Here's a super easy and delicious recipe to make with maximum flavour. Lemon curd or butter is an all time favourite, reminiscent of school fairs, recipes my Gran used to make, and a good old-fashioned essential ingredient. Great to have in the refrigerator especially on toast, in a sponge or just when you're hanging out for something to tantalise the taste-buds. I love the curd in these tiny wafer thin tartlet shells with a wee pile of meringue atop
I'm in the process of making 150 little bite-sized desserts for a function next week. I have cheated though, with purchasing a commercial quantity of pastry shells from Skycrest in Sydney. A mere 4 cm wide, they are ever so cute. I've included in the recipe the directions for baking from scratch. There goes the diet!
Little Lemon Curd Tartlets
Pastry
1 x quantity of short crust pastry sheets
Lemon curd
5 large eggs yolks
100 g castor sugar
110ml strained fresh lemon juice
125g unsalted butter
Meringue
5 large egg whites
2/3 cup castor sugar
1} Cut out pastry circles from pastry sheets. For small tarts use roughly a 5cm to 6cm cutter (or larger depending on size of the tartlet tins). Press pastry into greased tartlet tins and blind bake for approximately 10 minutes at 180oC/350oF. Let cool
2} Whisk egg yolks and castor sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the lemon juice, then stand the bowl over a bain-marie and cook until thick, stirring constantly
3} Add the butter piece by piece, allowing each piece to incorporate before stirring in the next. The mixture should have become thicker by the time the last piece of butter has been added. Remove the bowl from heat and let cool. Can be stored in sealed container in the refrigerator
4} In an electric mixer beat egg whites and sugar together until peaks form
5} Spoon a small amount of curd into shells. Pipe meringue on top and bake until lightly browned, about 4 to 10 minutes (depending on size)
