~ "By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; Through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures." ~ "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing" ~ "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." ~ "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."~

Monday, August 24, 2009

Mini Fruit Tarts...Filled with a Lemon Curd Mousse and a Shortbread crust.




Mini Fruit Tarts with a Lemon Curd Mousse and a Shortbread Crust ....Perfect for Tea Parties. We recently had a tea party for 9 people. I had quite a lot of help...it is quite nice when you have nieces to help you! I mean ,really, who doesn't appreciate some extra helping hands in the kitchen. We had a lot of fun coming up with the menu. These little fruit tarts were amazing! I thought they were so cute...so, I decided to post the recipe in case you would like to try it one day. I loved the freshness of the lemon curd mousse paired with the buttery shortbread crust. They are a perfect little bite...and they don't require too much fuss. I found an awesome shortbread crust on allrecipes.com which I used. The actual recipe was for 3 (9 inch) pies! ...so, I scaled it down to make less. For the tea party, I made the crust for 8 servings which yielded about 20-24 little tarts. For this post, I made only 2 servings... giving me about 12 tarts. I didn't make them as thick , otherwise you would only get about 8-10 thicker crust tarts. I really like that Allrecipes has a feature on each of their recipes where you can cut the amount of servings to fit your needs. So, feel free to go to their site and adjust the amount of servings. You can click on the highlighted link above or here . Of course, you can always freeze the dough you are not using for another recipe. I used some homemade lemon curd with some whipped cream to make the mouse...I love the flavor! It goes really well with berries. I am posting the lemon curd recipe as well. You can also find it in my Berry Napoleon Recipe. One day I will make the lemon curd, take some photos and post about it as a separate recipe. It is actually quite easy to make. It freezes very well, so I always have some on hand.
Shortbread Crust adapted from allrecipes.com
yields about 20-24 mini tarts
1 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
3 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon confectioners' sugar
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Using your hands, mix butter, brown sugar, white sugar and flour together in a large bowl.
Squeeze and work dough until it holds together.
Chill slightly...enough where the butter solidifies again. Take a small chunk and place it into each mini tart.
Press and form the dough all the way up to the edge.
Chill for 2 hours ( I just chilled it for a few minutes until the dough hardened).
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly brown around the edges. Keep an eye on them after 8 minutes or so. Depending how thick the dough is, the baking time will vary. You don't want them to burn. Let cool slightly and make an indentation with the back of a teaspoon.
This will help hold the filling. Cool/chill completely.
Lemon Curd Mousse:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
4-5 TBS lemon curd
Whip heavy cream to medium peaks.
Fold in lemon curd.
Place the mousse in a plastic bag(or use a piping bag) and cut a small hole. Pipe lemon curd mousse in each tart.
Top with berries.
Homemade Lemon Curd Recipe:
Homemade Lemon Curd....really easy to make and have on hand for scones, pies tarts,cakes etc...I tried freezing the lemon curd and had outstanding results. So make some and freeze it in small containers and you will have lemon curd at your fingertips!

You will need: this makes about half of the original recipe (1 3/4 cups). You can see the original lemon curd post by clicking on this link...LEMON CURD
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter(no substitutes),melted
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 TBS grated lemon peel
pinch of salt
In the top of a double boiler, beat eggs and sugar. Stir in butter, lemon juice, peel and salt. Cook over simmering water for 15 minutes or until mixture is thickened and reaches 160 degrees. Cover and store in the fridge for 1 week (or freeze).

33 comments:

Sailaja Damodaran said...

yummy...tempting

Anonymous said...

Ellie
Thank you for the recipe and the beautiful, poetic photographs. You seem like a great gal:)
Allie

Ellie said...

Allie, Thanks for stopping by and for your sweet comment. I really appreciate it. I do hope you enjoy making these tarts ...they are one of my favorite dessert bites. Have a great day! Ellie

Becky Schlomer said...

Ellie, I made a bunch of these tarts for my daughter's wedding..the lemon curd/mousse recipe..about how many little tarts does that fill? I'm trying to figure out how many batches of mousse to make on the day of the wedding. I tried these out on my "office gals" they loved them..but of course, I didn't make a whole batch- just a sample.

Becky Schlomer said...

Oh- I found another page of yours that had a bigger batch with the Cups amounts...I got it covered..Love your posts...it was easy to follow your recipes and the pics are great for someone like me...when you try new recipes.you always wonder what it should look like!!!

Ellie said...

Becky,
Thanks for stopping by...Thank you so much for your sweet comment.I am glad you enjoy the blog even more so that you enjoyed the fruit tarts! I think they look really pretty ...perfect for a wedding:)! I have adjusted the lemon curd recipe to indicate the amount of cup/s. Hope that helps .Have a great day!~Ellie

FormosanGirl said...

The crust is delicious, but a little bit too greasy for me. Will try to modify and reduce the butter.

Ellie said...

FormosanGirl,Thanks for stopping by and for your feedback. I am thinking that decreasing the butter amount would not be a bad idea. You could likewise increase the flour amount. Do let me know how it comes out for you...~Ellie

Anonymous said...

blenestithanks, these look delicious!

dana said...

