Recipe : Red fruit tartlets

Summer rhymes with fresh produce and this seasonal recipe is as simple to make as it is delicious. Enjoy the berry season with this perfectly balanced dessert in terms of textures and flavours. An easy recipe to bake at home to delight the whole family.

6 tartlets
6 x 8 cm Ø tartlet tins
Preparation: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

Sweet pastry dough

120 g butter
2 g salt
75 g icing sugar
25 g ground almonds
1/2 tsp. vanilla sugar
1 egg
200 g flour

Pastry cream

400 ml milk
1 vanilla pod (bean), split lengthwise
4 egg yolks
100 g sugar
30 g flour
30 g cornflour (cornstarch)

Decoration

strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, redcurrants

Method

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Soften the butter with the salt. Add the icing sugar, ground almonds and vanilla sugar. Mix well then add the egg and quickly work to combine. Pour in the flour and mix without over working the dough. Flatten the dough and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours .

Preheat oven to 180°C

Roll the pastry dough out to 3 mm thick and stamp out 6 10 cm diameter discs and line round tartlet tins. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. Line with parchment paper slightly larger than the circumference of the tin and top with a layer of beans or rice. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden. Remove beans; return to the oven to dry base. Remove from the oven, leave to rest for 2 minutes then unmould onto a cake rack to cool.

Pastry cream

Put milk and vanilla in a heavy-based saucepan and bring to the boil. Set aside. Combine egg yolks and sugar and beat until pale yellow and thick. Whisk in flour and cornflour. Remove the vanilla pod from the milk and then whisk the milk into the egg/sugar mixture and return to the saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, simmer 1 minute to completely cook the flour. Remove from heat and spread pastry cream in a shallow pan, cover with plastic wrap, leave to cool.

To serve

Three-quarter fill the tartlet shells with pastry cream, smooth the surface and add the fruits. The tartlets should be abundantly garnished with red fruits.