Miniature Lemon Tarts

I got this recipe for the filling years ago from a sample issue of the magazine Cuisine at Home. It's a pretty standard recipe, though, and it's meant to be used in a large tart. One recipe of this is going to make enough for at least 72 tarts, so I have cut the filling amounts to fit with my standard crust recipe. As I've said with the other miniature tarts recipes, though, it's not really worth making these unless you make a lot. I usually put a strawberry slice on top of each, although a blueberry or two also works well. These are so pretty for some kind of spring event, such as a tea or an Easter dinner. They do have more sugar in them than the pecan or cranberry tarts, clocking in at 8 grams per tart.

Course Dessert

Servings 24 mini tarts, 8 grams of sugar per tart

Debi Simons Debi Simons

Ingredients

Crust:

1 stick butter
4 oz. cream cheese, or 1/2 of an 8-oz. pkg.
1 1/4 cups flour

Filling:

3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice Recipe says "fresh lemon juice," but of course I didn't do that.
2 tsp lemon zest If you don't use fresh lemon juice you won't have zest. I use lemon oil instead, which is pressed from zest and is very strong. Don't use more than 1/8 tsp.
6 tablespoons butter 3/4 stick

Instructions

For the crust:

Put the ingredients into your food processor and run until thoroughly mixed. You don't have to worry about flakiness or graininess or anything like that. Just get it mixed. It's fine if the butter is soft. Then you can chill it if you'd rather not have to flour your fingers for each tartlet, or just go ahead with it as is. Use your fingers to press a 1/2-ounce ball of dough into each mini-tart cup. Using that amount of dough per tartlet should give you 24, which is the standard amount per pan and the yield given for this recipe. It's really better, though, if the dough is very thin. So . . . if you really want to be obsessive about it, and you have a scale (which I do), then 3/8 of an ounce is better. But as I often say, Don't drive yourself crazy! The world won't come to an end if the dough is a little thick. Bake the unfilled shells for about 15 minutes.

For the filling:

Whisk the first five ingredients together in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. then add the butter, cubed. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until filling thickens but is still pourable. The best tool for stirring this is a heatproof spatula or a flat whisk, which allows you to get into the very edges of the bottom and therefore prevent you from having scrambled eggs there. I got it to 160 degrees, checking periodically with my instant-read thermometer. Spoon or scoop a small amount into each pre-baked tartlet shell and bake at 325 degrees for about 5 minutes. Let cool and then chill.