Lemon Tarts and Lemon Curd Tarts

This is a recipe that is extremely versatile and not hard to make whether you use prepared lemon curd or you make your own from scratch (see recipe below).

I will give some ideas on how to improvise and make variations to the recipe depending on how you want the final product to turn out – mini-tarts, 4-inch tarts, or one 9-inch tart. Either way, they are like lemon meringue pies but with a different crust.

No matter which way you make them, they are sure to be delicious!

RECIPE FOR CREAM CHEESE TART SHELLS

This is the recipe I use most often and find it to be relatively easy
and foolproof for any kind of tart – I will give a variation though for
the almond crust which sounds equally delicious from Cooking Light magazine.

You
could use this recipe to make eight 4-inch tarts or if you do not have
4-inch tart pans, it would make a wonderful 9-inch tart. Or you could
divide this up and make 24 mini-tarts using a muffin pan and a tart
tool. Make sure that you watch the tarts for browning, however, as they
will brown differently according to the size pan. You want the tart shells to be just set and nicely golden.

Photo:  Flickr avlxyz

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter softened
1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 cup of flour
1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

DIRECTIONS

Combine
the softened butter and cream cheese in a small bowl or in the prep
bowl of your upright mixer. Beat the butter and cream cheese until
smooth either by upright mixer or with hand beater.
Add the flour and salt and mix until a soft dough forms.
Cover the dough and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray tart pan(s) lightly with cooking spray.
If
you are making eight 4-inch tarts, divide the dough evenly into 8
pieces and press into bottom and up sides of the 8 pans. Using a tart tool also helps to keep the thickness even.
If you are making 24 mini-tarts,
pinch off and roll dough into 1-inch balls and place 24 pieces into
mini-muffin tin for 24 that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray.
Flatten each 1-inch ball using the tart tool or using fingers to press
into the bottom and up sides of mini-muffin tin.
If you
are making one 9-inch tart, press the dough into the bottom and up sides
of a 9-inch tart pan lightly sprayed with cooking spray.
NOTE:
If you find that the dough is a bit too thick in the tart pans, you can
adjust to suit – using less dough and saving remaining dough for
another use or more tarts.
Bake the tart shells for 5-10
minutes but watch them carefully as they can brown too quickly and you
want them to be just set and lightly golden.
Cool on rack.

Recipe for Almond Tart Shells

This recipe can be used to make eight 4-inch tarts or if you do not have 4-inch tart pans, it will make a lovely 9-inch tart.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup blanched almonds
3 tablespoons brown sugar
36 vanilla wafers
1/4 cup butter melted
Cooking spray

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a food processor, combine the almonds, brown sugar and vanilla wafers and process until they are ground into a fine meal.
While the motor is running, take the melted butter and drizzle that into the food chute and process until blended.
Spray tart pans with cooking spray. If making 4-inch tarts, use about 1/4 cup of the crumb mixture per tart and press the crumbs into the bottom and up sides of the tart pans (x8) that have been coated with the cooking spray. (If making one 9-inch tart, press all the crumb mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of the 9-inch tart pan coated with cooking spray.)
Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until toasted.
Cool on rack.
Proceed on to filling.

 

Lemon Filling for Tarts

The recipe in Cooking Light suggests using lemon curd purchased which works great.  It saves time on the preparation and assures a good set curd.  However, I will also include a recipe for lemon curd that you can prepare and use as well.  I have made it before and it works quite well to make it from scratch and is just as delicious.

INGREDIENTS

1 jar of lemon curd (10 ounces)
3 large egg whites (or equivalent egg white substitute)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to broil.
Spoon the lemon curd evenly into the crusts (whichever you are using, 4-inch, 9-inch, or the mini-tart crusts/cream cheese or almond).  Set these aside.
In a mixer bowl, add the egg whites and salt to the bowl and mix at high speed until there are soft peaks forming. 
Mix the sugar and 1/4 cup water in a saucepan and bring this to a boil.
Boil until a candy thermometer registers 250 degrees.
Pour this hot candy syrup as a thin stream into the egg whites and beat until stiff peaks form.
Spread the egg mixture over the tarts.
Broil for 30 seconds or until lightly brown – but keep a close eye to avoid over-browning.

