This recipe is a supplement to the Dining feature "Tarts and other recipes don't have to be lemons with the addition of citrus", published in the print edition of the Georgia Straight.

Lemon Tarts
By Elisabeth Caton

Lemon Cheese Filling (aka Lemon Curd, Lemon Honey)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 lightly beaten eggs
• zest and juice of two large lemons

Place all the ingredients in the top half of a double boiler, or in a bowl over a pot of water. Heat the mixture on medium-low heat, stirring constantly. It will begin to thicken as the egg whites coagulate, and then get thicker as the temperature rises enough to coagulate the yolks. Remove it from the heat just before it boils, and pour it into a clean dry glass jar. You will have approximately 1 3/4 cups of Lemon Cheese, which will keep well, refrigerated, for at least a week.

Elisabeth's Pastry

1 cup unsalted butter or vegetable shortening
2 3/4 cups unbleached flour, sifted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
cold water

Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry cutter or two knives. In a measuring cup mix the egg, vinegar, and salt and add enough chilled water to make one cup of liquid. Add this to the flour-butter mixture, and blend lightly with a fork until just mixed. Knead the dough gently for a minute or two, using a little more white flour, if it is too sticky to handle easily, until a smooth moist pastry dough is obtained. Do not overhandle it. Chill this dough, wrapped in plastic food wrap, for at least a half-hour.

Roll the pastry on a lightly floured board or cloth, and cut it in rounds with a 10-centimetre cutter. Place each circle in the base of a large muffin pan, then place a tablespoon of lemon cheese in each one. Bake the tarts at 360 F (180 C) for 20 minutes, or until the pastry is lightly browned.

This quantity of pastry makes two double crust pies, or three to four dozen tarts, depending on their size: three-inch or four-inch (7.5-centimetre or 10-centimetre). It may be frozen before use, but thaw it completely before rolling it out.