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).