Dominique has shared her wonderful recipe for lemon curd and raspberry tarlets with us. These tasty little morsels combine the sweetness of the pastry, balanced by the tang of the lemon curd and the juicy freshness of the raspberry on top. They are a delight to the senses.

Lemons abound at the moment so what better way to use them than to make these delicious little tartlets for your afternoon tea. In fact, Dominique says that the lemon curd is so quick and easy to make that you can whip up a batch in no time. Any extra curd can be frozen for use whenever you want a sweet treat.

Dominique’s Lemon Curd and Raspberry Tartlets

Ingredients:

Lemon Curd

• 3/4 cups Caster sugar
• 110 g unsalted butter, diced finely
• grated zest of 1 juicy lemon
• juice of 3 lemons, strained (a little less than 3/4 cups of lemon juice)
• 3 eggs

Shortcrust Pastry

• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 85 g unsalted butter, chopped
• 8 Tblsp chilled water

Decoration

• 1 punnet fresh raspberries

Method:

Lemon Curd

1. Wash a couple of jam jars in hot soapy water, rinsing it well
2. Place the clean jam jar supright on a tray into a cold oven and set at 140º C until dry. Place the lid sinto a pan of water and bring to the boil and then lower the heat to simmer
3. Using a double boiler, half fill the lower pan with water and bring it to a gentle boil over a medium low heat so that the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the upper pan. Check this and remove some if needed
4. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs together
5. Place the butter, sugar, zest and lemon juice in the upper pan of the double boiler and stir continuously until the butter has melted
6. Then stir the whisked eggs into the melted butter
7. Do not let the mixture boil
8. Stir continuously for 3-5 minutes until the curd thickens. Use a candy thermometer to test and cook until the mixture reaches 170 C, stirring continuously to prevent the mixture catching
9. If you don’t have a thermometer, the thickened curd will be ready when it coats the back of the stirring spoon and when you run a finger across it, ridges form on either side and the space between remains clear
10. When the curd has thickened, stir again and strain it into a pyrex jug and remove the zest
11. Carefully pour the curd into the hot, sterilised jars, remove the lids from the simmering water with tong shake off excess water and then seal well
12. Allow to cool at room temperature
13. When cool label the jars, marking the date made and refrigerate for use in contructing the tartlets
14. The lemon curd will keep in the refrigerator sealed for two to three weeks and once opened should be consumed within a week. The curd can also be frozen and will keep for up to a year in the freezer and can be successfully thawed in the refrigerator for 24 hours for use when needed. If you will be freezing some of your sterilised jars of curd, remember to leave a little headroom for expansion when fully frozen.
15. When the lemon curd is cold, prepare the pastry cases

Shortcrust Pastry

1. Place plain flour and sugar into a food processor with the 1/4 tsp salt
2. Process for 5 seconds
3. Place chopped butter into processor and process for 10 seconds
4. Add 8 Tblsp of chilled water through the feed tube while processing until the dough forms a ball.
5. Place into a snap lock plastic bag in the refrigerator for 20 mins

Making the tartlets

1. Preheat oven to 175º C
2. Use a mini cupcake tray and a round biscuit cutter that would make a circle a little larger than the diameter of the cupcake  opening.
3. Grease the cupcake tray well
4. Roll out the chilled pastry thinly
5. Cut out circles of pastry with the biscuit cutter and press gently into the tray openings
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden then remove the tray to a rack and cool
7. When the tartlets are cold gently remove them from the tray
8. Spoon some lemon curd into each shell and decorate with a raspberry on top
9. Serve immediately or refrigerate in a sealed container and consume within the week