Orange curd mini tarts
- Published: 8 Nov 22
- Updated: 25 Mar 24
Fill mini tarts with luscious orange curd and top with vanilla mascarpone. These freeze-ahead tarts make the perfect small, sweet bite for Christmas parties.
Browse more Christmas canapes recipes.
Ingredients
- 24 pre-cooked shortcrust pastry tartlet shells
- Pinch dried fruit powder (from health food shops; optional)
For the curd
- Finely grated zest and juice 2 oranges
- 50g unsalted butter
- 100g sugar
- 1 large free-range egg, plus 1 egg yolk
For the mascarpone
- 250g mascarpone
- 1 heaped tbsp icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Useful to have
- Digital thermometer
Method
- For the curd, measure out 100ml orange juice – you may not need all the juice you have. Combine the orange zest, juice, butter and sugar in a heatproof bowl. Put over a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the water touch the base of the bowl) and allow the butter to melt, stirring occasionally. Loosely beat the egg and egg yolk, add to the warm butter mixture and whisk over the heat for around 5 minutes until the curd is glossy and thickened. Remove the bowl from the heat and leave to cool (if you have a thermometer, remove from the heat when it reaches 80-82°C). Divide between piping bags or sealable freezer bags and refrigerate or freeze.
- Put the mascarpone into a mixing bowl. Use a spatula to beat the icing sugar and vanilla into the cheese (which will become slack). Divide between piping bags or sealable freezer bags and refrigerate or freeze.
- If you’ve frozen the fillings, when you’re 8-12 hours away from assembling the tartlets, defrost a bag of curd and a bag of mascarpone in the fridge. When ready, snip the piping bag ends or a small corner from the bags. Squeeze about 1 tsp of curd into the base of each tart shell and add a good splodge of mascarpone. Use a small fine sieve to add a dusting of fruit powder, if you like.
- Recipe from November 2022 Issue
Nutrition
- Calories
- 201kcals
- Fat
- 12.4g (7.8g saturated)
- Protein
- 2.4g
- Carbohydrates
- 20g (11.1g sugars)
- Fibre
- trace
- Salt
- 0.1g
delicious. tips
This recipe makes more fillings than you’ll need – freeze the mixtures in several small bags to use later.
The curd and mascarpone will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer, or for 3 days if chilled. Complete the recipe from step 3.
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