Lemon Curd Tarts

Posted by Emma @ Sweet Mabel on July 4, 2012 · 11 Comments 

I’ve had a jar of Mrs Darlington’s Lemon Curd sat in my kitchen cupboard for the past couple of months.  It’s been on my mind for the last week and I have been desperate to crack it open.  I absolutely love lemon curd and could quite happily just sit and eat it out of the jar but thought I’d make a little more effort and make some tarts.  These do come with a warning, they are incredibly moreish and before you know it you will have eaten more than you planned.

You will need

250 g plain flour

100g unsalted butter, chilled

1 tsp salt

2-3 tbsp cold water

1 jar of good quality lemon curd

Extra butter for greasing

First, cut up the butter in to 1cm cubes and place in to a mixing bowl.  Add the flour and salt and gently rub the ingredients together with your fingertips until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.  Now gradually add a tablespoon of water at a time and use a cold knife to stir until the dough binds together, add more cold water a teaspoon at a time if the mixture is too dry.   Wrap the ball of dough in cling film and place in the fridge for 15 – 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a 12 hole cake tray with butter.   Remove the dough from the fridge and place on a lightly floured surface.  Roll out the pastry so that it is about 0.5mm thick and use a pastry cutter to  cut out circles slightly bigger than the mould.  Gently press one disc into each hole and add a good teaspoon of lemon curd in to each pastry case.  Be careful not to overfill as the jam will spill out when hot and burn.

Place in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from the oven  allow to cool completely.

Now see if you can resist eating more than one.