How To Make A Lemon Tart With Fruit

How To Make Lemon Curd

You can make the curd up to 2 weeks before you are ready to use it.  Keep refrigerated.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup sugar
5 egg yolks
4 lemons juiced and zested (room temperature lemons yield more juice)
1 cube of butter cut into slices and chilled

DIRECTIONS

Use a medium saucepan and fill it just enough so that there is about 1 inch of water in the pan.
Bring this to a simmer over medium-high heat.
Combine the egg yolks and sugar in a medium sized metal bowl and whisk this until smooth (about 1 minute).
Measure the lemon juice and if needed, add enough cold water to the lemon juice to equal 1/3 liquid cup.
Add juice/water mixture and lemon zest to the egg mixture and whisk this until smooth.
Once your water has reached simmering, reduce heat to low and place the bowl on top of the saucepan (so you are steaming the lemon mixture). The bowl should be large enough to fit on top of the saucepan WITHOUT touching the water.
Whisk until the lemon mixture thickens up (approximately 8 minutes) or until mixture is light yellow and coats the back of a spoon.
Remove immediately from heat and stir in the butter, 1 piece at a time.  Allow each new piece of butter to melt before adding the next.  Keep stirring. 
Remove mixture and place in a clean container. 
Cover with a piece of plastic wrap DIRECTLY on the surface of the curd.
Store in refrigerator and use for up to 2 weeks.

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Links for Tart Shells

Tart Shell Recipe
Tart shell – Recipes Wiki – Cookbook for Chicken Recipes, Cake Recipes, Southern Recipes, and more
Add a Tart shell Recipe to Cookbookwiki:
Cooks.com – Recipes – Tart Shells
Cream Cheese Tart Shells – All Recipes
Perfect for a tea party, these dainty shells will go with just about any filling and impress your friends. Cream cheese, butter and flour are mixed into a dough, chilled, shaped into 24 balls, and pressed into individual tart pans or muffin tins. Fil

Lemon Curd Links

Lemon Curd for Scottish Shortbread – Fine Cooking Recipe
How to make Lemon Curd for Scottish Shortbread with 3 oz. (6 Tbs.) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
Lemon Curd Recipe With Picture – Joyofbaking.com
Lemon curd is a thick, soft and creamy, spreadable cream that has a wonderful tart yet sweet flavor. Traditionally it was used as a spread for scones but today we also use it to fill our tarts, pies, cakes, and as part of a trifle.
Lemon Curd Recipe : Alton Brown : Food Network
Food Network invites you to try this Lemon Curd recipe from Alton Brown.

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It is a snowy winter day and what else is there to do but browse through cookbooks and recipes and try and find something new that catches my eye? I was thinking about tarts and pies for the upcoming Super Bowl game and ran across this recipe that I had written down from The Pie and Pastry Bible . While my favorite fool-proof pie crust recipe I posted a while back is still my go-to recipe, I’m thinking I really owe this recipe a nod and a try.  The cream cheese is what got me to tell the truth so now I’m going to ‘have’ to experiment with this one next and see how it goes.

I think the cream cheese element of it will make it easy to handle and hard to mess up.  Anything with cream cheese usually catches my eye and it does sound like an excellent tart shell recipe. Here’s to trying it!

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For Cream Cheese Pie Crust You Will Need

INGREDIENTS

For a 9-inch pie shell or 9-1/2 or 10 inch tart shell

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
1 cup and 1 tablespoon pastry flour or substitute 1 cup (dip and sweep level method) bleached all purpose flour (I always use unbleached though)
1/8 teaspoon salt (for savory pies use up to 1-1/2 times the salt)
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup cold cream cheese (I will use nonfat or low-fat)
1 tablespoon ice water
1-1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar

For a 9-inch deep dish pie shell, a 10-pinch pie shell or 12 to 14-inch free form tart shell

