Fresh Strawberry Tartlets
Mary Berry shares her recipe for pretty Strawberry Tartlets from her book, Mary Berry Everyday. These tartlets can be made ahead of time for a stress-free dessert.
From the book
Mary Berry Everyday
120 simple yet delicious recipes for everyday cooking
All the recipes from the BBC TV series
Classic favourites the whole family will enjoy
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Introduction
Think of those gorgeous little pastries in a French bakery – so tempting. Filled with crème patissière, they are rather more long-winded to put together, whereas the filling I’ve used here is just as tasty and much quicker. Strawberries are a classic topping, but raspberries or blueberries would be lovely too.
Ingredients
| For the pastry: | |
| 175g | plain flour, plus extra for dusting |
| 2 tbsp | icing sugar |
| 100g | cold butter, cubed |
| 1 | egg, beaten |
| For the filling: | |
| 250g | full-fat mascarpone cheese |
| 150ml | pouring double cream |
| 2 tbsp | icing sugar |
| 2 tsp | vanilla extract |
| 400g | strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced |
| 2 heaped tbsp | redcurrant jelly, for brushing |
Essential kit
You will need eight 8cm round, loose-bottomed fluted tartlet tins.
Method
You will need eight 8cm (3in) round, loose-bottomed fluted tartlet tins. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6.
To make the pastry, measure the flour, icing sugar and butter into a food processor and whizz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Alternatively, place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips. Add the egg and whizz again until you have a smooth ball of dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Sprinkle a work surface with flour and roll out the dough until fairly thin – about the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut out eight discs slightly bigger than the tartlet tins. Line each tin with the pastry, on the base and up the sides (see tip), trim across the top and prick the base with a fork.
Line each pastry case with baking paper, fill with a few baking beans and bake blind for about 10 minutes until pale golden and starting to cook . Remove the beans and paper and return to the oven for about 5 minutes to dry out the base and to finish cooking the pastry. Set aside to cool down completely in the tartlet tins.
For the filling, measure the mascarpone and cream into a bowl with the icing sugar and vanilla extract and whisk by hand (see tip) until slightly thickened. Spoon some of the filling into each of the cold tartlet cases and level the top. Arrange slices of strawberry on top of each filled tartlet in a pretty spiral. Heat the redcurrant jelly in a small pan and brush over the strawberry slices to glaze.
Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes, then remove from the tins to serve.
Cook time: 15 minutes, plus chilling and cooling.
Prepare Ahead: Can be made completely up to 4 hours ahead. The tartlet cases can be baked up to a day ahead.
Freeze: The tartlet cases freeze well.
Mary’s Everyday Tips: When lining the tartlet tins with the pastry, be sure not to stretch the pastry, or it will shrink back on cooking. Handle gently and ease the excess pastry from around the edges into the sides and lip of the tin.
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