Eid Mubarak and Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all 🙂
I spent the day baking and I have some awesome recipes to share over the week!!
I usually bake at least once a month but somehow I didn’t bake last month and I HAD to compensate with some sweet cake goodness this weekend…I made lemon curd tarts, strawberry jam tarts and a chocolate cake!!
For starters, here’s how to make your own lemon curd tarts….they’re yummy, drool in the mouth, sweet and the tarts are light and buttery….delicious!!
Note: Sorry for the blurry pic 🙁 I was too busy drooling at the tarts to concentrate on the photos 😉 And the tarts taste much better than they look in this pic..They’re already over at home 😀
LEMON CURD TARTS
Ingredients for the Pastry
Refined Flour (maida) 115 grams
Butter 60 grams
Baking Powder 1/4th teaspoon
Cold Water to mix
Sugar(optional) 5 grams
How to Make the Pastry
- Sift flour and baking powder( there should be no lumps).
- Rub in the butter lightly with your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs (don’t knead like chapathi dough).
- Add sugar if you want and mix thoroughly.
- Mix with cold water to form a soft dough.
- Roll out on a floured slab or cutting board(don’t roll it out too much-should be thicker than a chapathi) and cut as required. ( I use a small katori (bowl) to cut out a round shape from the rolled dough.)
- Line 12 muffin tins or patty tins with the rolled out shapes.
- Prick the centers of the shapes lightly with a fork.
- Bake in a hot oven at 205 degrees C (400 degrees F) for 15 minutes.
- When baked ( it should look lighter and will be solid not squishy) remove from patty tins and place on a plate to cool completely.
Ingredients for the Lemon Curd (enough for 12 tarts)
Sugar 115 grams
Egg 1
Butter 55 grams
Lime 1
How to Make Lemon Curd
- Grate the yellow part of the lime skin and keep aside.
- Melt butter and sugar.
- Add the juice of the lime and its rind (grated in step1).
- Remove from the fire and beat in an egg.
- Return to the fire and cook in a double boiler or over water until thick.( I don’t have a double boiler- I just fill a big kadai(wok) halfway with water, hold the lemon curd mixture with potholder and place it in the boiling water in the kadai. The lemon curd vessel should not touch the kadai sides directly- just the hot water…It’s sort of delicate cos it has egg and lime-you don’t want it to curdle!)
- Remove from water and cool before using.
- Spread into the pre-baked pastry cups (ONLY after both the lemon curd and the pastry cups are cool!!).
Notes: These tarts taste equally good after being chilled in a refrigerator!
The recipe was taken from The Thangam Philip Book of Baking. Any mallu worth her coconut oil should have heard of Thangam Philip! Her recipes are so easy to follow and she gives such sensible cooking advice too!