Ok sweet lovers, this is a wonderful bite of tart versus sweet! The crust is not the normal pie crust shell. It is more of a cookie crust (with a tinge of lemon flavor).
The cookie shells can be made a couple of days ahead and stored in an airtight container or up to a couple of weeks ahead and stored in the freezer.
I made the tarts a week ahead of time in preparation for bringing them to the hotel when celebrating Last Call for Anchor Ball.
You can buy the lemon curd filling in a jar or honestly, honestly, honestly it is sooooooo easy to make your own (and tastes better too!).
I love Ina Garten recipes and have always used hers (click here for Ina's lemon curd recipe). One recipe of Ina's homemade lemon curd fills about 4 ½ dozen tarts.
Also, I use a nifty tart shaper (see below) to shape the shells in the mini muffin pan.
Impress your guests! These tarts look harder to make than they are! And best of all...they are so delicious!!!
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Mini Lemon Tarts
Ingredients
Cookie Crust Ingredients:
- ⅔ cup (1 stick plus 2 Tablespoons) butter, softened to room temperature
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
Filling Ingredients:
- 10 ounce jar of lemon curd
- fresh raspberries, or any other fresh fruit you might prefer
Instructions
Crust Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed, beat the butter and sugar until well blended.
- Beat in egg, vanilla extract and lemon extract for about 30 seconds and then add in the salt and mix.
- Gradually add flour, mixing until well blended.
- Coat a mini muffin tin with cooking spray.
- Scoop about 1 Tablespoon to 1 ½ Tablespoon of dough into each opening of the muffin tin. I use a medium size cookie scoop.
- Press the dough with your thumb or a wooden tart shaper against the bottom and sides of each muffin opening. Dipping your thumb or tart shaper in flour will keep the dough from sticking.
- Bake crusts 9 – 11 minutes until very baked through and slightly golden around the edges.
- Remove tin from oven and cool on wire racks for 1 – 2 minutes.
- Carefully remove tart crusts from the muffin tin and place the tarts on wire cooling racks to cool.
Tart Directions:
- Once the crusts are completely cooled, spoon approximately 2 level teaspoons of lemon curd into the center of the crust.
- Add a raspberry and serve.
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