A beautiful flower-shaped mini crusts filled with delicious and tangy lemon custard, this dessert is not only pretty to look at but tasty as well! The eye appeal of the bite-sized treat makes it the perfect dessert for any special occasion.
What is a Tart?
A tart is a dessert consisting of an open shortcrust pastry base and a filling of either savory or sweet fruit-flavored custard. To prepare this dessert, the crust is usually blind-baked before adding the fruit filling and chilled. The tart is oftentimes topped with fresh fruits before serving.
Facts About Tarts
- In the 19th century, tart was a slang word meaning “pretty woman” but was later used as a derogatory term for prostitute.
- Pies and tarts are very similar, the only differences are that pie crusts tend to be flaky and can cover the filling whereas tarts are crumbly and are open crust.
- An early 15th-century version of the fruit tart was called the Italian crostata
- Pies were considered commoners food while tarts were popular among nobles and royalty.
- National Lemon Meringue Day is the 15th of August.
Origins
Tarts were invented sometime in the 15th century during the Medieval era. It is said that it originates from France The earliest versions of tarts were of the savory kind, containing meat filling. This, however, changed as the sweet fruit-filled tarts gained more popularity.
When This Should Be Eaten
Lemon fruit tarts are a sweet dessert usually reserved for brunches, teatime, a lunchtime sweet treat, or after a post-dinner delight. These delicious tartlets are great for wedding, bridal, and baby showers or any special occasion you cant think of.
Best Served With
This lemon tart recipe goes well with fresh strawberries, whipped cream, chopped nuts, or dusted with powdered sugar for extra sweetness and an attractive look. Eat these tasty treats with any beverage of your choice and savory every delicious bite.
Essential steps
Prebake the crust– Ater cutting the dough into flowers and we tucked them into the muffin cups, applied the egg wash to the edges, and baked them without the filling. This step ensures that the crusts will be enough to hold the shape once they’re removed from the muffin pan and filled.
Pricking the crust– Once we placed the dough flowers into the muffin pan, before baking we used a fork to poke holes in the bottom of the dough. This was done to prevent the crust pocket from puffing up.
How It Was Made!
We preheat the oven and grease the mini muffin pan. After that, we rolled out the premade pie crust and used a cookie cutter to make flower shapes. Once this was done we pressed each flower into the muffin cups, brushed the edges with egg wash, and baked for about 18 minutes, and removed them to cool.
We whisked the egg yolks, set them aside, and brought the water, sugar, cornstarch, and salt to a boil over medium-low heat. We combined half this mixture with the egg yolks before pouring it back into the pot and returning to the stove over a low flame and cooked it for 3 minutes while stirring.
After 3 minutes, we removed it from the stove and finished the custard by whisking in the lemon juice, lemon zest, and butter 1 tablespoon at a time. We then placed the mixture in each of the crust almost filling them to the top and dusted them with powdered sugar.
Why Should You Make This?
These mini lemon tarts recipe is easy to follow, doesn’t take much time to prepare, and is low cost to make, and they’re yummy! The prep and cook time is only 45 minutes, and this recipe yields 24 scrumptious tarts! Is there any reason not to make them?
Terms Used In The Recipe
Medium-Low – This refers to heat setting and means turning the dial on the stove 2/3 of the way around towards low.
Blind-Baking– This is the process of baking crusts or other pastries without filling. This is also called prebaking.
Questions And Answers
Q: What’s a good cornstarch substitute for this recipe?
A: Ran out of cornstarch, no biggie! You can use all-purpose to replace it, use twice as much flour to replace the cornstarch.
Q: What can I use instead of egg wash?
A: One of the best substitutes for eggwash is milk, but feel free to use these other options: yogurt, melted butter, or honey.
These mini lemon tarts are a quick and easy dessert that is sure to impress your friends, family, and guests! These miniature desserts are so cute and delicious, I’m sure they’ll be a welcomed treat that everyone will love.
Flower Shaped Mini Lemon Tarts
Bitesized flower shaped lemon tarts, scrumptious and beautiful.
Ingredients
- 2 storebought ready to roll pie crust (or homemade if you prefer)
- $ egg yolk plus 1 egg (for egg wash)
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- using non stick cooking spray, grease a mini muffin pan.
- Roll out the pie crust on a clean and flour-dusted surface. Using a 4-inch flower-shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many flowers as possible, then gather the dough pieces, reroll the dough, and repeat the cutting process.
- Press the dough flowers into the mini muffin cups and poke the bottoms with a fork. Apply egg wash to the edges of the crust and blind bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove the mini crust from the oven and allow them to cool, you prep the filling. Use the tip of a knife loosen the crusts in the pan and set aside.
- Whisk the 4 egg yolks and set aside. In a medium saucepan, over low heat, combine the sugar, water and salt while stirring constantly, then allow this to boil for about a minute, then remove it from the heat.
- While whisking constantly, stream half of the sugar mixture into the egg yolk. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan while stirring and return it to the stove over low flame for 3 minutes.
- Remove the mixture from the heat, stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and butter (1 tbsp at a time). Spoon this mixture into each mini flower crust (almost to the top), dust with powdered sugar and serve. The sugar on the lemon custard will dissolve, leaving only dusted flower petals.
