Meyer Lemon & Orange Curd Tarts

Reposted from my old blog archive from January 2010 – I am reposting some recipes and old food stuffs so everything is in one place.

I ended up with a few Meyer lemons in my possession last week and I had to figure out what to do with them. I decided to make mini lemon curd tarts and allowed my fingers to comb the www wealth of knowledge for a recipe. I found this one on Martha Stewart’s site and she got it from the Vanilla Bake Shop. I also looked for recipes for tart crust, but after reading them, the sounded too complicated for a Monday night so I cheated. More on that later.

Meyer Lemon & Orange Curd Mini Tarts

(this is my modification to the recipe linked above)

1 cup sugar

Zest of 3 Meyer lemons

3 large eggs

4 large egg yolks

1/2 cup Meyer lemon juice

1/2 cup orange juice

5 ounces unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

Set a medium bowl in an ice water bath and set aside.

Place sugar and lemon zest into a bowl and grind together with the back of a wooden spoon to combine and release the oils in the zest. Transfer sugar mixture into a medium heatproof bowl along with the eggs and egg yokes. Whisk to combine. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk until sugar has dissolved. Add the lemon and orange juices and whisk constantly until mixture is thick and reaches 160 degrees. Add butter and whisk until smooth.

Transfer lemon and orange mixture into prepared bowl in the ice water bath. Cover curd with plastic wrap, pressing wrap directly onto surface. Transfer to refrigerator until completely chilled.

While curd is chilling in the refrigerator, prepare the mini tart shells. If you are like me, you get overwhelmed by the steps and processes of making the actual tart crust from scratch and you look for another option. I found it in the supermarket’s refrigerated section in the form of refrigerated pie crust. Just let that sit out on the counter for 15 minutes, open the package, unroll the dough and use a glass or round cutter to cut the dough into small circles to press into your mini cupcake pan or tart pan.

Poke holes in the bottom and sides of the tart shells with a fork to prevent too much puffing and follow the baking directions on the packaging.

Once everything is cooled, fill the tarts with the Meyer lemon and orange curd and put into the refrigerator to set. These are fresh, bright and colorful treats. They can be served as is or with a bit of whipped cream. Enjoy!