Lemon curd tarts
These fresh and zingy lemon curd tarts, made with a buttery, homemade shortcrust pastry are a delicious summery snack or delicious dessert.
Lemon curd tarts combine a buttery shortcrust pastry with a zingy lemon curd filling to make a delicious fresh and flavourful dessert.
These tarts are a really easy bake so they’re perfect for kids or beginner bakers to try. Making your own shortcrust pastry for them is surprisingly easy, but you could save yourself time and effort by using shop bought pastry.
How do you store lemon curd tarts?
These lemon curd tarts are best served on the same day. If you want to enjoy them for longer you can put them in an air tight container and pop them in the fridge for a day or two. If you leave them for much longer than that the lemon curd is likely to make the pastry a bit soggy.
What pastry are lemon tarts made from?
We used buttery homemade shortcrust pastry in these lemon curd tarts. You can save time by using shop bought pastry but if you have the time, homemade shortcrust pastry is much nicer and really isn’t difficult to make so definitely worth the effort.
How can kids help to make lemon curd tarts?
These are a great, easy bake for children to enjoy making. There are three different stages to the recipe – making the pastry, rolling and cutting the tart cases, then filling them – so even if your kids don’t help with everything there should be something they can do.
Making pastry is surprisingly easy and a fun job for getting your hands a bit messy so a good job for kids. They can help measuring out all the ingredients and rubbing them in with their fingers.
If your kids enjoy playing with play dough they should be good at rolling the pastry out and cutting out the pastry tart bases.
Finally, if you have very young children, even if they haven’t done anything else they should be able to help fill the cases with the lemon curd.
What else can you make with lemon curd?
If you have any left over lemon curd you might like our lemon curd muffins or our Belgian buns.
What else can you make with the homemade shortcrust pastry?
This recipe for shortcrust pastry makes a lot. You might like to use half you make some lemon curd tarts then use the rest for regular jam tarts or for some jam hearts. Depending on the season, you might also like some festive mince pies.
What else can you make with lemons?
If you liked these lemon curd tarts, you might like some of our other lemon recipes.
Lemon sponge cake
Mary Berry’s lemon cupcakes
Lemon biscuits
Lemon blueberry loaf
Lemon curd muffins
Mary Berry’s iced lemon traybake
Lemon cheesecake
Mary Berry’s lemon meringue pie
Lemon drizzle cupcakes
Lemon tartlets
Lemon blueberry muffins
Lemon meringue cheesecake
Useful equipment
You might need the following baking tools/gadgets to make these lemon curd tarts
Digital scales
Mixing bowl
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Rolling pin
Muffin tin
Wire rack
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Ingredients
375g (3 cups) plain / all-purpose flour
260g (1 1/6 cups) butter
125g (1 cup + 2 tbsp) caster sugar
1 egg
300g lemon curd
Serves: 24+
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 30 minutes plus 12 minutes baking
How to make lemon curd tarts
Make the shortcrust pastry
Get your kids to weigh the flour and then add it to a large mixing bowl.
Measure the butter then get your kids to chop the butter into small pieces. Add it to your mixing bowl.
Using your fingers, rub the flour and butter together until it looks like breadcrumbs. My kids always enjoy this as they get to get their hands a bit messy.
Measure the sugar then add that to your mixing bowl. Stir it in.
Finally, get your kids to crack the egg into a small bowl. If any rogue shell goes in, use a larger piece of shell to fish it out – it’s much easier than trying with your finger.
Add the egg to your mixing bowl then mix it all in until it starts to come together. If you need to, use your hands to bring it all together.
Tip it on to a lightly floured work surface then knead it very briefly so it stops crumbling and comes together in a nice ball. As soon as it comes together, stop working it as you don’t want to over mix it.
Wrap the pastry in cling film and pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so to chill it.
Make the lemon curd tarts
Preheat your oven to 180C / 170C Fan / 350F and grease a 12 hole muffin tray or tart tins with oil or butter.
