Fantastic and Fresh Lime Tarts

Need a refreshing sweet treat? Craving some seriously delicious citrus flavor? Wishing it was summer? No matter your reason for wanting to make some tarts, this recipe is sure to satisfy your cravings! This tart is made with an ultra-flaky crust, pastry cream with added zest, and lime-curd. It sounds complicated at first, but rest-assured that it is pretty simple if you have basic kitchen skills. The whole process is easy if you break it down into steps. For the reward of an amazing treat, there is some time commitment! This can take 1 to 3 to 5 hours- depending on when you make everything, or if you make the crust overnight. The total chilling time for the crust is 2 hours, the pastry cream is 1, the bake time for the crust is around 20 minutes. if you do everything at the same time, your total time will be around 2 hours and 20 minutes. These are SO WORTH IT, I promise! So, let's get cooking!

Equipment: 1 medium sauce pan, 1 small saucepan, 1 medium bowl, measuring spoons, measuring cups, spatulas, whisks, citrus zester, mini or large or medium or a combination of tart pans, plastic wrap, rolling pin, serving plate

Ingredients:

For the crust:

-1 cup all-purpose flour

-4 tsp sugar

-6 tbsp chilled butter

-1/4 tsp salt

- 1 beaten egg

For the pastry cream:

-2 cups milk(preferably whole milk)

-3 egg yolks

-1/4 cup flour

-1/2 cup sugar

-1 pinch salt

- 3/4 tsp vanilla

-2 tbsp butter

- zest from 1 lime, but reserve 1/4 tsp for lime-curd

For the lime-curd:

-1 tsp flour

-juice from 1 lime

-1 tbsp sugar

-1/4 tsp lime zest

Directions:

1) Make the crust: combine flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. Cut in the butter using a pastry-cutter, food processor, or your hands until dough resembles coarse meal. Add in egg, mix until it barely resembles dough. Knead until thoroughly combined and has a tough dough consistency, or about 5-8 minutes. Flatten into a disk and cover with plastic wrap- chill in fridge for 2 hours.

2) Make the pastry cream: Combine all ingredients except vanilla and zest in a sauce pan over medium heat. Whisk and bring to a boil and boil for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla and zest.

Note: Please make sure to be cautious as to not curdle the cream and end up with eggy-bits in it. Yuck!

3) Make the curd: Combine juice, sugar, and flour over medium heat, stir in zest. heat until mixture is boiling, make sure there are no flour lumps. Fold into pastry cream. Chill pastry cream in the fridge for 1 hour.

4) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Once dough is ready, roll it out to 1/4 inch thickness. Lay into tart pan(s) and trim edges.

5) Blind baking: Press aluminum foil on top of dough that has been set in tart pan. Weight it down with uncooked rice, beans, or pie-weights to avoid unwanted rising in the dough. Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until crust is golden-brown.

6) Once dough is done baking and has cooled for 20 minutes, add lime pastry cream to the crust, garnish as desired.(I used lime zest)

7) Serve. Then enjoy your creation!

I hope you all loved this recipe! Make sure to subscribe via email down at the bottom to get notified when more delicious recipes are posted! For more recipes, content, and baking fun, follow my Instagram page @graces_messy_kitchen! Leave a comment and give it a heart if you enjoyed making it! Creating this recipe was fun because I got to experiment with different dough- specifically the amount of butter that I added. Figuring out how to make a lime-curd that wouldn't curdle the cream was also a bit of a struggle as well. But, as they say, good things come to those who wait, and then this recipe was born! Hopefully, everything goes well for you in this recipe, and they put a smile on the face of whoever takes a bite! (:

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