Flavors and Moments brings us some tartlets you'll adore: using seasonal produce you can make these delicious sablée tartlets with mascarpone cream, delicious and easy to make. Following their tips I assure you will succeed!
With the arrival of good weather, fruit takes a very welcome starring role in my house, my children already know that at this time of year bowls of assorted fruit on the kitchen counter are a common sight… And the mid-day strolls to try them all, a classic!!
Cherries are now at their best and are the kids' favorites in the house and any dessert in the form of a tart is the girls' passion…. So why not combine them?
I bring you some super summery tartlets, which could be a special dessert after a relaxed Sunday lunch in the garden, the perfect snack after a refreshing swim in the pool…. Or simply a treat for any moment!
Cherries are flavor bombs and, paired with the soft and velvety raspberries, they are the perfect topping for these simple mascarpone cream tartlets that are prepared easily and without fuss. You can even leave the dough sablée made and stored in the refrigerator the day before and bake them the next day when they're going to be eaten.
Presented like this in individual molds they look beautiful, although you can also make them in a large pan to serve directly at the table.
This basic recipe is ideal for all kinds of natural fruit tarts. Also, it is more delicate than sweet shortcrust pastry because it has the egg which adds softness and a bit more sugar than the other. But don't forget that the more sugar you add, the harder it is to roll out and shape the dough as it becomes more brittle. For me this amount of sugar in the dough is enough for it to be sweet and for the texture to be like a kind of cookie.
You can use a food processor, but I always make it by hand and as Julia Child recommends in her book “The Art of French Cooking” a good fraisage is needed at the end (it consists of gently pushing the dough ball with the heel of the hand to ensure a perfect mix between the fat and the butter).
Especially now in summer you need to work the dough quickly, so the butter softens as little as possible. So come on, let's get our hands in the dough!!
Ingredients for 6 tartlets
Ingredients for the sablée dough
- 250g flour
- 20g Maizena
- 125g butter (unsalted) very cold
- 90g powdered sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 50g ground almond
- drops of vanilla extract
- 1 egg
Ingredients for the filling:
- Pitted cherries
- Raspberries
- 250g mascarpone cheese
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 200ml whipping cream
- 50g raspberry jam
Tartlet molds with removable base
Preparation
- Put the flour, Maizena, almond, sugar, the pinch of salt and the very cold butter in a bowl and begin to crumble with your fingertips to combine the dry ingredients with the fat until you get flakes similar to oat flakes. This will take a few minutes.
- Next add the beaten egg and the vanilla and mix vigorously by hand until you get a ball of dough.
- Sprinkle a pinch of flour on the surface where you will work the dough and place your dough ball on it. Start kneading with the heel of your hand (not the palm), pressing and sliding it forward about 15cm. Gather it again, work it for a moment repeating the process once more and after gathering it again, form a smooth ball.
- Dust it with a little flour and wrap it in cling film. Put it in the refrigerator for at least an hour. It can also be stored until the next day or even frozen (always tightly wrapped in parchment paper or baking paper and a plastic bag).
- Once you're ready to bake the tartlets, it's important to roll out the dough quickly so it doesn't soften and become difficult to handle.
- Place the dough on the work surface sprinkled with a pinch of flour. If the dough is hard, give it a few taps with the rolling pin to soften it. For individual tartlets I recommend cutting it into 6 equal pieces which you will roll out with the pin from the center of the dough moving it back and forth, pressing firmly but gently. Turn the dough, rolling the pin over it and continue until you reach 2mm thickness and a diameter 5cm larger than the mold you are going to use.
- Line the molds (always with removable bottoms) pressing the dough well over the entire bottom and walls of the mold, pressing slightly so that it does not slump when baking. Trim the excess dough by rolling the pin over the top edge of the mold. Chill in the fridge if it will not be baked immediately or if it has softened too much.
- Place in a preheated oven at 180º for about 20-25 minutes or until you see the bottoms of the tartlets begin to brown. Remove and let cool completely on a cooling rack before adding the mascarpone cream.
- For the mascarpone cream, in a bowl beat the cheese and powdered sugar until creamy with a whisk. Add the cream and beat until the cream has a spreadable creamy consistency.
- Assemble the tartlets filling with the cheese cream. Decorate with raspberries and pitted cherries cut into vertical pieces (wedge-like). Then heat the raspberry jam for a few seconds in the microwave to liquefy, and with a spoon lightly glaze the tartlets and fruit to add shine, flavor and texture! A few mint leaves and ready to serve!
