First make the pastry. In a food processor or a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour and sugar. Add in the cubes of cold butter and cut or blend in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Ensure no large chunks of unblended butter remain or it will speckle the pastry when rolled out. Tip in the egg yolks and blend again until just combined. Add in the ice water a little at a time until the pastry dough comes together in clumps.

Tip out the dough onto a clean work surface and gather it together. Squeeze it to bring together, try to avoid kneading and working it too much or the pastry will end up being tough. Divide the pastry dough into two equal parts and flatten into discs. Wrap each disc tightly in cling film and pop in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes. At this point, you can freeze the dough for another day, if desired.

Once the dough has chilled, it is time to get making the pastry shells! First, preheat your oven to 160C/320F whilst preparing the tarts for baking. Dust a work surface with a little flour and roll out one of the pastry discs until about 3mm thick. Stamp out rounds of dough a couple of sizes larger than the mini tart tin and ease them in. I use the end of my rolling pin to help push them in evenly, but fingers work well too. Once the tray has been filled, prick the bottom of each pastry shell a few times with a fork (this stops the bases puffing up and rising a lot when baking). Pop the tray into the freezer to chill and firm up for 15 minutes.

When the pastry has chilled, bake them uncovered in the hot oven for 15 minutes until lightly golden and biscuity. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin to cool a little whilst making the lemon curd filling.

Bring a small saucepan with about an inch of water in the bottom to boil, then lower to a simmer. Zest and juice the lemons into a large mixing bowl, then add in the sugar and butter too. Place the bowl over the saucepan, making sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Heat the lemon mixture, whisking, until the butter has melted and the sugar has fully dissolved. Remove from the heat and cool for five minutes.

In a small separate bowl, beat the eggs together. Add the eggs to the mixing bowl with the lemon mixture and whisk together (make sure the lemon mixture is cool enough to not cook the eggs at this point!).

Return the mixing bowl on top of the small saucepan, making the bain marie. Keep the heat low, and whisk the lemon mixture constantly using a whisk. The mixture will be runny at first, then will have a few white foamy streaks through it as it is whisked. Eventually the white streaks will disappear and the curd will thicken. This whole process, once returned to the heat, takes me about 10 minutes. I prefer heating my curd enough to a heavy cream consistency, so that it pours easily for the next step. This also results in a much softer set lemon curd in your tartlets.

Transfer the lemon curd into a jug and pour even amounts into the pastry shells still in the baking tin. Leave to set completely before removing from the tin. These lemon tarts are delicious at room temperature or chilled. Enjoy!