Cooking Club Week 43: Berry Tartlets

Malari

These can be kind of time-consuming to make, but it’s possible to do one stage at a time and even come back to it the next day and they are sooo worth it These are all the ingredients you need and this recipe will give you about 10-12 tartlets:



Pastry

250g plain flour
50g icing sugar
125g butter
Lemon zest (optional)
1 egg
Splash of milk (maybe – depending on how big your egg is!)

I make the pastry by throwing the dry ingredients and the butter into a food processor and whizzing till you get a breadcrumb-like texture. Add the lemon zest (about a third to half a lemon) if you like. I think it gives a fresh taste. If possible, add the egg while running the processor and just let the mixture come together. You may not need to add a splash of milk if the mixture is already together at this stage. Empty onto some cling film and leave in the fridge for half an hour or so.

Crème Patissiere/PastryCream

4 egg yolks
100g castor sugar
25g flour
½ tsp vanilla extract
350ml milk

This is a Rachel Allen recipe for pastry cream, which I found works best and is the simplest.

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until light and thick, then stir in the flour.



Put the milk in a saucepan with the vanilla and bring it slowly just up to the boil.




Pour the milk in to the egg mixture, mixing or whisking all the time, then return the whole lot to the saucepan and stir continuously over a low heat until it comes to a gentle boil. You have to be patient with this bit! Keep stirring and make sure it actually reaches boiling point or it won’t thicken otherwise. Don’t worry about lump as more whisking will get rid of these.



Transfer the mixture to a bowl and cover with cling film BUT you have to press the cling film right down on the surface of the pastry cream!




This is to prevent the surface forming a skin. Another way to do this is to rub the surface with a knob of butter.




Or you can do both!

Leave this to cool slightly before chilling in the fridge for at least half an hour, but this will last in the fridge overnight if you’re not ready to use it.

Making the Tartlets

You can get mini-tart cases in Tesco for a couple of quid. They even have removable bottoms on them for ease of removing the cooked pastry. My ones actually don’t have this feature, so I usually grease the tins with a knob of butter before lining them with pastry. Sorry I don’t have photos for this part, I just kept forgetting to stop and take them!

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees/GM 6. Take the pastry out ofthe fridge and half it, then roll it out quite thin. I like a pretty thin layer of pastry for these tarts. I put a tart tins upside-down on the pastry and use a knife to roughly cut a circle of pastry a couple of centimetres wider than the tin. Push the circle of pastry into the tin, making sure it’s flat against the fluted edges.
Cut out little circles of grease-proof paper using the tartlet tins as a guideline again. They only need to cover the base of the tartlets this time. Place the grease-proof paper rounds on top of the pastry in the tartlet tins and add a few baking beans. Place the tins on a baking tray and bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes or until the pastry goes golden brown. I sometimes remove the beans and greaseproof paper at this stage and give them another blast in the oven to make sure the pastry is cooked.

When they are done, remove from the tins and allow to cool completely on a wire tray. At this stage the cases can be refrigeratedovernight in a Tupperware container, or even frozen. If you get any breakages (and I always do), don’t worry, as the next step will help!

Lining the Tartlets with Chocolate

Melt about 100g white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Using a teaspoon, carefully spread a layer of chocolate over the insides of the tartlets.

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This is also an opportunity to glue broken pieces back together! It also gives a nice crunch to the tartlet and prevents the pastry cream soggifying the pastry. Allow the chocolate to set completely.

Building the Tartlets

Once the chocolate has set, add a few generous spoons of pastry cream to the tartlets and give a little swirl so they look nice



Top the tartlets with fresh berries – I used blueberries, but raspberries orstrawberries work really well too. Finally grate a little white chocolate overthe top to make them look spectacular

ChewChew

They look delicious! Will have to give them a shot