Rosa, from Pemberley Cup&Cakes , brings us today some delicious cream tartlets ideal to surprise your partner or guests. In addition, it is an easy recipe to prepare following its instructions, so I definitely invite you to prepare it at home!
Today's recipe is a real treat. But one of the best, one of those that is available to anyone and practically at any time. Can you start the day better? These are some, shall we say, indecent tartlets with a base of sabléé dough (sweet shortcrust pastry), filled with pastry cream and topped with a good handful of fresh raspberries. And since we are talking about true luxuries, nothing better than one of the special varieties of Tiptree jam from Claudia&Julia's pantry to take this delicious morsel to a higher level: the apricot and armagnac jam will end up giving them a unique, truly special touch.
As you can see, the mechanics of this captivating dessert is, although perhaps somewhat entertaining (there are occasions that really deserve such entertainment), fundamentally simple. But isn't that the case in most cases? Sometimes, with the desire to surprise someone with some really special detail, we find ourselves involved in a real frenzy to come up with the most dazzling idea -sometimes excessively elaborate-, convinced that this way they will be completely impressed. And often the answer was much closer at hand than we thought.
And that is what these attractive tartlets promise: simplicity and freshness, but also a just touch of originality and a desire to seduce. It is not difficult to imagine that the palate that tries them will be deeply conquered. Including ours. Let's go with the recipe.
Le Creuset 11cm ceramic molds and special jams with Tiptree alcohol
Ingredients (for 4 round tartlets of 11cmØ )
All ingredients must be at room temperature, unless otherwise indicated.
For sablée dough (sweet shortcrust pastry):
200 g normal wheat flour (+ extra flour for kneading)
55g icing sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
125g unsalted butter, very cold (even frozen), cut into small cubes (+ extra butter for greasing)
1 egg yolk (L)
For the pastry cream:
375 ml of whole milk
1 teaspoon pure Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract
85g white sugar
30 g of fine cornmeal (Maizena type)
3 egg yolks (L)
For decoration:
250g raspberries
2 tablespoons (40g) apricot-armagnac jam
*1 tablespoon=15 ml ; 1 teaspoon=5ml*
Elaboration
Preparation of the sablée dough:
1. Sift the flour together with the icing sugar and salt into a large bowl and mix well with a whisk until all the ingredients are completely combined.
2. Then add the cold butter, cut into small cubes, and integrate it with the help of your fingertips (we will avoid handling excessively to provide as little heat as possible). We will have a texture like sandy crumbs. We must not mix excessively, as we run the risk of the butter softening and the gluten in the flour beginning to develop, which we do not want, as the dough would end up acquiring an elastic texture instead of flaky, as is the objective. .
3. We now add the egg yolk to the previous mixture and integrate it little by little in the same way that we have done in point 2. Again, we will mix just enough to combine.
4. Once the yolk is well integrated, we compact it with our hands (at first, it seems not, but contact with our hands will integrate everything without a problem and it will take shape) and shape the dough into a ball. If it had not softened too much, we went directly to point 6. If the environment was rather warm and/or we had handled it too much, we covered it with transparent film and refrigerated for at least 1 hour.
5. After this time, remove the dough from the refrigerator and, if it is too hard, let it acclimate to room temperature for 5-10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, grease the inside of 4 11 cm Ø round cake pans (like these from Le Creuset ) with a little melted butter and the help of a pastry brush.
7. Next, we cover the molds with the sablée dough, for which we will start by dividing it into 4 equal parts (it will be very useful to have a kitchen scale here) and make a ball with each one again. At this point, we have two options to perform the next step:
- Lightly flatten each ball of dough between our hands, place it in the center of each mold and begin to press it with our fingers without stretching until it spreads evenly over the entire surface of the bottom and sides (it should protrude a little from the edges), smoothing as much as possible until a thickness of approximately 0.5 cm is achieved. This is perhaps the easiest method, since we prevent the dough from breaking with more manipulation.
- We could also spread each portion with a rolling pin on a lightly floured work surface to later transfer it to the molds once stretched. As the dough is very brittle, it is best to place it between two sheets of baking paper or transparent film and roll out with a rolling pin, always from the center outwards, until you get 4 circles about 0.5 cm thick. To facilitate its handling, we fold half of the dough over the rolling pin, unfold it over the mold and adjust it well so that it adapts perfectly to the shape of the container. The good thing about this dough is that it is very malleable and can be regrouped and rolled out as many times as necessary.
