Lemon Tartlets

These tarts are an adaptation from a dessert I first had during a cooking class in France. Prior to trying these, I would have thumbed my nose at lemon tarts - normally, just not my thing. Boy was I proved wrong. I think the day we made them, I had 5 or 6.These are absolutely delicious - bright, tart, a little sweet and totally addicting. The pastry is also wonderful, with the addition of almond flour making it nutty and giving it good depth of flavor. If you can't do almond flour for whatever reason, feel free to use any other sweet pastry dough you like.

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Lemon Tartlets 

Ingredients:Pastry: 

• 1 ¾ cups flour 
• ½ cup almond flour 
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 stick unsalted, room temperature butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 egg

Filling: 

• 3 lemons
• ¾ cups sugar (if using meyer lemons, cut sugar to ½ cup)
• ¼ tsp salt
• 6 tbsp room temperature butter
• 2 egg yolks 
• 2 eggs

Method:

• Make your pastry: In a small bowl, mix together flours and salt and set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar (you can use a mixer but its not necessary). Add the eggs and egg yolks and beat well to combine. Add in the flour mixture and mix until completely blended. Chill for 30 minutes. 
• While the pastry dough is chilling, make your lemon curd: In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks with sugar, salt, and the lemon zest and juice from your 3 lemons. Transfer the mixture to a medium saucepan over low heat. Whisking constantly, add the butter 2 tablespoons at a time until it is melted and the sugar is completely dissolved. Cook, continuing to whisk constantly, until the curd has thickened (about 5-7 minutes) and coats the back of a spoon. Do not allow it to come to a boil. Remove from heat, adjust sugar to taste and then strain immediately over a fine mesh sieve and cover the remaining curd with plastic wrap. Chill in fridge until ready to use.
• Preheat oven to 350. Remove your pastry dough from the fridge (its okay if its not super cold) and roll out to about ⅛ inch thick, sprinkling the dough with flour so it doesn’t stick to your work surface or rolling pin. Cut pastry circles the size of your tart molds I use a mini muffin tray). Heavily butter your tart molds and place pastry circles into the molds, very lightly pressing the dough against the edges to remove any air (do not press too hard or it will stick when you try and remove). Bake the tarts until golden, about 15-17 minutes. Do not worry if the tarts puff up - they will deflate slightly and you can also gently press down the bottoms with the back of a spoon. 
• Let the tartlet shells cool and then fill the shells with the lemon curd. Top with a mint leaf, raspberry, or citrus sugar* (all optional). 

To make citrus sugar, I combine 1 part citrus zest to 5 parts sugar and then let it dry slightly.