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
1-1/3 cups and 4 teaspoons pastry flour or substitute 1-1/3 cups (dip and sweep level method) bleached all purpose flour (I always use unbleached though)
1/8 teaspoon salt (for savory pies use up to 1-1/2 times the salt)
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1 3-ounce package cold cream cheese (I will use nonfat or low-fat)
1-1/2 tablespoon ice water
1-1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar

For a 2-crust 9-inch pie shell

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
2 cups and 3 tablespoons pastry flour or substitute 2 cups (dip and sweep level method) bleached all purpose flour (I always use unbleached though)
1/4 teaspoon salt (for savory pies use up to 1-1/2 times the salt)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 3-ounce packages (or 4-1/2 ounces) cold cream cheese (I will use nonfat or low-fat)
2 tablespoons ice water
1 tablespoon cider vinegar

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How to Make Your Own Pastry Flour

From the Pie and Pastry Bible

Replacing all-purpose flour in recipe with homemade pastry flour:

Simply replace 1/3 of all-purpose flour in the recipe with equal weight of cake flour or whole wheat flour.  Whisk or beat them together until blended. 
If measuring by volume, use a ratio of 2 parts bleached all-purpose flour to 1 part cake flour.
If using a scale, do 2/3 of bleached all-purpose flour to 1/3 cake flour by weight.  If measuring by volume, use these proportions:  4 cups of bleached all-purpose flour measured by dip and sweep and 2-1/4 cups of cake flour measured by dip and sweep.
Stir flours lightly before measuring and mix them after combining to blend evenly.

This will make 6-1/4 cups of pastry flour – store airtight.

PREPARATION

Food Processor Method

Cut the butter into 3/4-inch cubes.  Wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze until frozen solid – at least 30 minutes.
Place flour, salt and baking powder in a resealable gallon sized freezer bag and freeze for at least 30 minutes.
Place flour mixture in a food processor with the metal blade and process for a few seconds to combine.  Set the bag aside.
Cut cream cheese into 3 or 4 pieces and add to the flour.  Process for about 20 seconds or until mixture resembles coarse meal. 
Add the frozen butter cubes and pulse until none of the butter is larger than the size of a pea.  (Toss it with a fork to see how it is breaking up from time to time)
Remove the cover to the processor and add water and vinegar.
Pulse until most of butter is reduced to size of small peas.  The mixture will be in particles and will not hold together.
Spoon it into the plastic bag. (For a double crust pie, divide mixture and work with half at a time)
Hold both ends of the bag opening with your fingers. Knead the mixture by pressing it from the outside of the bag with the knuckles and heels of your hands until the mixture holds together in 1 piece and feels slightly stretchy when pulled.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap – flatten into a disc (or discs if making 2) and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes or overnight (preferred).

Hand Method

Chill a medium bowl in the freezer.
Cut the butter into 3/4-inch cubes. Wrap this in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Place flour, salt, and baking powder in another medium bowl and whisk to combine.
Add the cream cheese and rub the mixture between fingers to blend cheese into the flour until it resembles coarse meal.
Spoon this mixture together with the cold butter into a gallon-size freezer bag. Expel the air from the bag and close.
Use a rolling pin to flatten the butter into thin flakes.
Place the bag in the freezer for at least 10 minutes or until butter is very firm.
Take the mixture out of the bag and put into the chilled bowl – scrape the sides of the bag. Set bag aside.
Sprinkle the mixture in the bowl with water and vinegar and toss lightly with a rubber spatula. Spoon it back into the plastic bag. (For 2-crust pie, divide the dough into 2 and work with half of the mixture at a time )
Hold both ends of the bag opening with your fingers. Knead the mixture by pressing it from the outside of the bag with the knuckles and heels of your hands until the mixture holds together in 1 piece and feels slightly stretchy when pulled.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap – flatten into a disc (or discs if making 2) and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes or overnight (preferred).

For pie shell and lattice divide in a ratio of 2/3 and 1/3.  Use 2/3 for shell and 1/3 for the lattice.

This pie crust can be stored up to 2 days in the refrigerator or frozen up to 3 months.

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