Mini Lemon Tarts

I like desserts made with lemons - the tangy lemon taste kind of offset just the normal sweet dessert. Anyway, I benefit with some home grown lemons from Little P's boyfriend and as there was a planned small get together at my place, what's better than use the lemons and made some desserts? I went on my usual googling spree and found this easy to make mini lemon tarts. Mini size is great, one bit into the mouth :D

I got the recipe from Butter Baking. It appears it was initially adapted the pastry from David Lebovitz and filling from Tartine.

I have actually made this recipe twice in a month - once for the CNY get-together and second time when my mum was here visiting. Both times I halved the recipe and it made 24 mini tarts.

I cheated, this photo is taken on a separate day after I have made the tarts. The measuring jug contains some leftover lemon filing.

Ingredients:

Tart pastry:

180 g unsalted butter (6 oz) --> I used 90 g reduced salt butter

6 tbsp water --> 3 tbsp

2 tbsp vegetable oil --> 1 tbsp

2 tbsp sugar --> 1 tbsp castor sugar

Pinch of salt --> I omitted this as I used reduced salt butter

2 cups flour (300g, 10 oz) --> 1 cup

Lemon filling:

¼ cup plain flour (35g, 1¼ oz) --> 1/8 cup

1 cup sugar (220g, ½ pound) --> I used 3/8 cup (¼ cup + half of ¼ cup)

½ cup lemon juice (125ml, 4 oz, about 3 lemons) --> ¼ cup

zest from 1 lemon, grated --> zest from ½ lemon

3 eggs --> 1 big egg + 1 small egg

1 egg yolk --> 1 small egg

pinch of salt

Method:

To make tart pastry

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F) and take out two mini muffin pans.
2. Place the butter, water, oil, sugar and salt in an ovenproof bowl.
3. Put the bowl in the oven for about 15 minutes until the butter is melted, bubbling, and just beginning to brown around the edges.
4. Carefully remove the bowl from the oven and dump in the flour. Stir quickly, until the dough comes together and pulls away from the side of the dish.
5. Put a teaspoon of dough into one mini muffin hole, and press it into the base and up the sides using fingers and try not to make a hole. Repeat until all the dough has been used.
6. Prick the dough with a fork once or twice.
7. Bake for 8 - 12 minutes until the pastry is golden brown all over.
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.

To make tart filing

1. Reduce the oven to 150 C (300 F).
2. Combine the flour and sugar in a medium mixing bowl.
3. Add the lemon juice and zest to the same medium mixing bowl and mix to dissolve the sugar.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and the egg yolk with salt.
5. Add the eggs into the lemon and sugar mixture and whisk until well combined.
6. Put the mini muffin tins back in the oven, pull the oven rack out of the oven slightly and pour the filling into each pastry case while it is still in the oven. (I took the whole muffin tins out to pour the filling, don’t trust myself to work on the case while it is still in the oven)
7. Shut the oven door and bake for 5 – 10 minutes until the centers are just set.

Err.. yes, I have limited resources of accessories to plate up and half the time I test-eat them very soon or store up in some container. Hopefully we shall see some improvement on this part down the road but don't let this stop you from trying this recipe. My mum loves it... and she is a strict judge!