What I Learned About Custard Tarts

Whenever I go to Berkeley to visit my parents, I haul back as many meyer lemons from their garden as my carry-on can fit. They last a very long time in fridge, which how I found myself wondering what to do with the last few lemons that I brought home back in June. Ah ha! Lemon curd! No wait - lemon curd tart! For something as traditional as a custard tart I went to my copy of The Art of Simple Food. My experiments turned out pretty well:

I learned a few things:

• Tart crust and pie crust are similar, but not the same. Tart crust is sweet and harder to work with than pie crust, but it is still important to chill it a bit. I thought there would be enough butter in the crust so I didn't oil the tart pan, which was a mistake.
• Custard is pretty easy to make! A double boiler (jury-rigged is fine) helps ensure gentle heat. The lemon curd called for a whole egg as well as yolks, and the whites from that egg did curdle a little bit but once the tart was baked I couldn't tell. Pastry cream (plain custard with a little vanilla) is even easier.
• It's best pre-bake the tart shell a little, gently push down any bubbles, and then bake the custard in the shell. My second project was to make mini berry tarts with pastry cream and I interpreted the recipe as saying, bake the shells completely, then add the cream. They tasted fine but the custard was very runny. Baking the custard in the shell for ten minutes or so would have helped, though could have made it hard to get them out of the cupcake pan.
• Custard bonus: Egg white omelets for days afterwards!