Last of our petits fours' tray is going to be this recipe of berry cream tartlets or "barquettes" since we have used barquettes forms to shape the cases.
This recipe is just good for the season since there are plenty of berries around where I live. I have to admit that I used the last frozen pack I mixed last year, it has blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries but the choice is up to you as far as the mixing goes.
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The cream is relatively easy to make, think of a crème pâtissière or a pastry cream and that's it. It's the same logic except that we are replacing the thickening agent which is starch by agar agar and a part of milk with berry juice.
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Ingredients
Makes 6 mini-tarts
Preparation
Have the pastry shells baked and cooled ahead of time (in this case I baked them 2 days ahead).
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Melt the white chocolate over a bain-marie or in the microwave. Wait until it cools and thickens and then smear the tart cases with it. Let is set. This step prevents the pastry shells from becoming soggy with the filling especially if you are going to serve them a few hours later or the next day.
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Berry cream
Mix the starch with 2 tablespoons of cold mild. Whisk the egg yolk with 1/2 f the sugar. Add in the juice and the starch and whisk until combine.
In a small saucepan, heat the milk with the remaining sugar and Agar Agar until it reaches a boiling point. Let boil for 30 seconds or so.
Slowly add the hot milk to the juice/egg/starch mix: start adding 1 tablespoon and mix, then another one and mix, then a bit more and mix. This step is crucial so you do not cook the egg.
This recipe is just good for the season since there are plenty of berries around where I live. I have to admit that I used the last frozen pack I mixed last year, it has blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries but the choice is up to you as far as the mixing goes.
The cream is relatively easy to make, think of a crème pâtissière or a pastry cream and that's it. It's the same logic except that we are replacing the thickening agent which is starch by agar agar and a part of milk with berry juice.
Ingredients
Makes 6 mini-tarts
- 1/2 quantity of sweet pastry dough
- 1 egg yolk
- 100 ml of milk
- 30g of caster sugar
- 50 ml of berry juice (collect the juice after squeezing the fruits with a spoon through a sieve)
- 1/4 tsp of agar agar
- Candied cherry or confit (or a berry)
- Lemon zest
- 50 g of white chocolate
Preparation
Have the pastry shells baked and cooled ahead of time (in this case I baked them 2 days ahead).
Melt the white chocolate over a bain-marie or in the microwave. Wait until it cools and thickens and then smear the tart cases with it. Let is set. This step prevents the pastry shells from becoming soggy with the filling especially if you are going to serve them a few hours later or the next day.
Berry cream
Mix the starch with 2 tablespoons of cold mild. Whisk the egg yolk with 1/2 f the sugar. Add in the juice and the starch and whisk until combine.
In a small saucepan, heat the milk with the remaining sugar and Agar Agar until it reaches a boiling point. Let boil for 30 seconds or so.
Slowly add the hot milk to the juice/egg/starch mix: start adding 1 tablespoon and mix, then another one and mix, then a bit more and mix. This step is crucial so you do not cook the egg.
Put the mix back into the saucepan and let simmer over medium heat while stirring until you get a creamy silky texture.
Transfer to a cold bowl and cover with a cling-film "au contact". Set aside to cool then place in the fridge for a couple of hours.
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Assembly and decoration
Whisk the cream to fluffen it up a bit but not much.
Pipe the cream using a small tip (I used wilton tip 3) to make it look like a small berry or just fill the pasty shells using 2 spoons really...
Top the tartlets with a berry and sprinkle some lime or lemon zest.