Made with a sweet and tart DIY Lemon curd, these Mini Lemon Tarts are the perfect mini dessert to impress your family and friends. With no special equipment required, these bakery-style treats are a lemony sweet delight.
Have you ever eaten something and it is so good that it makes you want to cry? That’s my story with these Mini Lemon Tarts. The crust is buttery sweet, but not overly sweet. The homemade Lemon Curd is so lemony sweet, but also not overly sweet.
I could eat the lemon curd straight out of the jar. Honestly, I actually ate a lot of it while making this recipe. My girls and I licked the pot and every pan the lemon curd touched clean. No shame in our game.
Keep a tub of this homemade lemon curd in your fridge and smear it on everything from bread to biscuits. It is so good! This recipe makes a full cup of lemon curd and you only need a fraction of it to fill the tart shells.
Mini Lemon Tarts with Homemade Lemon Curd
I love this mini tart recipe because it doesn’t require any special tools. No special tart pans needed. I used my 6-cup regular muffin tin for the tart shells and they turned out just fine.
Admittedly, I used a pastry cutter to combine the butter and flour. Let me tell you though, I combined cold butter and flour in my blender the other day while making biscuits and the mixture was perfect. You could totally combine the flour and butter in your blender if your blender is good. You could also use a food processor to mix the tart shell dough.
I love these Mini Lemon Tarts for many reasons:
- They are easy to serve. With these mini tarts, you do not have to worry about cutting perfect portions of tarts to serve others. Each tart makes one serving.
- They are cute. I mean just look at them.
- They are luscious and so tasty. Fruity, tasty, tears of joy-inducing cups of goodness.
- They are great for celebrations. We used these to celebrate my second daughter’s birthday. She was grinning from ear to ear as we sang Happy Birthday over these tarts.
I just couldn’t wait to share my Mini Lemon Tart recipe from my home to yours. Hope you enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 6 tablespoons cold butter (cut into 1/2 inch slices)
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 lemons
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest (from the two lemons)
- 1/2 cup lemon juice (from the two lemons)
- 6 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Raspberries
- Fresh mint
Instructions
- Place flour, butter, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
- Use a pastry cutter to mix together until well combined.
- Add the egg and vanilla then mix together with your hand to form a dough.
- Roll dough on a floured board to about 1/4 inch thick then using a 2-inch cutter or the top of a round glass, cut out circles from the dough.
- Roll the remaining dough and cut out more circles. Cut out 6 circles in total. (See Home Chef Tip 2 in recipe notes for ideas on how to use leftover pie dough.)
- Place each dough circle over each cup of a 6 cup mini muffin pan. Press down carefully to form a cup.
- Bake in oven at 300ºF for about 10-15 minutes until slightly brown.
- Let the tart shells cool completely before filling them with the lemon curd.
- In a pan, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well incorporated.
- Add lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and mix well.
- Place on the stove on medium heat and start cooking, stirring all the time for about 3-5 minutes. The mixture will thicken as it cooks.
- Add in the butter, one piece at a time, and stir until butter melts. Cook for another 2 minutes.
- Remove from heat and pass through a fine mesh sieve.
- Fill the tart shells with about a tablespoon each of lemon curd. Top with fruits and garnish with mint leaves if you like.
Notes
Home Chef Tip 1: Avoid grating the white part of your lemon while zesting it. Only grate the yellow skin. The white part will give your food an undesirable bitter taste. Home Chef Tip 2: Form leftover pie scraps into strips then bake in a 300ºF oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown to make a delicious snack. You can also dip this snack into lemon curd and enjoy!
We hope you enjoy these Mini Lemon Tarts with Homemade Lemon Curd from SoFabFood Home Chef, Precious from Precious Core, as much as we do. If you love this mini dessert recipe, you can find more like it by visiting our Desserts Section. For daily recipe inspiration, subscribe to our newsletter, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Pinterest. Enjoy!
