Tartlets with Berries & Cream

Another recipe from my favourite cookbook, Nordic Bakery, this one slightly more glamourous than the last recipe I attempted. I thoroughly enjoyed myself watching the family eat the tartlets while getting cream on the tips of their noses! A bit of fun at their expense… Well, not that I intended it – I got cream on my nose as well. He he.

The recipe calls for a more delicate short crust pastry that would do with as little handling as possible since it uses icing sugar instead of caster sugar. Besides that, it comes together in a whiz. My favourite kind of baking: not much effort but delicious and worthy of stuffing into your mouth as quick as possible so that you get the most.  *cough*

Recipe:

• 150g plain flour
• 50g icing sugar
• 50g chilled butter, diced
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• a pinch of salt

• 300 ml whipping cream (35% fat)
• 2 tbsps caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g strawberries, hulled and quartered if large
• 150g blueberries
• icing sugar, for dusting (optional)

Sift the flour, icing sugar and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter and make a well in the centre. Mix egg quickly and form the dough as quickly as you can without working the dough too much.

Roll the dough into a ball and wrap in cling film. Pop it into the fridge for an hour.

After an hour, remove dough from fridge and roll it out. Cut out rounds slightly larger than the bases of your pastry cases and press the pastry into the cases. Transfer the lined cases to the fridge and wait for another 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Get the pastry cases out of the fridge and prick their bases with a fork before baking them for 10 to 13 minutes. Once they are baked, remove them from the pastry cases and cool completely on rack.

Whip the cream, together with the sugar and vanilla, to soft peaks. Fill the cases with cream, top with fruits and dust with the icing sugar if you wish it. Chill the tartlets for about an hour or two before eating. Chilled cream tastes better – always!