Little Lemon Tarts

Lovely little lemon tarts, I love. This is not the recipe that I use frequently but this recipe is quicker. The crust is similar to pie crust but with cookie qualities and the filling is creamy but still tart from the lemon. Honestly, I was straight up eating the left over filling. I know, I know, the egg yolks are bad but come on. How could I not?Little Lemon Tarts

crust
2 cups flour
4 1/2 oz. unsalted butter, chopped
2 tsp caster sugar (superfine) sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1 egg yolk
filling
4 1/2 oz. cream cheese, softened
4 oz. (1/2 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray mini muffins tins with cooking spray or you could butter them. Sift the flour and a pinch of salt together in a bowl and rub the butter in until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, zest, egg yolk and 2-3 tbsp iced water and use a pastry cutter, or knives, until a rough dough forms. Gently knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Cover in plastic and chill for 10 minutes.
For the filling, beat the cream cheese, sugar and egg yolks using electric beaters until smooth and thickened. Add the lemon juice and condensed milk and beat until well combined.
Roll out the chilled dough between two pieces of parchment paper until about 1/8 inch thick. Using a 7 cm fluted round cutter, or in my case a glass, cut rounds from the pastry. I kept a bowl of flour on hand so I could dip the glass in the flour before pressing therefore making an easy removal. Gently press the rounds into the muffin tins and lightly prick them with a fork three times. Bake for 10 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden. Remove from the oven and spoon 2 tsp, or until full, of filling into the little crusts. Return the tarts to the oven for another 5 minutes or until the filling is set. Cool slightly before removing from the tins. Enjoy!
Makes 24 tarts