LEMON TARTS

Ingredients :
(Recipe adapted from here)

-Crème d’Amandes  
50g  Butter  
50g  Icing sugar  
1 Egg  
50g Almond powder
5g  Cake flour

-Pâte Sablée  
175g  All purpose flour
25g  Almond powder  
70g  Icing sugar
A pinch of salt 90g  Butter 35g  Egg

-Crème Citron
Zest from half of the lemon  
100g  Lemon juice (I used Meyer Lemon)
100g  Sugar
3 Eggs  
50g Butter (soft, cut into pieces)

-Meringue Italienne (I omitted this)  
50g  Egg whites  
25g  Granulated sugar  
50g Granulated sugar  
20g  Water
 

Make Pâte Sablée:

Mix the flour, almond powder, icing sugar and salt together.
Rub the butter into the flour and almond powder mixture until resemble coarse crumbs.
Pour the egg into the bowl and stir to moisten all the crumb, take out of the bowl and knead (by pressing the dough until smooth).
Warp with plastic warp and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Make Crème d’Amandes:

Beat the butter and icing sugar until light, beat in the egg, flour and almond powder  until combine.
Put the batter into the piping bag until required.
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Roll the Pâte Sablée 3mm thick, cut into 9cm round and place into the tin, cut to fit the tin.

Pipe the Crème d’Amandes over the pastry and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Let the pastry cool on a wire rack. 

Make Crème Citron:

Mix all the ingredients except the butter together and whisk to combine.
Pour the mixture pass a fine sieve into a heat resistance bowl.
Put the water into a pan and bring to simmer and place the bowl of lemon mixture on top of it.
Heat until thicken, about 15 minutes you need to stir all the time.

Take off the heat and stir in the butter, then place the plastic warp directly over the surface of the curd and let it cool completely.

Make the Italian meringue: (I omitted this)

In a sauce pan, put the 50g of sugar and water and bring to boil over medium low heat.
When the syrup reaches 100°C, start whisking the egg whites with 25g of sugar.

The syrup is ready when it reaches 117°C; pour it over the egg whites and continue whisking until cold. Put the meringue into a piping bag with open star tip.

Assemble:

Pipe the Crème Citron over the pastry (using 1.5cm round tip), then pipe the Italian meringue over the top of each pastry and using blowtorch to brown the meringue.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.

before piping in creme citron

VANILLA TARTS

Ingredients :
(Recipe adapted from here)

Pâte Brisée
80g       All purpose flour
¼ tsp    Salt  
¼ tsp    Sugar  
60g       Unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes  
1-2tbsp Ice water

Rum –Vanilla filling
100g    Sugar  
17g      Cornstarch
⅛tsp    Salt
½bean Vanilla bean
280ml  Whole milk  
2          Egg yolks
1tbsp   Dark rum (I omitted this)  
2tbsp   Unsalted butter, soft

Makes Pâte Brisée:

Put all the ingredients, except cold water in a bowl of small food processor and process until the mixture resemble fine breadcrumbs. Pour the ice water into the bowl and process until the dough just hold together. Use your hand to gather the dough into a ball.

Cover with plastic warp and refrigerate until firm (1hour -1day). When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 180°C Butter the pan.

Roll the dough into preferred size (depend on the pan that you use), and fit the dough into the pan.

Pierce the bottom with fork and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Line the shell with aluminium foil and fill with Baking beans. Bake until the edge begin to golden 15-18 minutes. Remove the weights and foil, bake until the crust is golden brown 12-15 minutes more, let cool completely on the wire rack.
Make Rum – Vanilla filling:

Combine granulated sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Whisk  in milk and vanilla seed, and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until bubbling and thick.
Whisk egg yolks in a medium bowl until combined. Add milk mixture in a slow , steady stream, whisk until completely incorporated. Return mixture to saucepan, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it return to boil 1-2 minutes.

Pour mixture through a fine sieve into a large bowl, and stir in 1tbsp of dark rum. Add butter, whisk until butter melts. Let cool, whisking occasionally about 10 minutes.

Pour custard into crust. Press plastic warp directly on the surface of custard. Refrigerate until custard filling is firm, 4 hours or 1 day.