Cooking With WCCO: Strawberry Lemon Curd Tart

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's almost strawberry season in Minnesota, and Chef Ashley Mendel from A'viands at St. Gertrude's in Shakopee has an easy recipe for a Strawberry Lemon Curd Tart!

Ingredients

Lemon curd

• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• ½ cup lemon juice
• 1 egg
• 2 egg yolks
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter

Almond tart crust

• 2½ cups almond flour
• 2½ tablespoons sugar
• salt to taste
• 5 tablespoons of butter, chilled and cubed
• 1 large egg white

The rest

• 2 cups strawberries, sliced
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 cup jam

Instructions

Lemon curd

1. Prepare a double broiler, or fit a heat proof bowl over a large pot filled with an inch of simmering water.
2. In the heat-proof bowl combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, egg, egg yolks, and sugar.
3. Cook, whisking continuously (so you don't scramble your eggs), until mixture thickens enough to cover the back of a spoon.
4. Remove bowl from heat, and add butter, stirring to combine.
5. Strain curd through a fine metal strainer to remove any pieces of scrambled egg.
6. Cover with plastic wrap, so that it touches the top of the curd to keep it from developing a skin.
7. Refrigerate until chilled.

Almond tart crust

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine all the ingredients. Pulse until the dough resembles coarse meal.
2. Remove from the food processor and use your hands to form a dough.
3. Pull out donut hole size pieces of dough and mold into mini muffin tin.
4. Place in the freezer while you preheat the oven to 400ºF.
5. Bake on the middle rack for about 5 minutes, until it is light brown.
6. Let cool before filling.

To finish

1. When the crust has cooled, pipe the lemon curd into crust.
2. Slice strawberry and place into bowl with a tablespoon sugar and let rest for 15 minutes.
3. Take strawberry mixture and add 1/4 cup of any kind of Jam you like- I would recommend raspberry or rhubarb (if you can get your hands on some!).
4. Spoon strawberry mixture over lemon curd tart and eat immediately.