I just finished making these and cannot wait to see how others like them. I'm not a huge fan of lemon flavored things, but I couldn't stop licking the spoon when tasting the lemon curd. Yum! Thanks for sharing. One quick question, though: How well do these mousse tarts hold up since they're mostly whipped cream?

Ellie said...

Dana, So glad you like them. The filled mousse tarts will last for a few hours...after a while they will get soggy or soft. You might want to assemble them just before serving...maybe an hour or so. Hope that helps:)...

Sarah said...

Elli
So I am planning on making these soon but I just have 1 question. I don't have a mini cupcake/tart pan would I be able to use a regular cupcake pan? Just ajust the baking time and the ammount of dough I put in the pan. I know it would probably make less of the tarts though.

Ellie said...

Sarah, You can definitely use a regular cupcake pan, it should work just fine. You can use a shot glass/small glass or even a 1/4 cup measuring cup to shape pieces of dough in each cupcake well to an even thickness... and then use your fingers to work the dough up the sides, making sure the bottom isn't too thick, and if you want it to look even around the edges you can cut the dough around the side walls evenly with a knife.

Another idea is to roll out the dough unto a well floured countertop and cut out circles then draping each circle on the outside of the cupcake well (inverting the cupcake pan) and blind bake them that way. You'll have them looking even and I think it would be much easier. Here's a link that explains them and you can see a picture as well.

Hope that helps and thanks for stopping by.

http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-search/dessert-recipes/mini-fruit-tart-buffet

Anonymous said...

Should you cool the lemon curd before adding it to the whipped cream?

Ellie said...

Anon, Yes,... always:). Otherwise, it will be watery and not hold its shape. Hope that helps... enjoy!

Unknown said...

I found this recipe in Pinterest and made it for Xmas lunch... Everybody loved it! Thanks for the recipe! ;)

Ellie said...

Priscila, That's wonderful! Glad you tried the recipe...

I was thrilled to hear the mini tarts were enjoyed by everyone:)... really appreciate you taking the time to stop by and share your feedback.

Have a wonderful day:)!

Anonymous said...

Hi there! I am new at this tart game and I have a quick question! Can I also freeze the mousse to use later? Or does only the lemon curd freeze well? Thanks!

Ellie said...

Anon, So sorry I'm answeing so late... but you know, while you can probably get away with freezing the mousse, I think it's best to freeze only freeze the curd and then make the mousse.

Hope that helps!

Unknown said...

Wow simply yummy and healthy with all those fruits!

Ellie said...

Rachel, Thank you... Hope you can give them a try.

Johnsons said...

I made these today and they were heavenly!!!!! Thank you!

Ellie said...

Johnsons, Yay:)! You are most welcome. So thrilled to hear you tried the tartlets... and loved them.

Happy to hear from you... and thanks a bunch for taking the time to share your feedback. I really appreciate it!

Anonymous said...

Instead of making the lemon curd I'm going to buy the one already made at the grocery store. If I were to use that one do I have to freeze it first before I blend it with the heavy whipping cream

Ellie said...

Anon, No, you do not need to freeze the lemon curd. That would only be for long term storage... if you'd be making it from scratch. Hope you enjoy it with the store bought... and thanks for stopping by.

Johnsons said...

Thank you so much for this amazing recipe! I seriously have lost count of how many times I have made this recipe! I triple batch every time because they are so good and I have so many requests for them! Love them! yum!
Joy

Ellie said...

Joy, Aww... thanks so much for your super sweet comment! I really appreciate you taking the time to stop and brighten my day:)! So glad that you are enjoying the recipe... and sharing it with others. Have a great day!

Sharon Shrader said...

-
Hello! These look adorable! I am having a birthday tea party for my youngest girls (almost 3 and just turned 4), and plan to use these. Is it possible to make a bunch of the tarts ahead of time and freeze them? I'm trying to not leave everything until the last minute. Not only that, but we occasionally have tea parties at home, and I would love to be able to just pull them out and assemble them real quick (with the frozen lemon curd). What do you think? Will that work? Thanks for the recipe and your input! :)

Ellie said...

Sharon, You know, I haven't frozen the tarts completely assembled... but they might work. You can definitely freeze the curd and the baked tarts... I also think you can prepare and refrigerate the mousse even a day ahead. Then all you have to do is assemble them a couple of hours or so before serving. Hope you enjoy and have fun with the girls... sounds like a fun-filled day:)!

Sharon Shrader said...

Thank you, Ellie! I did mean to freeze the tarts and lemon curd separately, and then assemble the day of. Glad to know that works! I can defrost them the day before, and have a fun treat for our family tea parties without having to make everything that day (a huge reason of why they don't happen as often as we'd all like!). I'm going to make them today! :)

Ellie said...

Sharon, You are most welcome:)... enjoy!

Anonymous said...

So you can't make these the day before and leave in the refrigerator? Sounds like the crust will get soggy if you do... would be nice to be able to make ahead.

Ellie said...

Anon, You can try making them a day ahead... it won't be soggy( as in wet), but not so crisp as the day of- which may or may not be a bad thing necessarily. I mean Costco sells a fruit tart with a soft crust, and people buy them all the time:). Sometimes you just need to adjust things to make it work for you. Thanks for stopping by...