puff pastry

Instructions

1. For the Curd Cheese: Pour the milk into a large pan and add the salt. Stir and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vinegar. Leave pan for 7 minutes without stirring. Put a sieve lined with a damp muslin cloth or cheesecloth (I used a damp paper towel) over a large bowl and pour in the milk/curd mixture. Let it drain for at least 30 minutes, until cool. Pour the remaining curd cheese into a bowl, scraping down the cloth to get all of it. It will be just at 200 gm of cheese.
2. For the Rough Puff Pastry: mix the flour and salt together in a medium bowl. Rub in the chilled butter (not the frozen butter) until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (ish). Gradually add 6 to 8 tablespoons of water - just enough to form a kneadable dough.
3. Lightly flour your counter or marble and roll out the dough to a rectangle measure 30x12cm (about 12x4.75") with one of the long sides facing you. Grate half of the frozen butter over two thirds of the dough, starting from the right to left. Fold over the right edge of dough two thirds to the left, then fold the left side up over the first fold, as if you were folding a letter. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and roll it again into a similarly-sized rectangle.
4. Grate the remaining frozen butter over the right two thirds of the dough as in the first instruction, and fold again (two thirds from right to left; one third from left to right, like a letter). Wrap in cling wrap and leave it to rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
5. Repeat the rolling and folding of the pastry twice more (without any more butter), each time wrapping in the cling wrap and leaving to rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
6. While the dough is on it's last rest, make the Lemon Curd: Put the zest and juice from one lemon, the sugar, and butter in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water (or a double boiler). Stir constantly, until the butter has melted, then slowly drizzle in the eggs while whisking vigorously. There may be a few white pieces from the egg, but they'll get sieved out. Whisk the mixture constantly for 7-8 minutes, until thickened like custard. Pour the cooked curd through a sieve into a small clean bowl (to remove the zest and bits), then set aside to cool.
7. Heat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Lightly flour your surface again and roll out the chilled pastry to about 3 mm. (.12") thick. Make sure you can get 12, 4" circles out of the rolled out dough - if not, it's not thin enough - keep rolling (you'll have scraps after 8 or 9 of the circles are cut - just gently reroll out and finish cutting the circles).
8. Put the circles into the 12 muffin tin holes, pressing lightly up to the top of the cup. Cover each with a 3" square of parchment paper and put beans in each hole to weight them (so the pastry doesn't puff up too much). Bake for 18-20 minutes, then remove the pan to a rack. Carefully (it's hot) remove the paper and beans and set the muffin tin aside. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F).
9. For the filling: While the pastry is baking, place the curd cheese, lemon zest, sugar, flour, and eggs into a medium bowl and whisk together (or better yet, use a hand mixer) until smooth.
10. Place 1 1/2 teaspoon of the lemon curd into the base of each pastry case, then carefully pour the filling into the cases until they are fairly full, but not overflowing the top of the pastry. Bake for 10-13 minutes, until almost set (barely wiggly). Transfer the muffin tin to a wire rack and allow the tarts to cool.
11. Sift powdered sugar over the top of the completely cooled tarts.