To make it easier to roll, split your pastry in half.
Get your kids to roll the pastry out on a lightly floured work surface until it is about 3mm thick. When you’re rolling it out, turn it 90 degrees between rolls to stop it from sticking to your work top and to ensure you get an even roll.
When the sheet of pastry gets bigger, roll it around your rolling pin before rotating it to stop it from tearing.
If you find the pastry is sticking, you can roll it out on top of a sheet of baking paper and put another sheet in between the pastry and the rolling pin.
Use a round cutter (about 10cm) and cut out 12 bases for your tarts. Lay them in your muffin tins then, using a spare piece of pastry, press the circles down so they fill the holes.
Using a teaspoon, fill each tart case with lemon curd.
If you want you can use some left over pastry to cut out smaller circles (or other shapes) to put on top of your tarts.
Bake the lemon curd tarts
Put the tarts in the oven for about 10-12 minutes. They’re ready when the pastry has turned a nice golden brown colour.
Leave the lemon tarts to cool in the tin then carefully remove them from the tin and leave them to cool fully on a wire rack.
We found it easiest to take them out the tin when they had cooled enough for the pastry to harden a little. Make sure they are loose in the tin before you remove them by rotating them a bit or they might stick and fall apart when you lift them.
Serve and enjoy.
Lemon curd tarts
Equipment
- Digital scales
- Mixing bowl
- Measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- Rolling pin
- Muffin tin
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- 375 g (3 cups) plain / all-purpose flour
- 260 g (1 ⅙) cups butter
- 125 g (1 cup + 2 tbsp) caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 300 g lemon curd
Instructions
Make the shortcrust pastry
- Weigh the flour and then add it to a large mixing bowl. Measure the butter then chop the butter into small pieces. Add it to your mixing bowl.
- Using your fingers, rub the flour and butter together until it looks like breadcrumbs.
- Measure the sugar then add that to your mixing bowl. Stir it in.
- Finally, crack the egg into a small bowl. Add the egg to your mixing bowl then mix it all in until it starts to come together. If you need to, use your hands to bring it all together.
- Tip it on to a lightly floured work surface then knead it very briefly so it stops crumbling and comes together in a nice ball. As soon as it comes together, stop working it as you don't want to over mix it.
- Wrap the pastry in cling film and pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so to chill it.
Make the lemon curd tarts
- Preheat your oven to 180C / 170C Fan / 350F and grease a 12 hole muffin tray or tart tins with oil or butter.
- To make it easier to roll, split your pastry in half. Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured work surface until it is about 3mm thick.
- Use a round cutter (about 10cm) and cut out 12 bases for your tarts. Lay them in your muffin tins then, using a spare piece of pastry, press the circles down so they fill the holes.
- Using a teaspoon, fill each tart case with lemon curd.
Bake the lemon curd tarts
- Put the tarts in the oven for about 10-12 minutes. They're ready when the pastry has turned a nice golden brown colour.
- Leave the lemon tarts to cool in the tin then carefully remove them from the tin and leave them to cool fully on a wire rack.
Notes
- When you're rolling the pastry out, turn it 90 degrees between rolls to stop it from sticking to your work top and to ensure you get an even roll. When the sheet of pastry gets bigger, roll it around your rolling pin before rotating it to stop it from tearing.
- If you find the pastry is sticking, you can roll it out on top of a sheet of baking paper and put another sheet in between the pastry and the rolling pin.
- We found it easiest to take them out the tin when they had cooled enough for the pastry to harden a little. Make sure they are loose in the tin before you remove them by rotating them a bit or they might stick and fall apart when you lift them.
Pin it for later
Similar recipes
If you liked these lemon curd tarts, you’ll love our jam tarts and our other easy pastry recipes.
Am using this recipe for a school practical and am looking forward to finally using it.
Great, I hope it works well for you.
Very nice nice recipe will be using again