A Pair of Fruit Tartlets

The good thing about staying in S.A. is the large variety of stone fruits available here, they are so sweet and fresh! They've become my favourite afternoon snacks and I do think that this is definitely a much healthier form of snacks than what I used to munch on back in Singapore. ;-)

On my recent trip to the supermarket, I've bought peaches, plums and some tiny figs that are about 2cm long. My hubby does not like stone fruits at all and since I can't finish all of them by myself, I've decided to use these goodies in baking. As I still want to enjoy the freshness of the fruits, so any recipes that require baking the fruits with the pastry is out of the question. In the end, I made some tartlets with a crust recipe that I've not try out before.

The fruit tartlets consist of cookie-like crusts which has been mixed with earl grey tea leaves, spread with custard with a slight hint of orange blossom water, and topped with sliced peaches and figs. My hubby like them so much that he finished 2 pieces at one go. Hmm... now I know how to get him to eat stone fruits. ;-)

On a side note, the bunny shaped cookies are actually dog treats, which were baked using a recipe from here. The cookies are meant for my puppy but I've been eating them these few days. That's because my unappreciative pooch refuse to eat, and so does my hubby as he find that the cookies are just too bland. I think the taste is ok, just that it's not as sweet or salty as the cookies that we usually eat. It's healthier too, since it's full of oats and low in salt and sugar. Ok, ok, I know that I'm trying to convince myself to finish them all, but I just can't bear to let the cookies go to waste. And besides, they look cute with my fruit tartlets too!

Fruit Tartlets with Custard and Earl Grey Crusts Recipe

Ingredients:
For the crust
70g unsalted butter @ room temperature
60g icing sugar
A pinch of salt
1 no. egg yolk
150g self-raising flour
2 earl grey tea bags, and remove the tea leaves from the bags

For the custard
3 no. egg yolks
200ml milk
50g caster sugar
20g self-raising flour
10g butter
1/4 teaspoon of orange blossom water

Fruits of your preference, sliced

Method:
To make the crust
1) Lightly greased 4 no. of 8cm tart pans.
2) In a mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Then mix in icing sugar in 3 additions, thoroughly mix the batter after each addition.
3) Mix in tea leaves, egg yolk and salt.
4) Add in self-raising flour and mix by hands, until a smooth dough is formed.
5) Wrap the dough with a piece of cling film and keep it in freezer for 15 minutes.
6) In the mean time, pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C.
7) Then take the dough out from the freezer, press the dough onto the tart pans and bake for 10 minutes, or until the crusts is lightly brown in colour.

To make the custard
1) In a mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks and 1 tablespoon of the milk with an electric mixer.
2) Add in half of the caster sugar and mix thoroughly.
3) Sieve self-raising flour over the batter and continue to mix.
4) In a pot, add in remaining milk and caster sugar, cook in medium heat until just almost boil, then pour into the batter in step (3). Using a whisk, quickly mix the batter until even.
5) Strain the mixture with a strainer over the pot. Heat the mixture up in medium heat, and stir with a wooden spoon continously. Cook until the mixture has thicken and looks shiny.
6) Turn the heat off. Add in butter to the hot mixture and stir to combine. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, and then add in orange blossom water.

To assemble the tartlets
1) Fill the crusts with custard, and then topped with sliced fruits of your choice.
2) Prepare a pot of tea. And now enjoy the tarlets wth a cup of tea. :)