7. Next we pass a knife flush with the edge of each mold to cut the excess dough and outline. If any cracks appeared during the previous step, we will go over it with the leftover dough cutouts (it seals perfectly with our fingers).
8. Next, and before going to the oven, we have to prepare our tartlets so that the baking is perfect. Again, we would have two options:
- Prick the base of the dough repeatedly with a fork, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 10-20 minutes until the dough hardens. Next, we completely cover each tartlet with parchment paper (better to crumple and stretch it beforehand so that it better adapts to the shape of the inside of the mold) and fill almost to the edge with small ceramic balls for baking (or, failing that, some type of legumes such as chickpeas, beans, lentils or even rice).
- We cover our tartlets with transparent film and put them in the freezer for 30 minutes. After this time, we remove and cover the interior, base and sides well, now with aluminum foil (we discard the transparent film), previously greased with a little butter on the shiny side (the one that has to be in contact with the dough) . Next, we put the molds in the oven without the need to add any extra weight.
9. While we wait, we preheat the oven (electric and without air) to 190ºC with heat above and below and place the oven tray at half height.
10. Finally, we bake for about 20-25 minutes until the dough acquires a nice golden hue. Remove from the oven and place it on a rack and, being very careful not to burn ourselves, remove the weights and the baking paper/aluminium foil according to the option chosen. In the latter case, the dough may have risen slightly; if so, we would smooth it gently with the back of a spoon while still hot.
11. We let cool completely inside their molds on a rack before completing them with the filling.
Preparation of the pastry cream:
1. Place the milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and reserve.
2. In a separate medium bowl, with the help of a few rods, beat the yolks well together with the sugar until the mixture pales and becomes more dense and spongy.
3. Next, add the fine cornmeal to the egg and sugar mixture and continue mixing until everything is perfectly combined.
Madagascar vanilla extract , De Buyer copper saucepan and 11cm Le Creuset ceramic molds
4. Next, gradually pour half of the hot milk over the previous mixture, stirring constantly with the whisk to prevent the yolks from curdling.
5. Once well combined, pour it over the rest of the milk and return it to a simmer until the mixture thickens, stirring constantly with the whisk so that it does not form lumps or stick to the saucepan (it takes me about 10-12 minutes; keep in mind that as it cools down, it will thicken a little more).
6. Remove from the heat, add the vanilla extract , mix again with the whisk until combined and cover with transparent film, well attached to the surface of the cream to avoid the formation of a dry film on the top layer, as well as the condensation of water drops due to heat. Let cool completely at room temperature.
7. Before using it, we will mix it again with the rods just until it is smooth and creamy (if we overdo it by mixing the already cold cream, lumps may appear). Once cold, we will keep it refrigerated in a tightly closed container while we are not using it. Stores in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Assembly of the tartlets:
1. Fill the sablée dough base of our cold tartlets with the pastry cream up to ¾ full and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.
2. Next, we place the raspberries very close together on the surface of the cream, pressing slightly so that they stay in place, but without overdoing it so that they do not sink or overflow the cream.
3. Heat the jam in a small saucepan over low heat (or in the microwave at medium power for a few seconds) until we see that it is liquid, strain it to discard possible lumps and apply it to the fruit with the help of a pastry brush .
4. We serve immediately.
Once our tartlets are assembled, we can keep them refrigerated for up to 2 days. We will remove it from the refrigerator so that it acclimatizes half an hour before serving.
Grades:
- Another common alternative to vanilla extract is to use a vanilla bean. When heating the milk, we will flavor it by adding the vanilla pod, open lengthwise with the tip of a very sharp knife. If you don't want the seeds to be visible in the cream, filter the milk before continuing with the rest of the ingredients (I usually use a coffee filter , because they are really tiny).
- Group the dough that is left over after cutting the edges and make a ball (it won't be much, but you never know, maybe you'll come up with some cookies later); wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it. Keeps frozen for up to 2 months; To defrost it, you just have to leave it in the fridge the night before.
- In addition to raspberries, you can use a wide range of fruit to make these tartlets, from any other variety of red fruit to even stone fruit (cherries, plums, peach, apricots, etc.). In the latter case, it will be necessary to chop it up and remove the bone.
- Instead of 4 individual tartlets, you can use this same recipe to make a single larger tart. The Le Creuset 24cm Ø ceramic cake pan is simply perfect!
- If you prefer, you can also finish decorating your tartlets with a little icing sugar just before serving.
I hope you like it. All the best.
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