Mixed Fruit Tarts with Lemon Curd

I'm a huge fan of fruit tarts. I can probably have 20 in one sitting! However, I'm just really really really lazy to shape the tart shells so I've never really gotten to baking them no matter how much I love them.... Yesterday, we had our 2nd mini house warming... I decided to be a little more hardworking and bake some tarts! (: I baked these gems as well as a lemon meringue pie (:

There's just this beauty in uniformity. The tarts looked so good together! It was even better when it was well received by our guests (: It was also very well received on facebook when I shared it in various groups! So here's the recipe together with the image guide! (:

The recipe takes about 2 hours to complete and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5.

Mixed Fruit Tarts with Lemon Curd

This recipe yields 24 - 30 square tarts

pie crust

334g cake flour

100g icing sugar

165g unsalted butter, room temperature

100g eggs (about 2 eggs)

lemon curd

200g castor sugar

30g cornstarch

1 cup cold water

6 egg yolks (of 55g eggs)

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tbsp unsalted butter

Mixed fruits such as strawberries, blueberries and kiwis

1 tbsp apricot jam

1/2  - 1 tbsp hot water

In the mixer, add icing sugar to the butter. Sifting is optional. 

Mix both items till light and fluffy. Add in an egg at a time and mix well.

Add in cake flour.

Mix well. Scrape down sides to ensure that mixing is even.

Place dough in a plastic bag/cling wrap. Chill in refrigerator for minimally 30 minutes. If it's too cold after many hours of chilling, allow dough to thaw a little first. 

Sprinkle some cake flour on work surface to work the dough. Fit dough into tart case. I love my square tart tins with removable base I got from Amazon! My shaping skills is still far from pretty XD 

Preheat oven to 170 degree Celsius.

Bind bake the beans by lining the pastry with some baking paper and weigh the tart down with some beans or pie weights. Any beans would work I suppose, but definitely not corn! XD

Bake for 5 minutes before removing beans and baking paper. Return to oven to bake for another 5 minutes or till pastry is nicely browned. 

Allow pastry to cool completely.

In a non stick pan/pot, mix sugar and corn starch.

Add in cold water and mix well. Bring mixture to a boil on medium heat.

Allow mixture to thicken. Reduce heat to low.

To the egg yolks, add in 1 ladle of the sugar/cornstarch mixture.

  

Mix well. Do so quickly to prevent the yolks from cooking! 

Nicely mixed!

Return yolk mixture to the pot and mix well. Bring to a gentle boil.

Pretty mixture!

Add lemon juice and mix well. Bring to a gentle boil.

Remove from heat.

Add in butter and stir well till butter is all melted. 

Pour/spoon into tart case immediately. Else, place in a box and surface wrap it with food wrap to prevent drying of lemon curd. Be sure to have your fruits cut and washed prior to this step. Preferably before cooking your lemon curd! 

Arrange fruits onto the pastry tarts. 

To the apricot jam, add the hot water and mix hot water into jam. You'll get a nice glossy mixture to apply on the fruits. This also prevents the fruits from drying for a good day (: 

These tarts are best serve chilled! I hope you'll enjoy them! (:

If you've used or enjoyed any of the recipes on this blog, may I invite you to share them with me on www.facebook.com/limcynthia... Let me share your pretty works in my album dedicated to sharing bakes done using the recipes on my blog (: