TINY LEMON MERINGUE TARTS

It’s tart season! 
When life gives me lemons...
or in my case, a bag of organic lemons,
I made itty bitty Tiny Lemon Meringue Tarts.

This is portion control.  Each tart is one mouthful…about the size of a truffle.

The microplane comes in handy for finely zesting the organic lemons.  Notice how tiny the organic lemons are? They’re about half the size of conventionally grown lemons…but they’re full of awesome puckery lemon flavour.

Here’s a better idea of how tiny the tarts and the organic lemons are:  that’s my Nikon lens cap next to the little critters. 


It was difficult to restrain myself from popping the whole tart in my mouth, but I wanted to give you an idea of what it looked like inside. 

The crust is from scratch:  pâte sucrée.  A whole batch makes about 60 extremely tiny tarts.  I used silicone mini muffin pans to form and bake the tarts.  The lemon curd is also a recipe that rocks.  A full lemon curd recipe will fill about 28 mini tarts.  You can double it easily.  The tarts are piped with an Italian Meringue. 

Yes, fiddly, but so cute and delicious! 

Organic Lemon Curd

• 4 grams organic lemon zest, finely grated on a microplane
• 4 large organic/free range egg yolks, at room temperature
• 128 grams organic evaporated cane sugar
• 100 grams freshly squeezed and strained organic lemon juice (about 3 small lemons)
• 60 grams unsalted butter, cut in pieces
• a pinch of sea salt

1. In a saucepan, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until combined
2. Add the lemon juice, salt and cut up butter pieces and heat over medium-low heat, stirring continuously with a heat-proof rubber spatula.
3. The lemon curd will eventually thicken, coating the back of the spatula.  Do not boil or it may curdle. 
4. Strain and discard residue.  Add zest and stir.  Allow to cool.

This recipe will make enough lemon curd to fill approximately 28 mini tarts.  You can double the recipe easily.

PÂTE SUCRÉE FOR TINY TARTS

• 2 sticks (1/2 lb) unsalted butter, cool but slightly softened
• 1/2 cup organic evaporated cane sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 large organic egg yolks, at room temperature
• 1 cup sifted cake flour
• 2 cups organic all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

1. Beat the butter in a standing mixer with the paddle attachment until softened and light, about 3 minutes.  Add the sugar and mix for about 20 seconds.
2. Mix in the egg yolks and salt, scraping the bowl down occasionally.
3. Add all the flours and mix only until the dough comes together.  Add the cream and continue mixing on low speed until the dough is smooth.
4. Remove dough and shape into a flat disk.  Wrap tightly in plastic wrap.  Place in refrigerator until cold, about 4-6 hours. 
5. Cut the disk into about 8 pieces and remove one piece at a time to work with while placing the remaining pieces back in the refrigerator.
6. Between two pieces of parchment or plastic wrap, soften the dough with a rolling pin.  I use my French-style rolling pin and beat the piece of dough into submission; then roll it flat between the plastic.  The dough is easier to manipulate into the silicone muffin molds when it’s softened. 
7. Using a dowel or in my case, the tip of my French rolling pin, which just so happens to be tapered at the ends to fit perfectly into the muffin molds—place about a tablespoon of dough into each mold.  Place a piece of plastic wrap over the muffin mold and insert dowel into the mold, squishing the tart dough to fit.   Using a sharp paring knife, cut off the excess dough from the tops of the molds and reuse the excess in future molds.  Ensure that there are no holes in the tarts.  Patch if necessary, and try to create evenly lined muffin molds.  Place silicone muffin pan on a sheet pan.
8. Bake the mini tarts at 350°F for about 5-7 minutes, at which time, the tart shells will have poofed up in the silicone muffin molds.  Remove the pan from the oven and using the dowel, again reinsert the dowel—this time very carefully so as not to rip the delicate tart shells—and tamp down the half-baked shells until they are reformed snugly into the molds.
9. Place the pan back and finish baking the tarts until they are golden brown, approximately 8-10 minutes.
10. Remove the pan and allow to cool for 10 minutes.  Carefully remove the mini tart shells from the silicone muffin pan by pressing gently on the bottoms.  Allow to cool on another sheet pan.  Continue baking the tarts in this manner until all the dough is baked off—or like me, freeze some of the remaining unbaked tart shells in the silicone pans for future use.   They are fabulous filled with ganache or pastry cream and berries…among many many other things!
11. Fill the cooled tart shells with lemon curd (see recipe above).  Pipe with Italian Meringue (see recipe below) and broil until golden brown.  Serve immediately.  The tarts should be refrigerated if there are any left (not!) and can keep for a day or two.
12. tart dough recipe makes enough for 60 tiny tarts

FINICKY YET FANCY ITALIAN MERINGUE

• 3 organic egg whites, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 75 grams organic evaporated cane sugar
• 23 grams water

1. In a standing mixer with a whisk attachment, whisk egg whites until foamy.  Add cream of tartar and continue whisking on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.
2. In a heavy saucepan, heat sugar and water until dissolved.  Continue to cook the sugar until the soft ball stage.  Pour the cooked sugar into the stiffly beaten whites and beat until combined.

