Earl Grey Tart Crust

1. In a small dish/bowl, add and whisk the egg. Set Aside.
2. Add the flour, salt, confectioners’ sugar, earl grey tea, and butter into a food processor. Pulse ingredients together until a coarse mixture consisting of small pea-sized pieces of butter are present.
3. With the food processor running, pour and mix the whisked egg into butter-flour mixture. Stop food processor once mixture starts to form into a ball.
4. Carefully remove earl grey tart dough from food processor and divide between four mini tart pans. Alternatively, tart dough may be transferred to a standard 9 inch tart.
5. Working quickly, evenly press tart dough into tart pans starting at the sides/edges and moving in toward the center until the tart pans have an even layer of dough. Use a fork to prick all over the bottom of the tart crust dough.
6. Gently cover tart pans with plastic wrap, transfer to a medium baking sheet  and freeze for 60 minutes or until dough is firm.
7. During the last 15-20 minutes of freeze time, preheat oven to 375F(190C). Line tart crusts with a piece of parchment paper and fill with weights of choice (i.e. pie weights, dried beans/legumes or rice).
8. Bake tart crusts on baking sheet for 15 minutes. Remove parchment paper and weights and bake tart crusts for additional 10-12 minutes. Tart crusts are ready when light golden brown in color and the bottom of crusts no longer looks wet/uncooked.
9. Remove tart crusts from oven and allow to cool slightly as the grapefruit curd is prepared.
10. Reduce oven temperature to 325F(165C). 

Grapefruit Curd 

1. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a medium, heat safe mixing bowl/large measuring cup. Set aside.
2. In a medium heavy-bottom (non-alkalizing) saucepan, add the eggs and sugar. Whisk ingredients together to combine. Slowly whisk in the grapefruit juice into egg-sugar mixture.
3. Under medium-low heat, cook grapefruit curd mixture while stirring constantly with a heat-proof rubber spatula. As the curd mixture is stirred, make sure to scrape the base and sides of the pan to ensure that curd cooks through properly. Grapefruit curd is ready once it starts to thicken up and registers between 167-170F (75-77C) on a digital kitchen thermometer, about 8-10 minutes.
4. Immediately pass grapefruit curd through fine-mesh strainer and whisk in the softened butter a little at a time allowing the first pieces of butter to be fully incorporated into curd before whisking in more butter. The resulting grapefruit curd should have a smooth, velvety texture. 

Earl Grey Grapefruit Tarts 

1. Place tart crusts on a baking sheet. Fill each tart crust with enough of the grapefruit curd so that it reaches the top edge of crusts. Take cake to not overfill tart crusts.
2. Carefully transfer filled tart crusts to oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the edges of earl grey grapefruit tarts appear barely puffed but the centers have a slight jiggle when baking sheet is gently shaken.
3. Remove earl grey grapefruit tarts from oven and cool at room temperature for 60 minutes before removing the tarts from outer ring.
4. Refrigerate cooled earl grey grapefruit tarts for 2-4 hours to set. 

Swiss Meringue 

1. Thoroughly clean all tools that will be used to make swiss meringue including mixing bowl, whisk attachment, and digital kitchen thermometer (if using).
2. Add egg whites and sugar into a medium mixing bowl. Whisk ingredients to combine.
3. Place bowl with egg white-sugar mixture over a pot of simmering water under medium low heat. Take care to ensure that the base of bowl does not come in contact with simmering water.
4. Constantly whisk egg white-sugar mixture until all the sugar granules are dissolved and mixture registers between 167-170F (75-77C) on a digital kitchen thermometer. (In the absence of a kitchen thermometer, you can tell if egg whites are properly cooked by rubbing some of the mixture between your fingers (index and thumb). If mixture is smooth without any presence of sugar granules, you are good to go.)
5. Transfer heated egg white mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk at high speed until the base of mixing bowl is cool to touch and meringue has reached stiff peak stage, 8-10 minutes.
6. Reduce mixer speed to medium low and whisk in the vanilla extract into meringue. Stop mixer once all of the vanilla extract in incorporated into meringue. 

Assembly 

1. Transfer swiss meringue into a large pastry bag fitted with desired pastry/piping tip.
2. Pipe meringue either in a crescent design (like I did) or over the entire surface of the tarts. For different sized meringues, use different sized pastry tips. I used Wilton 8B, 6B, and 32 pastry/piping tips. 
3. For added texture, sprinkle piped meringue with crushed pistachios or your favorite nut (optional).