The night before you want to make these tarts, you need to chill your coconut cream in the fridge. Open the can, drain the coconut liquid (or save for another recipe), then place the white solid coconut cream in the metal bowl of a stand mixer. Cover with plastic wrap then chill overnight!

In the morning or anytime the next day, attach your mixing bowl back on the mixer. Using the whisk attachment, beat the coconut cream for about one minute. Add in vanilla, powdered sugar, and cream of tartar then beat another minute or two. The mixture should be creamy and smooth with no lumps of coconut and powdered sugar. Transfer icing to a separate bowl, cover with plastic wrap, then chill until tarts are ready.

Coat four 4oz ramekins with cooking spray. Slice puff pastry tart sheet into four equal squares. Roll out each square so it’s big enough to cover your ramekins. I rolled mine about 3-4 times horizontally then 3-4 times vertically. Press dough squares into ramekins so they are fully covered with pastry tart. Cut off any excess dough if you wish. I left mine on and the world didn’t end, so it’s totally up to you.

Using a fork, poke holes in the bottom of the dough then place ramekins with uncooked dough in the freezer for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375F. After 30 minutes, press foil into each ramekin with dough and fill with dry rice or beans – this will prevent the dough from puffing up while baking. Bake at 375F for 15-20 minutes or until slightly golden. Remove foil with rice/beans (and put them away, we aren’t wasteful here), bake another 5-10 minutes until golden brown.

Remove baked pastry tart “shells” from ramekins and cool completely on a cooling rack before filling.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Though my tarts are pictured in their ramekins… DO NOT FREEZE THE PASTRY TART AND CURD TOGETHER IN THE RAMEKIN. It will become IMPOSSIBLE to get out. Once the pastry tarts are baked, remove them from the ramekins and allow to cool. THEN fill with curd and chill. I just put mine back in the ramekins for pictures.

Add pomegranate juice and juice from freshly squeezed lemons (that you’ve hopefully zested beforehand or we are in trouble) to a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil then simmer until reduced by half (this took me about 20 minutes | also, “half” should be about 1 1/4 cups). Remove from heat to cool. I stuck mine in the freezer to quicken this process because I’m impatient lolz.

In a small bowl, add lemon zest (all but one teaspoon that we’ll save for garnish) and sugar. Using your fingers, massage/rub the zest into the sugar. This will release all the deliciousness (aka fragrant oils) from the lemon zest into the sugar and make your curd magical.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream together the zest/sugar mixture and butter until fluffy. Add in the eggs, egg yolks, and salt then whisk until well combined. This mixture might look curdled but IT’S OKAY. Keep on keeping on. Pour in the reduced and chilled pom lemon juice mixture from step 4 and mix well.

Transfer the contents of the stand mixer bowl into a medium sauce pan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens (about 15 minutes). Make sure to whisk A LOT so it comes together. When the curd is ready, it will stick to the back of a wooden spoon or pass this test. The thickness should resemble warm pudding kinda? Transfer curd to a separate bowl then chill in the fridge until cooled. If you’re in a rush or impatient like me, the freezer works too – just make sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t completely freeze.

To assemble the tarts, using a spoon, fill each prepared tart shell with chilled curd, leaving about 1/4 inch for coconut cream icing. Using a spoon or piping bag, top each curd tart with coconut cream icing and a sprinkle of lemon zest. Place assembled tarts in a baking dish covered with plastic wrap so it doesn’t touch the tops of the tarts then freeze for an hour or two then EAT EAT EAT and weep when they are gone.