In the midst of the summer abundance of fruits and berries, recipes for all kinds of seasonal cakes, pastries and various other desserts become relevant, as the main ingredient in which the fruits act. Among such delicacies, one can distinguish tartlets with fruits and whipped cream, jelly, as well as baskets with protein cream, in the middle of which luscious gifts of summer lurk. The article describes in detail the principle of preparing several options for such a dessert, as well as several valuable recommendations for decorating the finished dish.
How to make a base from shortcrust pastry?
To prepare tartlets with fruits from a simple dough, you should use:
- 500 grams of flour.
- 250 grams of fat (it can be margarine, butter or a mixture of them).
- Two eggs. If you want the dough to be more crumbly, then only yolks are used, doubling their number.
- One hundred grams of sugar, a small pinch of salt.
Beat eggs with sugar until crystals are dissolved, add salt at the end. Melt the fat in a water bath and add a little to the egg mass. When it becomes monotonous, add flour there and knead the dough. If it turns out that it is poorly formed into an elastic lump, then you should add a little water, literally 2-3 tablespoons. Divide the finished dough into identical lumps, roll it with a rolling pin to a thickness of 5 mm and line them with molds for cupcakes, muffins or baskets. It is good to press the dough with your fingers in an even layer, and pour beans or peas in the center so that the dough does not deform during baking, and the tartlet with fruits is in perfect shape.
Bake in the oven until tender at a temperature of 190-210 degrees. Baking time depends on the size of the tartlets, but in any case it is no more than 15 minutes.
Express method
If you want a more refined taste, but there is absolutely no desire to fiddle with the dough for a long time, you can prepare tartlets with fruits from ready-made puff pastry, which is sold in every supermarket frozen. To do this, take a layer of dough, thaw it a little, removing it from the bag onto the table, and when the dough thaws a little, carefully unfold it and roll it with a rolling pin into a thin layer, not more than 4 cm in thickness.
Cut into squares, which will be slightly larger than the diameter of the molds and carefully lay the dough there, making sure that the corners are at the same height. Press the center with your fingers and pour the weighting material inside (legumes are ideal). Sprinkle the dough with cold water and bake the basics for tartlets in the oven at a temperature of 220 degrees.
Product Molding: The Easy Way
The cream used for this dessert is diverse: it can be chocolate ganache, custard with vanilla, which well emphasizes the taste of fruit, or the lighter of whipped protein with powdered sugar. You can also use a cream of condensed milk with butter, but the easiest and win-win option is whipped cream. Tartlets with fruits, over which the air cloud of such a cream rises, are incredibly tasty, but their special appeal is in appearance: once you look at the photo, you understand that you must definitely try this miracle of confectionery art. But since many do not have special skills in the preparation of complex creams, it is possible to arrange tartlets with simple whipped cream and, at the same time, be considered a great culinary expert.
To do this, put a cream outlet (using a pastry bag or syringe) into the finished and chilled tartlet, and then, based on your imagination, arrange the sliced fruits, you can mix with fresh berries that will add bright colors to the pastries.
For example, several photos of fruit tartlets are presented so that novice housewives can understand the design principle. It is important to know that there should not be too many fruits, and at the same time they should depict a certain mini-composition, a fruit bouquet against the background of a snow-white cream.
Jelly fruit tartlets
The recipes of tartlets with fruits with the addition of jelly are especially chic, while it can be added both inside the tartlet, pouring it to the edges, decorating with fresh fruit slices on top, and, conversely, pouring fragrant jelly on top of the fruit. It will turn out very spectacular, but a special plus is that children love such desserts at their holiday tables.
How to cook it?
So, for the preparation of tartlets with fruit in jelly, you will need:
- One pack of ready-made jelly of your choice, but it is better to use a neutral color so that it does not overlap the original color of the fruit. Lemon jelly or orange - perfect, and its taste will shade the standard set of fruits. The contents of the package must be dissolved in 350 grams of boiled, but slightly cooled water until completely dissolved, then cool the liquid to the first signs of gelatin hardening.
- Ready tartlets baked the day before. In this case, it is better to take products from shortcrust pastry, since puffs quickly absorb moisture from jelly and lose their integral shape. How many pieces do you need? It depends on the amount of fruits and berries used for the filling. All proportions are individual, by eye.
- The most varied fruits for tartlets of this type are used: slices of sweet apples, nectarine or peach, pineapple, kiwi or slices of tangerines - they are perfectly combined with each other not only in taste but also in appearance, delighting the taster with bright colors. Also, for the shade, you can use small red berries whole: cherry or strawberries.
Step cooking
Cut fruits based on the size of the tartlet: if they are small, then we make fruit slices no more than three cm. If larger baskets are prepared, then you can make fruit slices of different shapes and lay out a fancy bouquet at the bottom of the baked base from the dough. Such products look good in a shallow version, when the height of the dough is 3-4 cm. For example: cut apples into thin slices, leaving a red skin that will shade the green kiwi balls, which are easy to make with a coffee spoon. Pieces of pineapple or mango can be given a triangular shape or any other, and slices of tangerines, of course, can be used as a whole.
Next, gently pour the jelly ready and starting to pour into each form, covering it to the brim. Move the finished tartlets to a cool place, and when the jelly hardens completely, you can additionally decorate the finished products with chocolate mustaches, pieces of marmalade or a fresh whole berry. You can also drop a small whorl of whipped cream so that its white color stands out against the bright background of the fruit. Making such desserts is always a kind of art, so why not experiment and give free rein to imagination?
Tartlets with fruits cooked according to this recipe in the photo look magical and just persuade them to eat another piece. It is worth noting that the calorie content of this dish depends on the filler: with cream or chocolate cream it will be too much for overweight people, but with jelly or a light protein cream it is ideal.
Gourmet dessert
Tartlets with cream and fruit are tasty and beautiful, but somewhat corny for those who know a lot about desserts. How to surprise such a person? Prepare him baskets of puff pastry with a “drunk” pear.
What does that require:
- Packing of puff yeast-free dough 400 grams.
- 4-6 pears (the amount depends on the size of the fruit).
- 1 cup of good red wine.
- 15 grams of gelatin.
- some powdered sugar to sprinkle the finished product.
Cooking process
Soak gelatin in one hundred grams of water. Cut the pears into halves, gently remove the seed core, being careful not to damage the beautiful shape of the fruit. In a small wide saucepan, heat the wine almost until it boils, turn off the stove and place the pears in it with the cut down. Let them stand for ten or fifteen minutes: the fruits will become softer, but will not lose their shape.
In parallel with this process, it is necessary to bake oval tartlets in the size of pears. To do this, roll out the thawed dough thinner, cut out the basis for tartlets with a mold or simply cut into squares, place each suitable baking dish for small items, and then cut off the extra corners with scissors. In the recess on the dough, do not forget to pour the beans, because puff pastry very much changes its structure when baking. Next, place the baking sheet with the products in the oven, bake until tender at a temperature of 220 degrees until a tender blush, and then remove from the molds, removing the filler. Allow them to cool completely.
What to do next?
Remove the pears from the wine, make parallel cuts on them with a sharp knife and lay them on the bottom of the tartlets. Melt the swollen gelatin in a steam bath and combine with wine, you can add a couple of tablespoons of sugar if the mixture does not seem sweet enough. When the jelly has cooled completely and begins to thicken, pour it on pears in tartlets and immediately place in a cool place so that the dough does not have time to absorb the insufficiently frozen product. Before serving, lightly sprinkle dessert with icing sugar and garnish with small leaves of mint or red currant berries, completing a wonderful bouquet of a fragrant dish. Experiment! Bon Appetit!