IngredientsCream Cheese Pastry:
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Lemon Filling:
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
- ½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
InstructionsCream Cheese Pastry:
- In a medium mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, add butter and cream cheese; mix together on medium speed until smooth and thoroughly blended. Use a rubber spatula to scrap down the side of the bowl as needed. Add the flour and salt, mixing just until combined.
- Pat pastry into a 6 inch disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours.
- Remove chilled pastry from the refrigerator and divide into 24 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place in an ungreased mini muffin pan. Press the pastry against the bottom and up the sides of each cup to form the Tassie shells. Tip: Using one 24-cup or two 12-cup mini muffin pans is ideal. If you have only one smaller pan, keep the extra pastry in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Cover filled pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate Tassie shells until firm, at least 30 minutes.
- While Tassie shells are refrigerating, preheat oven to 350 degrees F, allowing 15 to 20 minutes for the oven to preheat before baking.
- Bake: Bake 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown around the edges. Rotate the pans from front to back toward the end of the baking time so the Tassie shells brown evenly. Remove from oven and place on a wire cooling rack to let cool.
- Run the tip of a small sharp kitchen knife around the edges of the muffin cups to loosen the Tassie shells. Remove shells from pan and place on a serving plate.
Lemon Filling:
- In a medium heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, lemon juice, water, and butter. Cook until thickened and gently boiling, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon so mixture does not burn, continue cooking for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat.
- In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks with a fork or wire whisk to thoroughly break up the yolk.
- Temper the eggs: very slowly, in a thin stream, pour about ½ of the hot lemon mixture into the beaten eggs while quickly whisking together. Tip: The technique used to blend uncooked eggs with a hot liquid is called tempering. Tempering slowly warms the eggs so they are closer to the temperature of the liquid they will be added to, preventing the eggs from scrambling. If you simply poured the eggs into the hot mixture they would immediately start cooking and you would have chunks of cooked egg in the mixture.
- Return the egg mixture back to the rest of the hot lemon mixture, pouring back slowly while whisking the two mixtures together. Return to medium heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula and scraping over the bottom of the pan, cook until mixture boils and becomes thick, or registers about 150 degrees using a candy or instant read thermometer to gauge the temperature. Remove from heat.
- Cover the surface with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap directly onto the top of the filling so a film does not develop. Cool to room temperature.
- Spoon one rounded teaspoon of filling into each Tassie shell. Cover and chill for 1 to 2 hours before serving.
source:allrecipes.com