TINY LEMON MERINGUE TARTS ASSEMBLY:

1. Using a 1M tip and a pastry bag, pipe the Italian meringue onto the lemon curd-filled tiny tarts.  Start from the outside and spiral towards the centre.   
2. Place the tiny assembled tarts on a sheet pan.  Place under the broiler and watch like a hawk until the tops are golden brown.  Remove immediately from the oven and serve.   If you are inclined, you may use your brulée torch to brown the meringues because in my opinion, there are hardly enough occasions where you can legitimately bring it out anyway.

More about → TINY LEMON MERINGUE TARTS

FRESH BERRY TARTS WITH COCONUT PASTRY CREAM

fresh berry tarts with coconut pastry cream

Long time no see, everyone!

I have been on hiatus.

During my "cleansing/detoxification" of sugar for the last few weeks, I had tons of marking as this is the end of the school year.

As I type this, my last huge pile of projects awaiting marking is sitting on my dining room table: board games, poetry anthologies, art work, dioramas, video-taped skits and other such creative takes on "To Kill a Mockingbird Pride Projects" (so-named for the pride each student is supposed to have, for having created projects that showcase their individual talents). The last few make-up exams are being scheduled, a handful of anxious individuals have yet to recite their memorized "Tomorrow and tomorrow" Macbeth soliloquies, and a stack of textbook receipts for lost books are awaiting my attention. I recently powered through 2 class sets of essays and I'm feeling euphoric. The marking burden is starting to lift slightly from my achey shoulders.

I figured it was time to celebrate with a batch of pastry cream! However, you know me...I had to tinker with the classic flavour of vanilla and add something to it. I decided upon Coconut flavoured pastry cream. From the market I had purchased a fresh little box of blueberries and a huge box of strawberries. In my freezer I had on hand a 24/pack sleeve of frozen tart shells and a half a can's worth of leftover Coconut milk.

I decided that Sherry Yard's Pastry Cream recipe with the Coconut Variation would best suit the bill today. I opted to use 3 large eggs in the recipe instead of the 5 large egg yolks. I thought it would be lighter and less yellow, lending to a more coconutty flavour and appearance.


Yard's recipe is so easy. I was happy with the results of using the whole eggs. The cornstarch I used to thicken the pastry cream enabled me to make the pastry cream in practically a couple of minutes! I was whisking away and it was pretty instantaneous how it thickened to a pudding consistency. It was smooth and though I strained it as directed, only a few bits were left in the strainer. It wasn't grainy at all. Yum. The flavour was very nice. I'll be using this one again.

COCONUT PASTRY CREAM
from Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking
yield: 2 to 2 1/4 cups, enough for two 9-inch tarts or 24 mini tarts

1 cup milk
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 t finely chopped orange zest [I left this out entirely]
2 t vanilla extract
3 T all-purpose flour or cornstarch
pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks or 3 large eggs, chilled
1 T unsalted butter, softened

• If you will need to cool this quickly, line a baking sheet with plastic film and set aside.
• Bring the milk, coconut milk, 1/4 cup sugar, and vanilla to a simmer in a medium nonreactive saucepan over medium heat
• Meanwhile, sift together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the flour or cornstarch, and salt onto a piece orf parchment paper. Whisk the egg yolks or eggs in a large bowl. Add the sfited dry ingredients and whisk until fluffy.
• When the milk comes to a simmer, remoe from the heat and ladle out 1/2 cup of the hot milk mixture. Drizzle it slowly into the eggs while whisking. Once the 1/2 cup nilk is incorporated into the eggs, pour the mixture back into the hot milk, whisking constantly. Be sure to scrape all the eggs into the pan with a rubber spatula.
• Immediately begin to rapidly whisk the pastry cream. In less than 1 minute, it will boil and begin to thicken. Continue to whisk for about 3 minutes, or until it has the consistency of pudding. To test the cream for doneness, tilt the saucepan to one side. The cream should pull away from the pan completely. Rinse and dry the large bowl.
• Strain the pastry cream through a fine-mesh strainer back into the bowl. Add the butter and stir until it is metled and incorporated. If the cream seems grainy, pulse it in a food processor until smooth. The cream is now ready to use, or it can be cooled to room temperature and refrigerated for up to 3 days. To cool the pastry cream quickly, spread it out on a baking sheet lined with plastic film. To prevent a skin from forming as it cools, place a sheet of plastic film directly on the surface.

