strawberry and lemon curd pistachio tarts

I turned 30 this week.

To celebrate, I took some time off work.

I thought I could use the extra days to get ready for the move, but as it turns out what I really needed was four days to not think about moving.

I spent time with friends and sipped wine over long lunches. I went shopping, and did pilates, and got treated to dinner and a pedicure {thanks Carrie!}.

I also made these pretty strawberry tarts from Nigel Slater's new book, Ripe.

I replaced the whipped cream with lemon curd, and the white flour with whole wheat flour. They were baked up in 20 minutes and eaten in less than 5.

Ba dahhhh happy birthday to me

Strawberry and Lemon Curd Tarts

Adapted from Ripe, by Nigel Slater

For the crust:

8 tablespoons unsalted butter + extra for greasing pans

2 tablespoons sugar

2/3 cup shelled pistachios, finely ground

1 egg yolk

1 ½ cups all purpose or whole wheat flour

For the filling:

 lemon curd (click on link for recipe), can be made and chilled ahead of time

20 (or more) fresh strawberries, trimmed and halved or quartered

Special equipment:

6 tartlet pans with removable bottoms, 3-4 inches in diameter

Using the paddle attachment on an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth. Add the ground pistachios, egg yolk, and then the flour until just incorporated. The dough should be firm but roll-able so you can add a little extra flour or water to get it to the correct consistency. I also found that chilling the dough for a few minutes at this point, helped the rolling process.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough just so that it is short and fat (about the same size of the tartlet pans). Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 20-30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease the tartlet pans and set aside.

Once the dough has chilled, Nigel suggests to “cut the pastry into thin disks and place them in the tartlet shells, pushing them gently into the corners”. I found that my dough didn’t quite want to be rolled or cut into thin disks, so instead, I pushed it piece by piece into the tartlet shells. Either method should work fine, depending on the consistency of your dough.

Once you get the dough into the tartlet pan, line it with parchment paper and top with pie weights (I use dried beans). Bake for about 15 minutes, or until tartlet shells are pale and just lightly browned. Remove the paper and pie weights and return to the oven for about 5 minutes. Let shells cool for 5-10 minutes on a wire rack before removing from pans.

Fill each shell with chilled lemon curd and top with strawberries. Enjoy!