MINI TARTS WITH CITRON CURD AND DARK CHOCOLATE GANACHE

So what did I do with my citron curd? Apart from stealing spoonfuls of it every time I opened the fridge? I made these mini tarts, nothing new really but when I see the pictures now, I instantly feel how much I wish I had lots and lots of them here. Right now. I really like the slight bitterness of the citron curd paired with the dark chocolate but I just now that these would taste great with a lemon curd filling as well.





MINI TARTS WITH CITRON CURD AND DARK CHOCOLATE GANACHE
1 big pie and 8-10 mini tarts, maybe more depending on how mini you make them

pastry dough (based on a Alain Ducasse recipe that I found somewhere ages ago):
250 g/4,4 oz pastry flour
150 g/5,3 oz butter, soft
100 g/3,5 oz sugar
1 egg
the vanilla beans from 1/2 a vanilla pod

filling:
citron curd or lemon curd

ganache:
200 g/7 oz dark high quality chocolate, roughly chopped
300 g/10,5 oz fresh cream

- Stir sugar and butter smooth, incorporate the egg and the vanilla beans and stir well.
- Add the flour and work it quickly into a dough.
- Leave it to rest for a while in a cool place.
- Roll out the dough and line the tart forms. Cover with a sheet of foil and fill the forms with dried beans so that the sides don't fall down and the bottom doesn't puff up when you bake them.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven (175°C/350°F) for about 10-15 minutes for the small tarts and 15-20 minutes for a normal pie.
- Let them cool down.
- Bring the cream to the boil and then pour it over the roughly chopped chocolate. stir until smooth and leave it too cool down a bit.
- Fill each tart half-full with citron curd and then cover with ganache.
- Leave the tarts until the chocolate has set, it takes quite a while so make them well in advance.