browned butter fruit tarts - xmas week 2019
Welcome to Day 3 of Xmas Week 2019. You may remember I made a mixed berry brown butter tart a few months ago. I wasn't happy with it at all so I went back to the drawing board and completely reworked the filing with much better results. I decided to make some individual tarts but for Christmas Day you could make one large tart to share. Wanting to give people choice I used some chopped rhubarb and a selection of berries to top the tarts. The rhubarb browned butter tart was particularly delicious.
I also made a test tart without pre-baking the pastry shell. It took 5 – 7 minutes longer to cook and the pastry was a little less golden but other wise it turned out very well. Anything that saves time in the kitchen is a good thing isn't it?
Here's the recipe for you which makes nine 6 cm tarts or one 23 cm tart. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional gas oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.
Brown butter fruit tarts
Crust
150g unsalted butter
⅓ cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups plain flour
Pinch of salt
Filling
75g unsalted butter, diced
90g caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
pinch salt
½ cup plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
2 punnets ripe berries and 3 rhubarb stalks, sliced into small lengths
Optional
1 tbs warmed apricot jam
Crust
Place all the crust ingredients into the bowl of a food processor. Whiz until a soft dough forms around the blade. Place the greased tart tins onto a baking tray. Roll the dough out thinly between 2 sheets of baking paper. Using one tart tin as a template cut out 9 small rounds placing one into the bottom of each of the tart forms. Re-roll the scraps and cut into lengths to form the sides of the tart shells. Press the dough evenly onto sides and bottom of the tins before placing in the fridge for 30 minutes. You may have a little bit of dough left over.
Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 190ºC. Bake tart shells until golden, about 20 minutes (crust will puff slightly while baking). Transfer the tray to a rack and let the tart shells cool completely. This step can be done the day ahead with the tart shells stored in an airtight container.
Filling
To make the browned butter, place the diced butter into a microwave safe bowl with a lid. Cook on high for about 5 minutes but start checking after 3 minutes. The butter will bubble madly but when ready will be darker in colour with some dark brown solids and should start to smell nutty. The butter will continue to darken while it’s cooling. Let the butter cool down to room temperature. You should have about 60g of brown butter. This step can also be done in advance, just remember to bring the butter back to room temperature before making the filling.
When the butter is cool, mix in the sugar and vanilla and beat until the colour lightens. Beat in the egg and mix thoroughly until incorporated. Sift the flour with the salt and baking powder into a small bowl. Mix the flour into the egg mixture and mix until well combined.
Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the brown butter mixture into the base of each of the cooled tart shells, about half full. Arrange the rhubarb slices decoratively over the filling and place the berries pointed side up and close together in concentric circles over the mixture. Return the filled shells to the baking sheet. Place the tray in the centre of the oven and baked for 30-35 minutes at 190ºC or until filling is puffed and golden. Cool tarts in pan on rack. While still warm, run a knife around the edge of the pastry to loosen from the tin, then remove tart pan sides when completely cool. If you like you can glaze the fruit with some warmed apricot jam.
They look pretty festive don't they, a little like Christmas baubles?
See you all again tomorrow with some more baking for Xmas week 2019.
Bye for now,
Jillian
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