Fruit Tartlets

Fruit tartlet remains as one of my favorite tarts of all time. That flaky pastry, cooling and sweet custard, and that refreshing fruits on top - it's a perfect combination! I made these tartlets the other day for my mom's best friend. Her son is getting married, and I made these as the dessert for their guest. It's a hit!

All you need to do, is prepare the sugar crust.

Spread some melted chocolate in them - to prevent the pastry from getting soggy.

Fill in custard into the pastry

And arrange your favorite fruits on top - strawberries, kiwis, grapes, apricot, blueberries... And don't forget to spread some apricot glaze on top of fruits to make your fruits.

Sugar Crust (adapted from Professional Cooking)

240g flour

140g butter

100g confectionery sugar

1# egg

15ml milk 

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

2. Sift flour and sugar together. Rub in egg yolk and butter into the flour mixture.

3. Turn dough onto work surface and divide them into two balls (base and top crust) and flatten them. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for an hour.

4. Roll one pastry on a lightly floured surface. Gently transfer them to a pie pan/mold.

5. Trim the edges of pastry to fit the mold.

6. Dock the crust with fork. 

7. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for five minutes.

8. Bake blind for 15-20 minutes

Custard

250 ml milk

1/2 egg - beaten

50g sugar

15g corn flour

10g custard powder

2-3 vanilla essence

1. Melt milk, corn flour and custard powder.

2. Add in vanilla essence. Then add in sugar.

3. Add in the egg, and cook until cook.

Fruit Tartlet (Assemble)

Sugar Crust

Custard

Fruits - at least three types

Apricot glaze

1. Spread melted chocolate in the crust.

2. Pipe pastry cream in the crust.

3. Arrange fruits on top of pastry cream. Make sure the fruit completely covered the pastry.

4. Spread apricot  glaze on top of fruits.

Cheese Tartlets

Made these cheese tart for a friend. She wanted to have them for a birthday and requested a mix of blueberry and strawberry fillings.

Apple Cream Tart

I missed my kitchen (okay, it's my mum's) a lot while being away for two weeks. So, when I get back from my 'disappearance' I told my mum I wanted to bake something. I flipped over some of my magazine to search for a new dishes to be experimented on. Then, I found a recipe of Apple Cream Tart from Food Digest's volume 4. The recipe was provided by Laura Calder. So, I thought, I should give it a try :)

Of course, mine didn't look as good as Calder's

Apple Cream Tart

Tart Shell

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

Cream Filling

1 egg

1/2tsp vanilla

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 sugar

Topping

3 apples - peeled and thinly sliced

1/4 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup slivered almonds or chopped walnuts.

Tart Shell

1. Heat the oven to 200 Celsius. Make the crust: cream the butter and sugar. Stir in the vanilla. FInally mix in the flour to make a smooth dough.

2. Press into the bottom of an 20cm/8-inch spring-form pan, giving it about a 1-inch/2.5cm rim. Bake 15 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from the oven.

Cream Filling

1. Beat all the ingredients for the cream filling together until smooth.

2. Remove the tart shell from the oven. Spread over the cream mixture.

Topping

1. Make the topping by tossing the apple slices with the cinnamon, sugar and nuts.

2. Arrange the apple slices on top, then scatter over the nuts. Bake until the apple are tender and golden, about 40 minutes.

I had some leftover dough for crust and filling. I sprinkled some chopped chocolate on top, and bake them in the muffin tin :)