FRESH BERRY TARTS

I used fresh strawberries and blueberries, but I imagine raspberries and blackberries would be equally good. I can envision sliced mangos, kiwi and other soft-fleshed fruit being equally delicious resting on the pastry cream.

1 "sleeve" of frozen tart shells (24 count)

1 cup fresh blueberries

4 cups strawberries, sliced

• Bake the frozen tarts as directed on the package. Mine called for 12 minutes at 375degrees F.
• Wash and prepare the fruit. I tasted the strawberries and didn't find them sweet enough. Unfortunately, it isn't strawberry season in Vancouver yet. When it is, I'm definitely going to make this recipe again. Local is the way to go with fruit. Today, I used those honking huge California strawberries that look kind of malformed...and they were slightly white inside. I know that's not a good sign. But that's all that I could find this time of the year. sigh. The way I fixed this washed out strawberry flavour problem was I sprinkled a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar on the sliced strawberries. I allowed the berries to macerate a bit in the sugar and eventually it produced this syrup at the bottom of the bowl. I was short on time and didn't save the juices to reduce on the stovetop to a thick syrup--but if you had the time, you should. Then you'd incorporated the cooled syrup back into the berries.
• I leave the baked tart shells unfilled, stored in a tupperware container until ready to serve.
• When ready to serve, fill each tart shell with a tablespoon or so of cold pastry cream. Arrange your berries on top.
• Refrigerate any leftover prepared tarts. The tart shells will begin to get soft from the moisture in the pastry cream and fruit so I try to consume them quickly after assembly.

******

What else can you do with pastry cream? Take a look at my Cream Puff Trio post!

I'm entering this berry tart in the Nutriferia Berrilicious Roundup. Go check it out!

More about → FRESH BERRY TARTS WITH COCONUT PASTRY CREAM

ALICE MEDRICH'S BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE TART

I've been dying to try out Medrich's Bittersweet Chocolate Tart recipe...and having read it through, I noticed how unconventional it was. It calls for melted butter in the tart dough. While pressing the dough into the pans was easy, I was starting to wonder if I could make the dough stretch to cover all the surface areas. The crust would be super thin I realized.

The chocolate tart filling was also quick to make and only required setting in the oven. After pulling out the baked tart shells, you turn off the oven. You then pour the filling into the hot tart shells, and pop it all back into the oven to set for 10 minutes. Now how easy is that? The hardest part was waiting for it to cool down enough to eat it.

I didn't want to bother with decorating the tarts, so I sprinkled a little Fleur de Sel on top of half of them to see if it would taste okay. It did. But I prefer it without the salt.

Bebe inhaled it. The tart is somewhat like a shortbread cookie and is crispy, light and slightly sweet. The chocolate filling is custardy and truffle-like. I would say the crust to filling ratio is just right in the recipe since it is so rich and decadent. I used organic dark chocolate with 70percent cocoa content and I remember it being expensive. You can really taste the chocolate quality in this tart and should only use good quality chocolate. It's a keeper; especially the tart dough recipe.

as per Posh-Kimchi's request: here's the recipe...adapted by cakebrain

Bittersweet Chocolate Tarts

Crust:
8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 t pure vanilla extract
1/8 t salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
Filling:
1 cup half-and-half
2 T sugar
8 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 large egg, lightly whisked
Special Equipment:
eight 4-inch (measured across the top) fluted tartlet pans (about 3/4 inch deep) with removable bottoms
*cakebrain's note: I think you can make do with 6 tart pans

• Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 F.
• Crust: Combine melted butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix in the flour just until blended. Divide the dough into 6 or 8 equal pieces (according to however many tart pans you're using). Press one piece very thinly and evenly across the bottom and up the sides of each pan. This takes patience--the amount of dough is just right (according to Medrich).
• Place the pans on a cookie sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the crusts are a deep golden brown.
• Meanwhile, make the filling: In a small saucepan, bring the half-and-half and sugar to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the chopped chocolate and stir until completely melted and smooth.
• Just before the crust is done, whisk the egg into the chocolate mixture.
• When the crusts are ready, remove from the oven. Turn off the oven. Pour the hot chocolate filling mixture into the crusts. Return the tartlets to the turned-off oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or just until the filling begins to set around the edges but most of the center is still liquid when the pans are nudged. Set the sheet on a rack to let the filling continue to cool and set.
• Remove the pan sides and serve the tartlets warm or let them cool completely. Just before serving.

notes:

To use chocolate marked 62% to 64% instead of standard bittersweet: use 7 oz chocolate

To use chocolate marked 66% to 72% instead of standard bittersweet: use 5.5 oz chocolate and increase the sugar to 5 T

More about → ALICE MEDRICH'S BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE TART