Lemon Curd Tartlets

Lemons are in season!!! I know this because after grabbing a couple of lemons on a quick shopping trip on Wednesday, I came home to find that there were a further nine in the fruit bowl. This lemon hoarding is a new phenomenon, which started soon after I moved to Sydney. After years in Africa with a lemon tree in every garden of every house I've ever lived in, I moved to a city where the cockatoos love lemons even more than I do and subsequently, this time, there are no lemon trees for me to harvest.
     What to do about suddenly owning 11 lemons? Make lemon curd!

Lemon curd on toast. The butter has set and it's amazingly creamy.

For the pastry you can take a short-cut by using high-quality store bought rough puff pastry, or if you're a purist, The British Larder has an excellent recipe for rough puff pastry.

Ingredients

Pastry

250g rough puff pastry, store bough or fresh.

Filling

Juice and zest of 4 small lemons

3 large, free-range eggs

1 egg yolk

125g caster sugar (very fine sugar)

125g cold, unsalted butter, cut small squares

Method

Pastry: Preheat the oven to 180°C, grease 10 mini tart pans. Roll the pastry out to between 2 and 3mm thick, and cut into 10cm diameter discs. Place a disc in each pan and press the pastry into the pan. 

     Cover with baking paper, fill with pie weights (or rice if you don't have pie weights). Bake for 18 minutes. Remove the baking paper and pie weights and bake for a further 2 minutes. 

     Remove the pastry shells from the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack. 

Filling: Chose a sauce pan and large metal mixing bowl which fit together well (without the mixing bowl falling into the sauce pan). Bring water to a simmer in the sauce pan.

     Whisk the eggs and sugar together in the mixing bowl with a balloon whisk. Add the lemon juice.

     Place the mixing bowl over the simmering water and gently stir the mixture with a spoon until it thickens.

     Once the mixture has thickened remove it from the heat, add the butter and mix until all the butter has melted and the mixture becomes glossy.

Fill each pastry shell with the lemon curd.

     Pour the remaining curd into a clean jar and allow to cool in the fridge. Lemon curd on toast is amazing.