Sometimes even my sweet tooth needs a change from the chocolate and this lemon tart does the job! These were a big hit at the big fundraiser held for my school. My students made 300 of these beautiful little flowers and 300 of the mini 2 bite brownies as well and there was not a crumb leftover.

Tart Shells Ingredients

6 Tbsp Cream cheese
6 Tbsp butter
1 tsp sugar
3/4 cup flour

Filling Ingredients

zest of 1 lemon ½ cup lemon juice (from real lemon and pre-juiced) 1 cups sugar 2 large eggs 6 Tbsp (90 mL) sour cream

Tart Shells Directions

1. Grease a mini-muffin pan. Set aside.
2. Mix together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and salt until smooth.
3. Add the flour and mix gently until the dough is cohesive.
4. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic, and freeze for at least 15 minutes.
5. Unroll pie crusts on lightly floured surface and cut out as many flowers as possible.
6. My flower shaped cookie cutter is 4-inches in diameter petal tip to petal tip. Once your first set of flowers are cut, you can ball up the dough and roll it out again. You should be able to get 24 flower shaped dough pieces.
7. Put the dough pieces in mini muffin tins, leaving an empty space between crusts. Press them into the bottom and on the sides. Prick the bottoms with a fork.

8. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until golden around the edges.
9. Remove from oven and let the crust cool while you make the filling. Once cooled, use the tip of a knife to loosen the crusts from the mini muffin cups.

Filling Directions

10. Whisk together the lemon juice, zest, extract and the sugar.
11. Whisk in the eggs, then the sour cream.
12. Put in a liquid measuring cup for easier pouring into the crust

Assemble

13. Roll the dough on a floured surface into a circle 1/8" thick.
14. Using a 2 3/4" biscuit cutter, cut out 24 circles, gathering the scraps and re-rolling the dough as necessary.
15. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan.
16. Transfer the dough circles to the cups of the pan, pressing into the corners and up the sides of each cup.
17. Pour the filling into each of the tart shells until it nearly reaches the rim of the cup.
18. Bake the tarts for 18 to 20 minutes in the mini muffin pan, until the crust turns golden and the filling has set.
19. Remove the pan from the oven and let the tarts cool for 10 minutes in the pan.
20. Transfer the tarts to a rack to cool completely before serving.

Inspired by

• King Arthur