Here is something bright and cheerful to lighten up your Monday morning. Over the weekend, I made these Mini-Meyer Lemon Curd Tartlets for dessert. Very tart, very lemony and surprisingly bright in color (presumably from the very yellow egg yolks — maybe the chickens were eating marigolds!), these are actually very easy to make. In a pinch, you can also substitute store bought curd or other fruit jams to pull something together in a hurry. They were delicious!
Ingredients
for the pastry
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, diced
6 tablespoons (or more) ice water
for the filling
6 egg yolks
1 cup Meyer lemon juice
3 tablespoons finely grated Meyer lemon zest
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 stick of butter, cut into small cubes
You will also need 12 3-inch tartlet molds and a 4-inch cookie or biscuit cutter. You can use a muffin tin, but the sides won’t be as sloped.
Directions
Blend flour, sugar and salt in processor. Add butter and shortening and cut in by pulsing until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 6 tablespoons ice water and process until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather into ball, divide, then flatten into two disks. Wrap in plastic; chill 2 hours.
After the dough has chilled, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Using your cookie cutter, cut out rounds and nestle them into the tartlet pans. Chill for another hour, then heat oven to 400F. Line each tartlet with a small piece of tin foil and a few pie weights. Bake like this for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and weights and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 325F.
During one of the dough resting periods, make your filling. Combine the egg yolks, juice, zest and sugar in a medium saucepan and whisk together until smooth (this will help avoid chunky bits of cooked egg yolk). Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture coats the back of a spoon (about 8-9 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in the butter, one cube at a time, making sure that the butter melts completely before adding the next piece.
Pour the lemon curd through a fine mesh strainer set over a medium work bowl. This will catch any big zest and any bit of unsightly thickened eggs. Spoon into the cooled tartlets to about three quarter full. Place back into to over for 10-12 minutes until the curd is just set. Let cool completely on wire racks. Once completely cooled, remove from tartlet pans and chill in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.
To serve: decorate with a raspberry, blueberry or a touch of whipped cream and mint, or dust with powdered sugar just before serving.
