Recipe: Lemon Tarts (using puff pastry)

Lemon Tarts
rec.food.recipes/Joe Ouellette/2002

1 sheet Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry dough - cool enough to unfold but not too warm
A handful of flour
Pam, Butter-flavored spray
Aluminum foil
Pie weights
Rolling pin
a large a pizza stone

Put the tart tin or individual tart molds into the freezer. Heat the oven to 450F with a pizza stone on the top rack.

Spread a thin layer of flour on a section of your counter. Gently fold out a sheet of the Pepperidge Farms puff pastry dough. Flour the top of the pastry and roll out until the pastry is an inch larger than it was. Dock the dough well, (this means to poke lots of little holes into the dough so it won't buckle and bubble as it cooks). Use two forks, to speed things up, if you don't have a docking roller. Take the tart mold out of the freezer and spray it with Pam. Press the dough into the tart mold. Cut off the excess dough.

Spray a one foot piece of foil with Pam, then gently press the sprayed side onto the dough. Put the pastry into a freezer for a minimum of five minutes to get it cold again. We do this so the butter will bake into the flour whole. If you bake a dough that is warm the butter will separate into oils and solids and the dough will not bake uniformly.

Bake in the hot oven (on top of the pizza stone) for 15 minutes. Remove and let cool on a rack.

Meanwhile make this filling:

Filling
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 egg yolk
Juice and zest of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons cream
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sugar

Heat your oven to 325F, with the rack at the lowest position and a pizza stone on it. In a small bowl, beat the eggs with a pinch of salt.

Put the lemon zest and juice into a medium bowl with the sugar. Mix the lemon/sugar mixture, the eggs, and all remaining ingredients. Pour the mixture into the cooled crust.

Bake on the bottom rack of your oven for twenty-five minutes.