In February, I made a resolution to make monthly posts. Even if today’s the last day of March, it’s not too late, no?
I’ve a story behind these almost light-as-air tarts. I was watching “Bake with Anna Olson”, and vanilla pastry cream was on the menu. Fun fact: I have a weakness for pastry cream and custard, and it irks me when I find a cream puff or eclair filled with whipped cream.
Watching Anna (yup, we’re totally on a first name basis here) whipping up those Strawberry Cream Tarts was good enough to make me want to create some for myself. I wanted to garnish the tarts with small morsels of Korean strawberries – if you haven’t tried any, get them now. They’re super sweet and definitely not oh-my-god-this-is-so-sour kind of… sour.
Alas, I couldn’t find any of those delicious strawberries last night, so I had to make do with kiwis and blueberries.
You can definitely make a normal sized fruit tart with this recipe. I bought a tart tin too, but decided to make mini ones since it was my first attempt in making pastry cream and tarts. Maybe next month’s recipe will feature a tart? Who knows…
Mini Fruit Tarts (adapted from Anna Olson’s Strawberry Cream Tarts)
makes about 45 mini tarts
Ingredients
(for the pastry cream)
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 vanilla bean (I used 1/2 tsp vanilla essence)
- 3 egg yolks
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
(for the tarts)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup graham/ digestive crumbs
- 4 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 unsalted butter, melted
- Fresh berries (kiwi, strawberry, blueberry, etc)
Steps
- Prepare the pastry cream first. Heat milk and vanilla bean (or essence, if you’re lazy like me) in a medium-sized pot until just below simmer.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch.
- In another bowl, place butter and put a strainer over it.
- Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the bowl with the egg mixture, and then return it all to the pot.
- Whisk the mixture consistently over medium heat until it thickens and turns glossy. This will take about 2 minutes.
- Pour this immediately over the strainer, and whisk it through. Mix everything with a spatula until combined.
- Place a plastic cling wrap on the surface and cool it to room temperature. Refrigerate it completely and it is ready for use!
- For the tarts, preheat your oven to 350 F, and lightly grease your mini tart/ muffin pans.
- Combine flour, graham/ digestive crumbs, sugar and salt in a bowl.
- Add the melted butter and mix until it resembles an uneven, crumbly mixture.
- Spoon about a tablespoon of the mixture into each cup and press gently on the bottom and sides.
- Bake for about 10 minutes, and let it cool slightly.
- Use a skewer to remove the tarts. Pipe in the pastry cream (you may want to stir it slightly before placing it into the piping bag), and assemble the fruits as desired.
