Mint and fresh berries tartlets

This is a refreshing and not too heavy dessert that is great for mid afternoon tea. Or you can have it any time of the day, it really does fit in any time. The recipe to this is simple, most of which have been covered in previous blog posts. But there are slightly variations. 

Ingredients shortcrust pastry, makes about 6 tartlets)

• 175g plain flour
• 100g unsalted butter
• 30g icing sugar 
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tbsp cold water

1. Rub flour, sugar and butter together until it resembles breadcrumb structure
2. Add in egg yolk and water and knead until combined, you can overwork this, so watch out not to knead it for too long and too hard
3. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes
4. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C 
5. Lightly flour bench top and rolling pin and roll out the pastry very thin (about 2-3mm)
6. Get a circular cutter and cut out the pastry and put it into the tartlet tins
7. Gently push the sides in with a piece of spare dough, if the pastry broke, don't worry, you can just stick some spare over and push it in gently to fill in the hole
8. Use a fork to prick a few holes at the bottom of the tartlets 
9. Put a piece of baking parchment over the pastry and put baking beans on top 
10. Blind bake for 15 minutes and then take out the baking beans
11. Bake again for 10 minutes
12. Take the tartlets out and cool in the tins 

Ingredients (creme patissiere)

• 4 large egg yolks
• 100g caster sugar
• 6 stalks of fresh mint leaves
• 260ml milk (semi-skimmed or full fat)
• 25g corn flour

1. Whisk egg yolks and caster sugar together until creamy
2. Add in corn flour and whisk until smooth
3. Chop mint stalks into approximately 2cm long pieces and heat them in the milk over medium-low heat, switch off heat when the milk boils
4. Leave it to cool down for 5 minutes
5. Sift milk into the egg/sugar/corn flour mixture and whisk while you put the milk in 
6. Pour the cream back into saucepan and put it on medium-low heat, continue whisking with wooden spoon/whisk whilst heating (this is important, or your eggs will get cooked and form lumpy bits)
7. When the creme patissiere boils, keep whisking until it thickens, this can take 1-2 minutes
8. Once the creme patissiere has thickened, take it off the heat and let it cool down to room temperature
9. Pipe the creme patissiere over the bottom of the tartlets until it is completely filled
10. Decorate the top with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, either whole or sliced, decorate however you want