Zing when you're winning!

I spent last Wednesday evening at the fabulous showrooms of Celtic Interiors, Douglas, Cork to give a demonstration of Miele appliances to invited guests. Celtic Interiors has just won the 2011 Master Retailer award in the Kitchen Retailer Ireland Awards and the demonstration kitchen was a real treat to work in!

One of the desserts I made was these zingy mini lemon tartlets – they are always a big hit and so simple to make.

This recipe suits a large tart tin, individual tins or (mini) cupcake tins for a sweet canapé.

TIPS: As always, the key is preparation....

1. The sweet shortcrust pastry can be made and frozen or chilled in advance, I even roll it out and line a greased tart tin and chill or freeze it, covered in cling film. The same applies to individual tartlet tins. For the canapé size, I cut out circles to fit a greased (mini) cupcake tin and either freeze them in the tin or flat on a tray for a quick defrost later if I don’t want have a tray to spare.
2. The lemon filling is the most delicious lemon curd and perfect to sandwich a chocolate cake or add to whipped cream in a meringue roulade. Any leftover lemon curd need not go to waste - I sterilise an empty jam jar (using the steam oven or a hot oven or boiling water) and keep it for up to a week unopened in the fridge.  
3. Freeze any leftover pastry for another day – flatten it before freezing so that it won’t take so long to defrost!
4. Roll the pastry between 2 sheets of cling film – it prevents sticking and keeps your rolling pin and worktop cleaner! It also means you don’t need to add extra flour which can dry out your pastry.)

Lemon Tart

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

350g plain flour

220g butter, diced

100g icing sugar

2 large eggs (you may not need all)

Eggs, beaten for egg wash

Filling:

grated zest and juice of 3 lemons

165g caster sugar

6 eggs

150g butter, diced

Method

To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the icing sugar, then just enough egg to form a smooth but not wet dough.
Wrap the dough in cling film, flatten well and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or freeze until required.

Preheat the oven to 180C on Fan.

Roll out the pastry finely between 2 sheets of cling film and use it to line a greased large tart case. Prick the base with a fork, then cover with cling film and chill until required.

Line the pastry with cling film, fill with rice and bake blind for 10-12 minutes until firm. Remove the cling film and rice and brush the base with a little beaten egg (egg wash) before returning to the oven for 4-5 minutes so that the base is well-sealed.

To make the filling, place the lemon zest and juice, sugar and eggs into a saucepan.

Whisk constantly over a medium heat until the mixture is hot and smooth.

Whisk in the butter a little at a time until the mixture is thick.
Remove from the heat and whisk occasionally as it cools.

Pour the mixture (hot or cold) into the pastry case and bake the lemon tart until set, around 30 minutes.

The (mini) cupcake cases need not be blind baked, just chill the pastry shells in the baking tin, then fill with lemon curd and bake for about 10 minutes.

Sift a little icing sugar to garnish before serving. Add a sprig of mint if you like!