Perfect Picnic Pastry - Summer Fruit Tartlets
Ingredients
You will need: x1 6cm diameter pastry tartlet tin, pastry cutters, baking beads, baking paper, sieve, mixing bowl, saucepan, wire rack, whisk and piping bag.
- 150g ready-made sweet short-crust pastry, cold
- 4 free range egg yolks
- 100g golden caster sugar
- 25g plain flour
- 1 vanilla pod, scored down the middle or vanilla extract.
- 350ml single cream or full fat milk
- Selection of fresh seasonal or tropical fruit (strawberries, raspberries, kiwis, pineapple, grapes etc
- 25g icing sugar
- 1 egg
- Pre-heat oven to 200°c/gas mark 6 and very lightly grease the baking tins.
- Lightly flour a clean surface and roll the ready-made pastry out to a 1cm thickness. Cut out enough rounds to fill each space in the tart tin and place on a baking tray.
- Prick the bases of the rounds and chill for 15mins
- Cut out the same size rounds of baking paper to line the tarts. Press the chilled pastry rounds into the tray, line the bottoms with the baking paper and weigh down with the baking beads.
- Blind bake for 9mins or until the edges start to colour. Remove from the oven and set aside removing the beads and paper.
- Beat the egg with a small amount of water to create the egg wash and brush over the tarts. Bake again for 4mins.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 mins before removing from the tin and cooling on a wire rack.
- Whist the pastry cools prepare the filling. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar before sieving in the flour. Whisk until thoroughly combined.
- Place the saucepan over a medium heat and bring the cream/milk to a boil along with the vanilla pod or extract. Pour over the egg and flour mix stirring continuously.
- Put the mix back into the saucepan, lower the heat and whisk gently until the mix boils and starts to thicken. Heat for a further 2mins and then transfer to a piping bag.
- Refrigerate until cold and then pipe into the pastry cases.
- Add a teaspoon of honey to the top of the custard, and then arrange the fresh fruit on the top. Drizzle with more honey if you wish.
