Yuzu Curd Tart

After making yuzu curd from the precious yuzu brought back from Kyoto, I proceeded to make yuzu tarts the next day, because the yuzu curd should preferably be used up within a week.

In my mind, I kept thinking about a French-style tart, the French tarte au citron aka lemon tart because I thought it looks so tantalizing. LOL! Frankly, I've not eaten a lemon tart before because I'm not a big fan of lemon curd and there are always other more appealing pastry choices available.

But yuzu curd is different, personally I feel that it doesn't have that sharp tangy taste of lemon curd; instead, it's mild with a unique fragrance that makes me want to go for seconds.

Initially I thought it would be manageable, since I've had different tart making experiences like Hong Kong Flaky Egg Tart, Hokkaido Bake Cheese Tart, Mini Egg Tarts etc etc...

But instead of my usual tart pastry recipe, I went for another recipe which has a higher butter content. And so, tart pastry nightmare, all over again.
 

In addition, since I wanted a French-style tart, I had to use a tart ring instead of the usual tart tins/cases (which is easier to manage). New learning curve. Took some practice and my tarts didn't end up classy looking at all, they looked, uh, rustic?

Oh, let me rant about the tart ring! Went to Phoon Huat but couldn't find (what?! why?!), had to make a trip to TOTT Store :( Ok, I digressed.

There are only 4 ingredients to the sweet tart pastry, unsalted butter, icing sugar, egg and cake flour. Beat butter and sugar using k-beater till creamy, add the egg, blend till mixed and finally the cake flour. Beat till just blended. Place the dough onto a sheet of clingwrap and cover. Let the dough rest in fridge for 45-60mins.

Once the dough is rested and firm, divide into 6 portions and work on 1 portion (keep the rest in the fridge) each time. As the dough has high butter content, it gets soft super quickly in our hot and humid weather. The only advice I give, DUST! Yes, dust the work surface, rolling pin, even the dough with plain flour, else the dough will just stick everywhere and cannot even lift it up.

Flatten the dough to about 5mm thickness, use a cutter to stamp the dough (I use a fluted cutter here because my circle cutter is too small and I forgot to buy one to match the tart ring!). Lift the dough and place it over a tart ring, push it down using fingers and shape around the tart ring. By this time, the dough is quite soft, so back to the fridge for about 15 mins to firm up.

After the tart dough is firmed, use a sharp knife to trim the top part (this step is optional if the fluted look is preferred). Place a sheet of clingwrap over the tart dough, then place pie weights or just beans into the tart. Wrap up the weights and bake in preheated oven at 180C for 13-15 mins. After 15 mins, remove the tart shells from the oven and remove the pie weights. The bottom of the tart shell seems to be under-baked (probably coz it's quite thick) so into oven to bake for another 8-10 mins.

My tart shells looked so ugly :( I did them in 3 batches, started from the top 2 (which I forgot to poke holes at the bottom of the dough and it puffed up a little), the 2nd batch was slightly better but over-baked and the final batch looked better overall but still far from what I expected!

Sweet Tart Pastry

Ingredients

• 180g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 100g icing sugar
• 1 egg
• 250g cake flour

Steps

1. Beat butter and sugar using k-beater till creamy.
2. Add the egg, blend till mixed.
3. Add the cake flour and beat till just blended.
4. Place the dough onto a sheet of clingwrap and cover. Let the dough rest in fridge for 45-60mins.
5. Once the dough is rested and firm, divide into 6 portions and work on 1 portion (keep the rest in the fridge) each time.
6. Dust the work surface, rolling pin and dough with plain flour.
7. Roll the dough to about 5mm thickness, use a cutter to stamp the dough.
8. Lift the dough and place it over a tart ring, push it down using fingers and shape around the tart ring.
9. Place the tart dough into the fridge for about 15 mins to firm up.
10. After the tart dough is firmed, use a sharp knife to trim the top part.
11. Place a sheet of clingwrap over the tart dough, then place pie weights or beans into the tart. Wrap up the weights and bake in preheated oven at 180C for 13-15 mins.
12. After 15 mins, remove the tart shells from the oven and remove the pie weights. If the bottom of the tart shell is under-baked, bake for another 8-10 mins.
13. Let the tart shells cool completely before topping with cream/curd/fruits of choice.

As the tart shells are quite big (couldn't find petite ones), I decided to fill only 2 of them with yuzu curd (store the rest in air-tight container and chill for other fillings another day).

Since the tart shells already looked so rustic, kept the decor simple as well. I brushed the surface of the curd with some yuzu marmalade, added a few shreds of the yuzu peels and topped off with a small sprig of mint leaves.

For the other tart, I just added a sprinkle of lime zest and topped with a strawberry.

The tart tasted not bad at all!

Well, the tart pastry was a little too crunchy and not short at all (think I over-worked the dough and baked too long - the double-baking) but the crunchy texture actually matched the rich and luscious yuzu curd quite well. Haha. The mint leaves surprisingly complemented the overall taste, such that the curd wasn't too overwhelming.

Strawberries tasted good with yuzu curd too!

I think overall the tarts turned out not too bad lah, although not atas-looking, they were kind of homey and rustic? Haha, buay paiseh!

I still have some yuzu curd left and supposed to use them by this week. I think I'm going to settle for something simpler, yuzu curd meringue cupcake maybe? Stay tuned!