Almond and Berry Tarts

This recipe for almond and berry tarts comes from Jamie Oliver's 30-Minute Meals and honestly, the first time I made them, my guests and I were pleasantly surprised that they were so easy to make and only took a few minutes to prepare. They turned out pretty well in the end, some perhaps a little well-done...but absolutely the best dessert recipe I have ever tried.

The quickest and easiest way to go about this is to be prepared and buy ready-made pastry cases. All good supermarkets stock them. This will save you a huge amount of time and hassle especially if you're in a rush and have hungry guests!

However, if you have the time and inclination, feel free to make your own shortcrust pastry. Just click on my previous post for an easy recipe.

Almond and Berry Tarts

Ingredients:

8 small deep shortcrust pastry cases

1 egg

100g ground almonds

100g butter

90g golden caster sugar

1 orange

1 vanilla pod

Some good quality jam (strawberry or raspberry or any berry of your choice)

Method:

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

The first step is to make a frangipane mixture by combining the egg, almonds, butter and sugar into a mixing bowl.

Grate over the zest of 1/2 an orange. This gives it a bit of zing!

With a sharp-edged knife, slit the vanilla pod in half and scape the inside of the pod with the knife, removing the vanilla seeds. Add to the mixture.

Using a spoon, thoroughly mix it all together.

Now, put the pastry cases onto a baking tray.

Spoon a small teaspoon of jam into the pastry cases.

Top with a heaped teaspoon of the frangipane mixture, add another teaspoon of jam and finally another heaped teaspoon of frangipane. (Any leftover frangipane mixture can be frozen to be used for another occasion.)

Put the tray in the middle of the oven and let cook for 18-20 mins until golden. 

Serve warm with a dollop of creme fraiche or ice cream.

Shortcrust Pastry

This is a quick and easy recipe for shortcrust pastry, used as a base for tart recipes.

Shortcrust Pastry

Ingredients:
200g white flour
140g butter
1 or 2 tablespoons water or milk
Tartlet tins

Method:
Sieve the flour from a height onto a large clean tray or work surface. This enables air to become trapped within the flour and makes it lighter.
Cut the butter into cubes and work them into the flour with your fingers until you have a fine crumbly mixture.
Add one tablespoon of water or milk to the mixture and work it till the dough sticks together and you end up with a ball of dough.
If one tablespoon is not enough, then add the rest of the water or milk and work the dough.
Flour it lightly to prevent it from sticking to the surface.
Make sure that you do not work the dough too much or it will become elastic and chewy.
Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for half and hour.

When you are ready to work your dough, flour your work surface lightly and roll out the dough to about half a centimetre thickness.
Cut into rounds that will fit into the tartlet tins.
Butter the tartlet tins and place the pastry inside.
Cut the edges of the pastry with a sharp knife if too big for the tins.

Fill the pastry with a filling of your choice.

Note: You can also use some of the dough to make the top part of the tart, in which case roll it out, cut into rounds, prick the centre with a fork (to release steam when cooking) and place it over the tart. Alternatively, cut the rolled-out dough into strips and place them criss-cross over the top of the tart.
Brush some milk over the top for glazing.

Pop into the oven at 200 degrees centigrade for 15-20 minutes or until golden.