The following lemon curd recipe is part of Sol's recipe for meringue daisies. It is tart and very good. It is different from the ones above in that it uses only the egg yolk which is convenient when making it to go with meringues or an egg white based cake. Lemon Curd 4 large egg yolks ½ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar 3 fluid ounces lemon juice 4 tbsp (2 oz) unsalted butter, softened Pinch of salt 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest In a heavy noncorrodible saucepan, beat the yolks and sugar until blended. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, but still liquid enough to pour. DonÂt allow the mixture to boil or it will curdle. When the curd has thickened, pour through a strainer. Cool, and store in airtight container in the fridge. The curd will continue to thicken in the refrigerator.

OK, I am going to make some strawberry tarts for a dinner dessert tomorrow evening, and I'm going to use the those little phyllo cups for the base. As per usual for me, I want them to be "lite" so not super rich ingredients, hence starting with the phyllo cups. I have made these tarts before, and my usual method is to buy some canned lowfat pudding or use tofu pudding for the base and then add my homeade preserves and fresh fruit as the topping. They are good. But this time I'd like to go homeade filling for somthing slightly more upscale. I've looked online and I see two schools of thought--cream cheese with sugar, or custard. The cream cheese with sugar sounds easy, (I'd use lower fat neufatchel) but pedestrian. The custard sounds fattening. Does it have to be? I can make lower fat homeade pudding. Come to think of it I could make parfaits with pudding layered with strawberries flavored with my strawberry rhubarb sauce. I dunno. Strawberries and rhubarb are so good on their own. I'm thinking phyllo tart only because it is closer to pie, which is more traditional. I could even use real store bought pie crust as the bottom layer, I've done that too. That's somewhat of a calorie savings since with fruit pie the bigtime calories are in the crust. But then a rich filling counters any calorie saving benefits of leaving off the top crust. Any experiences, idea or opinions? I'm not going to go the full fat route, that just doesn't fit my moderate lifestyle.

I used bought lemon curd a couple of years ago, and asked the same question! Readinglady posted this recipe for use with orange curd. YUMMM. Chocolate Orange Paradise Bars from Rose Levy Beranbaum's "Rose's Christmas Cookies" posted by readinglady Chocolate Shortbread: 10 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/3 cup powdered sugar 1/3 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa 1 cup bleached all-purpose flour Orange Curd: 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 4 large egg yolks 1/2 cup sugar pinch of salt 2 tablespoons grated orange zest Orange Chocolate Topping: 1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped 2 tablespoons heavy cream 1 1/2 teaspoons Grand Marnier Base: In medium bowl, whisk together sugars and cocoa. Add flour. Cut in butter, as for piecrust, until no dry particles of flour remain. Mixture should be small, crumbly pieces. [This step can also be done in the food processor, using cubes of chilled butter.] In a large bowl or a plastic bag, press mixture until it holds together, then knead lightly to form a dough. Place 1 oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8x8" baking pan with heavy-duty foil. Pat the dough into prepared pan. Use a fork to prick dough all over. Bake for 45 minutes. While the shortbread is baking, prepare the Topping. Topping: Pour the orange juice into a greased heatproof measure. Microwave on high until it is reduced to 2 tablespoons. This will take about 15 minutes. Watch closely toward the end as the juice gets very syrupy and reduces quickly. Stir the butter into the concentrated orange juice. In a heavy saucepan, beat the egg yolks and sugar with a wooden spoon until well blended. Stir in the orange mixture, salt and orange zest. The mixture will be very thick. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes or until it pools up on surface when dropped from a spoon. (A candy thermometer will read 155-160 degrees) It must not be allowed to boil or it will curdle. Whenever steam occurs, remove the pan briefly from the heat, stirring constantly to prevent boiling. When the curd has thickened, pour it at once into a bowl. When the shortbread is baked, remove it from the oven, lower the temperature to 300 degrees, pour the orange curd on top of the shortbread and return to oven for 5 minutes. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. While this is cooling, prepare Orange Ganache Lace Topping. Topping: In a small bowl, place chopped chocolate. In microwave or saucepan, bring cream to the boiling point. Pour it on top of the chocolate and stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature and stir in the Grand Marnier. Pour the mixture into a quart-size resealable bag and close securely. Set aside. When the orange curd-covered shortbread has cooled, cut off a small corner from the bag. Drizzle swirls of chocolate over the top of the orange curd. (Save any leftovers for ice cream.) Before the chocolate drizzle sets, use the foil to lift out the shortbread onto a cutting surface. Use a long, sharp knife to cut the shortbread into thirds, then in six the other way. Wipe the blade after each cut. Store in an airtight container at room temperature, or in the refrigerator or freezer. Keeps 3 days at room temperature (individually wrapped in plastic), 3 weeks refrigerated (also individually wrapped) or 3 months frozen. Note from Readinglady's post: Personally, I can't imagine this lasting 3 weeks in the refrigerator. I hope you enjoy it. Let us know how it works with the bottled curd. I believe I ended up using it in a recipe Ann-t posted for Shortbread Tarts with Lemon Filling Posted by ann_t Source: Appeal Magazine Shortbread crust 1 cup butter softened 1/2 cup icing sugar 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch Filling 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice 1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest 1 cup granulated sugar 3 eggs well beaten 1/2 cups butter at room temperature Preheat oven to 325¢XF. Combine shortbread ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix to form dough. Divide dough into 24 pieces. Pat each portion of dough into a 1 1/2" (4 cm) tart tin, using your fingers to shape it into a shell. Prick the bottom of each tart with a fork. Bake 10 minutes and then prick bottoms again as the shells puff up. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow tarts to cool on a wire rack before filling. To prepare lemon filling, combine juice and zest in a double boiler. Whisk in sugar, eggs and butter, blending well. Place over gently boiling water and whisk constantly until mixture thickens. Cool before using to fill tart shells. Lemon filling can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator. Note from Thibeault¡¦s Table: I did not cook using a double boiler. I added the juice, zest, sugar and butter to the pot and brought to a boil. Then I beat the eggs and added some of the hot mixture to the eggs to temper before adding this egg mixture to the pan. I continued to stir over low heat until the mixture thickened. These were wonderful. My pics weren't very good, so I found the ones Ann took of her tarts on Thibeault's Table. Thanks Ann, for sharing!!

Elmer, you can have my wine and I'll have your dessert -- let's switch glasses and plates when no one is looking! :-) Maifleur, do you mean "paste" as a type what we'd call pastry dough now? I'll check out those links. For dessert, it was most often a cookie, sometimes cake, sometimes ice cream. I would have felt cheated if given a piece of fruit or cheese. Quite often now, we delay dessert until up in the evening instead of immediately after dinner.