My world of baking and more.....: Lemon Tarts @ Home: Ume's Blog

(Adapted from: Lemon Tart: Ume's Kitchen)

This week, the blogger of the week is Urmi. Urmi is a pretty mom of the cutest daughter ever. She has a blog full of beautiful baked and non-baked recipes. Check out her blog here. She also bakes professionally. Her cake decorating skills are amazing. I am dreaming of making the Marzipan cake that she has posted,

When I was poring over Urmi's blog, I decided to make the delicate lemon tarts. I have made jam tarts and savoury pies before, but have never attempted the lemon tarts before. So now, was a good time to try.

The process of making lemon tarts has two essential parts. Making the pastry base and making the lemon curd filling. You can check out the original recipe from Urmi's blog here. For making the shortcrust pastry base, I also referred to Tarla Dalal's recipe for the pastry base here.

Check out the lovely tarts here.

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

For the short crust pastry base:

Maida/APF: 1 cup

Buttter: 1/2 cup

Powdered sugar: 2 tblsp

Baking powder: 1/4th teaspoon

Cold water: 1-2 tblsp

For the lemon curd:

Juice of large lemon

Lemon zest (Grated):1 tsp

Sugar (caster/powder):½ cup

Egg:2 pcs

Butter:4 tbsp. (40 gm. approx.)

Whipped cream (alternately Amul fresh cream):4 tbsp

Lemon yellow colour:few drops

Process:

To make the short-crust pastry:

1. In a pan take APF/ maida and add salt, powdered sugar, and baking powder. Add butter to the flour and mix with hands till the flour resembles bread-crumbs.

2. Now add the chilled water and knead the flour till it comes together as a ball. Don't add too much water. For 1 cup of flour, I used only 1 tablespoon chilled water. Knead into a firm, smooth dough.

3. Cover this dough in cling film and keep in the freezer for 10 minutes.

4. Take this dough out of the freezer and divide into 14 small balls.

5. Roll into small rotis and place into greased ramekins.Prick the pastry base with a fork.

6. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Bake the tart shells for 10 minutes, till the edges start browning.

7. Keep aside to cool.

For the lemon curd filling:

1. Beat the eggs well. In a pan, place hot water to boil. On top of this pan with boiling water place another non-stick pan. This is known as the double-boiler method.

2. In the non-stick pan, take the lemon zest, sugar and butter. On a low flame, stir the sugar and butter till the sugar has melted,

3. Now add the beaten eggs slowly and keep stirring. As you keep stirring, the mixture will thicken. Finally add the lemon juice and a few drops of edible yellow color.

4. Keep aside to cool. Once the mixture has cooled down, add the whipped cream. I did not have whipped cream, so I used Amul Fresh cream.

5. The lemon curd mixture is now ready. Add the lemon curd mix to the tart shell carefully with a spoon. Alternatively, you can pipe the filling using a piping bag.