I was so pleased with how these little beauties turned out. The effort comes from making the pastry, but you could easily cheat and buy some pre-made pastry cases (although the pastry is delicious and totally worth the effort). The rest is pretty simple to prepare, yet the result is stunning and they taste absolutely delicious. I made them as a mid week treat, and they were so good that I ate two! These would also be perfect as a dinner party dessert, your guests would be very impressed.
Makes 5 tartlets
Ingredients
For the pastry
125g plain flour
60g cold unsalted butter
40g caster sugar
1 egg
OR 5 pre-made sweet pastry tartlet cases approximately 10cm in diameter
For the filling
250g mascarpone
150ml whipping cream
60g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
20 strawberries (4 per tartlet)
For the glaze
2 tablespoons of strawberry jam
1 tablespoon of water
Directions
If making pastry, you will need 5 x 10cm diameter mini tartlet tins (I actually use a Yorkshire pudding tin with 10cm moulds).
For the pastry, place the butter, flour and sugar into a food processor and pulse until well blended and the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
Whisk the egg in a bowl and then add half of the egg to the processor.
Blitz the mixture until it forms clumps or a ball, should take about 20 - 30 seconds (adding more egg if necessary).
Mould the pastry together into a ball and then wrap in clingfilm, allow to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Grease each of the tartlet tins with butter.
Lay out a large rectangle of cling film.
Unwrap the pastry and place the now chilled pastry in the middle of the sheet of clingfilm.
Lay another rectangle of clingfilm on top of the pastry and then use a rolling pin to roll out the pastry to a thickness of approximately 3-5mm (doing it in between 2 sheets of clingfilm stops any sticking and means that you don't need to use any excess flour, and it's a lot easier to clean up after!).
Use a cutter/cup/bowl with a diameter slightly larger than the tin to cut out circles of pastry (re-rolling the pastry as necessary).
Place the pastry circles into each tin/mould.
Place the pastry in the freezer for 20-30 minutes (or until needed).
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Cover the base of each tartlet with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans.
Bake blind in the oven for 8 minutes.
Remove the baking beans and greaseproof paper and return the pastry to the oven for another 5 minutes. The tarts should be a light golden brown.
Leave to cool in the tin completely then set aside until ready to use (you can make these the day before and store in an airtight container).
For the filling
Whip the cream until it is nice and thick (use an electric whisk if you have one).
Add the mascarpone, vanilla extract and icing sugar.
Blend carefully (otherwise you'll disappear into a cloud of icing sugar!).
Taste. Add a little more icing sugar if desired.
Once blended, whisk briefly again. Set aside, until ready to assemble the tartlets.
For the glaze
Place the jam and water into a small saucepan and heat gently over a low heat, stirring continuously. You want to be able to 'paint' the glaze over the strawberries, so it needs to be thin enough to paint, but thick enough that it won't slide off (add a little more water if too thick, heat a little longer if too runny). Stop heating when the desired consistency is reached. Set aside.
To assemble
Cut 15 of the strawberries in half, keeping 5 whole.
Spoon 2 tablespoons of the mascarpone mixture into each tartlet case.
Place 1 whole strawberry in the centre.
Place 6 strawberry halves around the central strawberry, fat end into the mascarpone, thinner end resting on the central strawberry.
Use a pastry brush to paint the glaze over the strawberries.
Serve immediately and enjoy.
Truly delicious x