Mini fruit tarts - berries and vanilla

It's been a while since my last post, but I've been soo busy these days. My big day is almost 3 weeks apart and I have to spend more time focusing on it.

Recently I've been in a short holiday to Italy, from where I bought nice little tart tins. I could't wait to get home and try them. One of my favorite desserts are mini tarts.  

I love mini tarts because they are so easy to make and really delicious.  And because they are so colorful they work on every occasion. Imagine them on a brunch ;)

The tart shell can be used as the foundation for many desserts. The part that I like the most is that you can simply press the dough into the tart pan with your hands and not use a rolling pin (sometimes after using the rolling pin the dough is too thin and is so hard to put it on the pan). Another great thing is that you can make double quantity and store half of it in the freezer up to one month.

Here is the nice recipe that I found. Try it and let me know what you think :)

INGREDIENTS:

For Tart Shell - for 10 mini tart shells

• 6 tablespoons (3oz. or 85 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

For filling - I used vanilla pudding. Just follow the instructions on the package.

For decorating- I used fresh raspberries , blackberries and green mint.

DIRECTIONS:
Put butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
On low speed, beat for about a minute until the mixture is smooth and combined. 
Add egg yolk and beat for half a minute.
Then add flour and salt (all at once) and beat until the dough just begins to come together. Avoid over mixing.
Divide the dough into 10 little balls.

Next, just take one by one the dough balls and place them in the center of your tart tins and start pressing them down and around with your fingers, making them as even as you can.
Avoid making the corners too thick. 
The dough is soft and moist, very easy to press and spread around.

Freeze the tarts for at least an hour. (You can be keep the dough frozen for a month)
On the day you are ready to use it, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

Take the frozen tart shells and poke them with a fork a few times.

Bake the tart shells in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until it reaches a  golden brown.

If  browning too fast and you can use  a little foil to cover up in the last few minutes.

My tart shells . I just took  them out of the oven

After the tart shells are cooled completely, fill them with  1-2 tablespoons of vanilla pudding (follow the instructions on the package) and then decorate them with berries and fresh green mint.
Enjoy!

Baby Thomas watching where mommy puts those yummy tarts

Photos by Emi Trasnitu

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