These amazing tartlets made of shortcrust pastry and glossy, delicious meringue cream frosting, are a real treat and would add sophistication and delight to your morning coffee or afternoon tea 🙂
For the shortcrust pastry:
- Butter – 120 g
- Sugar – 30 g
- Salt – a sprinkle
- Egg yolks – 3
- Flour – about 180 g
- Baking powder – 1/2 tsp
- Any berries or jam you like
For the meringue cream frosting:
- Egg whites – 2 (you have to weigh them; mine weighed about 78 g)
- Sugar – weight of egg whites x 2 (I used 156 g)
- Water – weight of sugar, divided by 3 (minus the weight of lemon juice, if you’re using any) – I used approx. 39 g of water
- Lemon juice – 1 tbsp (approx. 13 g)
- Pink and red heart sprinkles for decoration (optional)
Method is explained and illustrated below. Enjoy!
Place butter (of room temperature) into the main mixing bowl.
Add sugar and a sprinkle of salt.
Mix together with a spatula, until well combined.
Separate eggs (of room temperature) into yolks and whites. Since you have 3 whites and will need only 2 of them, you might also want to separate the 2 whites you’ll need from the 1 you won’t need.
Add the yolks into the mixture…
… and mix it well in.
Sift the flour into a separate bowl.
Add the baking powder…
… and mix together.
Start adding the flour into the egg and butter mixture, gradually, in several intervals…
… mixing it well after each interval, first with a spatula…
… and at the end of the mixing process, knead the batter into a ball with your hand.
You might not need all the flour; you should go by the texture of the batter. When it turns very soft and elastic like in this video, and doesn’t stick to your hands, – your batter is ready.
You should also start pre-heating your oven to 200 C at the kneading stage.
I use these fluted moulds for baking basket tartlets, – I find them just perfect. If you don’t have these, you can also use a muffin tray with cups, but those cups are plain and not fluted.
My moulds are standard ones, and they are quite small. The amount of batter this recipe is for, would make 15 tartlets of that size.
You don’t have to grease the moulds, as the batter is greasy enough not to stick to the moulds while baking.
Fill in the moulds. I just tear off small chunks of the batter, gently press it down the moulds and shape it with my fingers, like shown in the video. Press the batter down the bottom first, and then lift the excess up to fill in the sides. Make sure to fill in all the fluted surfaces of the sides of the moulds.
Now, place the moulds onto a bigger tray…
… and gently pierce the bottoms with a fork, to let the excess air out of the batter, so it doesn’t bubble up while baking.
Bake at 200 C for 7 (max. 10) minutes. If your moulds are of a bigger size – bake for 12 to 15 minutes. However, I recommend checking the tartlets after 7 minutes (bigger ones – after 10 minutes). When the sides turn golden, the tartlets are ready.
When the tartlets are ready, take them out of the oven and let them cool down for about 5 minutes.
Once they’ve cooled down, take the tartlets out of the moulds – they come out easily.
Now, make the meringue cream frosting.
Place the egg whites into a whisking bowl…
… and whisk until you get firm peaks.
Place the sugar into a saucepan…
… add water…
… and lemon juice (this is optional, but I recommend adding it – lemon juice balances the sweetness of the cream and adds a fresh citrus tang)…
… and heat it up on a medium heat, stirring constantly.
Once the syrup boils, keep heating it up to 125 C, stirring constantly.
It’s handy to have a cooking thermometer to check the temperature. If you do not have one, then take the syrup off the heat the very moment it starts turning slightly golden.
WARNING 1: it’s very important not to overcook the syrup. If you leave it to boil for longer than necessary, it may turn into a caramel. Even if you have a thermometer, remember the temperature rises very fast when the syrup boils. As you can see, the temperature of my syrup is slightly higher than necessary – time to take it off the heat immediately.
WARNING 2: it’s very important not to alter proportions of the ingredients of the syrup. You can’t reduce the amount of sugar. When making the syrup, the amount of sugar doesn’t just add sweetness – it’s vital for the texture. Therefore, it’s recommended to add lemon juice to balance the sweetness.
Once the syrup is ready, take it off the heat and immediately, while it’s still very hot, start pouring it in a thin stream into the egg whites, whisking them at the same time. You should avoid pouring the syrup straight onto the whisks and sides of the bowl.
As you can see from the picture, my syrup has turned golden – it means it got slightly overheated. Looks like I took it off the heat just at the nick of time!
Once all the syrup is added, keep whisking until the cream has firmed up and turned glossy.
Once the cream is ready, place the tartlets on any working surface (I use a silicone mat as it’s very easy to clean up if necessary).
Now, place a small amount of your preferred berries or jam into each tartlet. I use blackcurrants, as they are my favourite berries and add a fresh and sharp flavour to the tartlets.
Now, take a piping bag, cut off the edge, put a nozzle into it, making sure the edge of the nozzle is out, and fill the bag with the cream. Make sure you close the top of the bag, and push the cream down to the nozzle. Squeeze the bag slightly to let the cream come out off the nozzle…
… and decorate the tartlets with the cream frosting. Squeeze the cream onto a tartlet in a circular motion like this.
Once all the tartlets are decorated with cream frosting, you may sprinkle them with the pink and red heart sprinkles.
And enjoy! 🙂 The cream frosting on its own may taste a bit too sweet, but not if you added lemon juice. Also, the tartlet pastry and, in my case, blackcurrants balance the taste perfectly, The tartlets turned out very light, and they are small, so if you are watching your sugar intake, you can have just one at a time and enjoy without worrying about your sugar levels 🙂
