are very cold so they are firm and grate easily. You may want to keep them in the freezer for an hour before baking
4. Use your fingers to lightly mix the grated fats into the flour without allowing them to heat up
5. Add the ice water and mix just until a dough forms
6. Shape the dough into two equal balls and then flatten into disks. Work as quickly as possible to avoid melting the fats
7. Wrap the disks in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 days
8. Once chilled, roll the dough out to a 1/4 thickness with the rolling pin
9. Cut into 6 rounds and shape one into each tartlet shell, using the sharp knife to trim away excess pastry from the edges
10. Put a small piece of parchment paper over each shell and fill with pie weights or uncooked beans
11. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
12. Bake the shells for 15 minutes
13. Remove the beans or weights and the parchment paper
14. Reduce the oven heat to 375 degrees
15. Bake the shells for another 10 minutes
16. Now make the filling: Whisk all of the ingredients together in a mixing bowl
17. Transfer the mixture into a saucepan over medium heat
18. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring continuously with the rubber spatula, until the mixture thickens
19. Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet and allow it to cool completely
20. Spoon the cooled curd into the baked shells
21. Now make the meringue: Put all ingredients except for the sugar in a mixing bowl
22. Beat with the mixer until soft peaks form
23. Continue beating and add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until the meringue forms stiff peaks and becomes glossy
24. Spoon or pipe the meringue on top of the lemon curd, making sure the meringue completely covers the curd and fits tightly against the crust
25. Bake at 325 for 20 to 25 minutes until the meringue has turned a golden brown
26. Allow to cool completely before removing from the pans and serving

If you have a loved one who could benefit from the help of home care in River Oaks, TX contact At Your Side Home Care. We help seniors and their families with many levels of home care service. Call (832) 271-1600 for more information.

• Author
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Donna Wrabel, LMSW

Co-Owner at At Your Side Home Care

For most of us, the word "home" evokes warm feelings of comfort, security and well-being. For older adults, home also means holding tight to cherished memories and maintaining self-esteem and independence. When illness, injury or age make life a little more challenging, remaining at home in a comfortable, familiar environment encourages recovery and enhances the quality of life. Home can be defined as a private residence, an independent or assisted living facility or even a short term stay in the hospital, we recognize the additional benefits provided by a personal, professional assistant.

Our Certified Nurse Aides, 24-Hour Live-in Assistants and Home Health Aides are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We also provide the security and confidence of 24-hour Telephone Assistance, so fast, reliable help is always available when it's needed. To learn more about our homecare services see our homecare services page.

Different people need different levels of homecare. To meet the requirements of our clients, At Your Side Homecare maintains consistent staffing levels of caring professionals. Homecare service is available for as little as a few hours a week, or as many as 24 hours a day, seven days a week

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