Gluten Free Mini Lemon Tartlets are lovely little bite-sized treats for a shower, tea, or luncheon. Basically a two-step process, they're put together with baked gluten free shells and lemon curd filling. Garnish the tops as you wish.
Preheat oven to 425°F (218°). The mini muffin pan should not need any special preparation.
Roll out the pie dough with a rolling pin in the rice flour, generously allowing it to be absorbed as you coat the rolling pin and frequently flip the dough over from side to side.
Using a well-floured round cookie cutter, cut out round shapes from the dough, and place them into the tiny cups of a mini muffin pan.
Dock the crust by poking each one with a fork a couple of times at roughly 90° angles to keep the empty crust from puffing up on the bottom during baking.
Bake the mini tart shells in the preheated oven for 7 minutes, or until they are beginning to brown around the edges. Set them aside to cool before removing them from the pan.
To remove the cooled shells from the mini muffin pan, gently place an inverted cookie sheet over them and tip them out upside down onto the cookie sheet.
Lemon Curd
Prepare the Lemon Curd according to recipe directions.
Assembly
Spoon a little lemon curd into each baked shell with a small spoon. A ½ teaspoon is about the right size.
Garnish each tartlet with a berry, whipped cream, or meringue.
Garnish Options
For the simplest, prettiest garnish, simply set a fresh berry onto the top of each filled tartlet.
If you wish to garnish some tartlets with whipped cream, whip some heavy whipping cream and a few drops of maple syrup or sugar in a chilled bowl until stiff peaks form. Pipe or spoon a dollop onto each filled mini tart.
Alternatively, you may also choose to make meringue with some of the egg white left over from the lemon curd. Beat the egg white in a clean bowl with clean beaters until stiff peaks form. Pipe or spoon a dollop onto each filled mini tart. Place the meringue-topped tartlets onto a baking sheet and bake in a 350°F (177°C) oven for a few minutes until the meringue starts to turn golden in colour.
Notes
Since the gluten free pie crust is characteristically very moist, it needs the extra rice flour incorporated to maintain its shape for blind baking (baking empty crusts).
The tart crusts could be shaped and placed, unbaked, in the pan and the lemon curd made a day ahead and kept, covered, in the refrigerator. I would recommend baking the shells and assembling the tartlets on the day of serving for maximum freshness.