Work's been busy lately so my dessert making has been even more sporadic… I decided to be lazy the other day and made mini fruit tarts for CG. Actually they weren't so "mini" since I couldn't find mini sized tart shells and had to settle for regular sized ones. I also couldn't find the main fruit that I wanted to use (strawberries) after going to 3 different supermarkets. Why is it that you can never find something when you really need it, but afterward you'll find 50 of the same thing??
Even though I prepared the custard filling ahead of time, I'm surprised that the tarts still took a bit of time to put together. I've used this recipe for the custard before, but this time it came out a bit too solid after a night in the fridge. Perhaps I used a bit too much cornflour… and the egg yolks seemed smaller than usual… anyway it didn't come out as the soft custard that I wanted it to be. I'll try another recipe next time!
You know what I wish? That eggs could be bought pre-separated (is that even a word?) into yolks and whites. This recipe only uses egg yolks so I'm stuck with 3 unusued egg whites in the end. I have no idea what to do with them… I guess I could make something like meringue which requires egg whites. Problem is that by the time I'm finished making my first dessert, it's usually quite late already and I don't have the energy to make anything else. =P
Ingrdients:
Pastry:
24 mini tart shells (store-bought)
Creme Patisserie:
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup whole milk
Method:
- Whisk yolks with sugar, flour and cornstarch.
- Meanwhile, bring milk and vanilla to a boil.
- Add milk slowly to egg mixture to temper.
- Once tempered, add egg mixture back into saucepan over low heat until thickened like vanilla pudding.
- Cool, then refrigerate until time to stuff pastry shells, then top with fruit garnish.
- To glaze, melt about 2 tbsp apricot preserves with a tbsp of water on the stove top and gently brush onto fruit.
I actually find it very difficult to make good puff pastry from scratch. The first time I tried making a shortcrust pastry pie shell, it ended up turning into this weird chewy bread thing. o_O From then on, I've tried to avoid making pastry from scratch at all costs. It's time consuming and it doesn't turn out the way I want. =P
So as recommended by Viv, I now "cheat" and use the Betty Crocker® pie crust mix for my apple tart shells. I save time and the resulting pie crust tastes great! In fact, it is so good that one of my friends thought I bought it from the agnès b bakery (I was just using an agnès b cake box to transport the apple tart). Haha...
Anyway, I basically just followed the recipe on the pie crust mix box for a single crust apple pie. The only minor changes I made were to replace the 1/4 tsp of nutmeg with more cinnamon (since I don't have nutmeg on hand) and to leave out the butter.
Ingredients:
Pastry:
1 1/3 cups Betty Crocker® pie crust mix
2 tbsp & 2 tsp cold water
Filling:
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3 large tart apples, thinly sliced
1 tbsp butter
Method:
- Stir pie crust mix and cold water until pastry forms a smooth ball.
- Place pastry ball in center of 8" pie plate; press evenly on bottom and side.
- Fold edge of pastry under, even with rim of the pie plate; flatten with fork, or pinch to make decorative edge.
- Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg with the apple slices.
- Spoon into pastry-lined pie plate. Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over filling.
- Heat oven to 220C/425F. Bake 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown and juice begins to bubble.
