Recipe: Mini Lemon Curd Tarts

Remember when I made my own lemon curd for the first time a few weeks ago, and then used it in a delicious lemon curd layer cake? I didn’t stop there, because later that week I also ended up making some very tasty lemon curd tarts. They’re very tiny, but no less delicious for it. The recipe is really quite simple; all you need is some pastry, and then fill it with lemon curd (and you can definitely use storebought lemon curd, if you want to). I added a raspberry on top of each tart to make it look a little more interesting, but that’s not even really necessary. The lemon curd steals the show! Can you tell how much I love lemon curd?

You’ll need… (for 6 mini tarts)

• 130 g plain flour
• 65 g unsalted butter, cubed and cold
• a pinch of salt
• 45 g white caster sugar
• 1 small egg, beaten 
• about 12 tablespoons of lemon curd (here’s my recipe, although you can also use storebought curd)
• optional (but very tasty) 6 raspberries (or any other type of berry)
• clingfilm
• a large glass or a cutter (9-10 cm)
• parchment paper
• baking beans (or uncooked rice)
• 6 tiny tart tins (8 cm)
• rolling pin (although a wine bottle works just fine as well)
• and an oven, of course! This pastry needs to be baked at 180 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven!)

So, let’s get baking!

If you’re using homemade lemon curd, I recommend making that before you start making this recipe. Just leave it in the fridge, covered with cling film, until you need it!

1. Mix butter, flour and salt together Put the butter, the flour and the pinch of salt in a large bowl, and rub them together with your (preferably cold) hands. Keep doing this until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.

2. Add sugar and egg Add the sugar and the beaten egg to the mixture, and gently stir it through with a spoon. Now you have to knead the mixture into a ball of dough (but don’t overwork it). The dough will be quite soft, but don’t worry, that’s fine! Wrap the ball of dough in clingfilm, and put it in the fridge. Cool it for one hour.

3. Roll out dough and cut circles After you’ve let the dough chill for one hour, take it out of the fridge again. Lightly dust a (clean!) surface with flour, and roll out the dough until it’s about 2 mm thick. Cut six circles of about 9-10 cm out of it and transfer each circle to a greased and floured tin. Gently press down the dough into the tins.

4. Add flour and baking beans To make sure the baking paper doesn’t stick to your pastry while baking, sprinkle the pastry in your tins with a tiny bit of flour. Then, line the tins with squares of parchment paper (on top of the pastry), and fill the tins with baking beans (you can also use uncooked rice for this).

5. Bake the pastry! Put the tins into your preheated oven and bake the pastries for 15-20 minutes. Then, take out the baking paper and baking beans and bake the pastry for another 4 or 5 minutes (until the bottom of the pastry starts to brown slightly). Take the pastries out of the oven and let them cool in their tins for 5-10 minutes. Then take them out of the tins to let them cool completely.

6. Fill the tarts Once the pastry cased have cooled down entirely, it’s time to whip out the lemon curd. Fill every pastry case with lemon curd using a tablespoon. You will need about two spoonfuls per case, but do be careful to make sure it doesn’t overflow. For the finishing touch, place a single raspberry (or strawberry, blueberry, etc.) in the middle of the tart.

And that’s it! You’ve got your own little lemon curd tarts! They’re gone in three bites – but that’s why you’ve got six of them. Alternatively, you could also share them with others, but I’ll leave that difficult decision up to you!