06 Mar Easy Mini Lemon Tarts

These easy mini lemon tarts came about on one of those really manic days. I was short on time but had to prepare some snacks for book club. The savouries were sorted, but knowing my friends would be gobsmacked if I didn’t serve any sweet treats I frantically searched through my fridge and freezer for some short-cut ingredients. Happily, I found some leftover pastry in the freezer (I always make a double batch for this very reason!), and a jar of home-made lemon curd in the fridge. Problem solved!

In less than 30 minutes, I had cut out and baked the mini tart shells, filled them with lemon curd and topped them with whipped cream. If you don’t happen to have these items in your fridge, you could either make them from scratch (on a not-so-manic day) OR pop to the shops and buy ready-made frozen shortcrust pastry and lemon curd. These are great ingredients to keep on standby for last-minute entertaining as the tarts were definitely the favourite items on the table!

Ingredients:

(makes about 24)

1 x 400g packet of shortcrust pastry, chilled (or make your own)
1 x 300g jar of lemon curd (or make your own)
250ml (1 cup) of cream
1 tbsp (15ml) icing sugar
5ml (1 tsp) vanilla essence

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 190°C. Lightly grease a mini muffin tin.
• Roll out your pastry to about 3mm thick. Use a small round cookie cutter (I used a fluted cutter) to cut out tart shells. They should be slightly bigger than the cavities of the mini muffin tin. Gently press 1 disc of pastry into each cavity and prick with a fork. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Allow the tart shells to cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.
• As close to serving as possible, whip the cream, icing sugar and vanilla essence together until stiff peak stage. Place into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.
• Spoon about 2-3 teaspoons of lemon curd into each tart shell, then top each with a star of whipped cream. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Best eaten the same day you make them, as the pastry shells may become a little soft after several hours.