Fruit Tarts with White Chocolate Cream Filling

Yesterday was Canada Day and I was invited around to my Canadian friends apartment for a ‘Happy Canada Day‘ party.  There was a plentiful supply for food and drinks but I thought it would be rude to turn up empty handed so I made Fruit Tarts with White Chocolate Cream Filling. The idea for fruit tarts has been inspired by the hot summer we have been having here in Berlin this week and my craving for fruit as opposed to the usual need for chocolate. I have been seeing lots of these recipes about and wanted to try one for myself, I will admit this recipe has been adapted to make up for the slight kitchen disaster I had when the tarts collapsed in the oven, but I managed to save them and they still tasted great. So this is my recipe;

Ingredients

• 192g of Flour
• 113g of Butter
• 50g of Sugar
• 1/4 Tsp of Salt
• 1 Egg
• 200g of White Chocolate
• 4 Tsp of Icing Sugar
• 300g of Cream Cheese
• 1 Kiwi
• 50g of Strawberry’s

My Tart Shells Ready for the Oven

Method

1. Combine the sugar, flour and salt in a bowl
2. Cut the butter into thin slices and add to the mixture
3. Mix together until it is crumbly
4. Add the egg and mix together until all of the ingredients are moistened and beginning to form together
5. Lightly press the mixture into a ball and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes
6. After 30 minutes take out of the fridge and pull of a small chunk of the dough and press into a silicone mould with your fingers – be careful to keep the thickness consistent
7. Use a knife to trim any excess from around the top and repeat this process until all of the dough is used
8. Place into a preheated oven at 180C and cook for 20-25 minutes watching carefully as cooking times can vary
9. Remove from the oven and leave to cool
10. Whilst the tarts are cooling you can prepare the filling
11. Mix the cream cheese and icing sugar together in a bowl
12. In another glass bowl melt the white chocolate over a pan of simmering water
13. When all of the chocolate has melted add half of the cream chesses and stir thoroughly, then repeat with the rest of the cream cheese
14. Set side and slice up your kiwi and strawberry’s
15. One the tarts have cooled remove them from the mould carefully and fill with the white chocolate cream filling and place the desired fruit on top
16. Chill for 1 hour before serving

My Fruit Tarts with White Chocolate Cream Filling

These little tarts came out really well in the end, thankfully better than I had expected half way through. They were really delicious and not sickly so they were great to enjoy for Canada Day in a very hot and humid Berlin. If you are going to make these I would love to know how they come out for you, but be warned this recipe is time consuming and fiddly!

Eton Less Mess

This weeks dinner party dessert was a trifle come Eton mess concoction that I juist made up, however it tasted delicious. I have only attempted to make meringue once since I was taught my boyfriend’s mum who is the queen of delicious meringue. The last attempt was successful; and tasted great but I was feeling a bit more inventive this weekend so I went for something a little different.

My Eton Mess/Trifle

This was the final result and as you can see I layered the pieces of broken meringue, whipped cream, strawberry’s and kiwi to make a trifle style dessert, even though my aim was an Eton mess (in reality I did not know how to make that) but regardless it was really yummy and this is how I made it;

Ingredients

• 4 Egg Whites
• 8oz of Sugar
• 1 tbsp of Lemon Juice
• 400ml of Whipping Cream
• 2 Kiwis
• 250g of Strawberrys

My Meringue Ready to go into the Oven

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 150
2. Separate the egg whites into a large bowl
3. Whisk until stiff (use the holding over head test)
4. Add the sugar in stages through a sieve whilst continuing to stir, until all the sugar has been added and the mixture is still stiff
5. Add the lemon juice and whisk again
6. Pour the mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking paper
7. Put into the oven and turn down to 130
8. After 1 hour turn off the oven and leave the meringue to cool overnight
9. When your meringue is cool remove from the baking paper and place into a large bowl
10. Break the meringue up into smaller pieces, but make sure you are not just left with crumbs
11. Set aside for now and prepare the whipped cream and slice up your fruit
12. Then place half of the meringue into the bottom of a glass bowl and push down to create an even layer
13. Then top with cream and fruit in separate layers
14. Repeat again, but at this point place the fruit in a decorative manner so your dessert looks pretty
15. Serve into individual bowls

The recipe says to leave the meringue in the oven over night, this is how I was taught to make it, this weekend however, I was out on Saturday evening so I made mine the morning before I needed it, I still gave it 3-4 hours to cool but my meringue was a little stickier than it should be, although I like it that way. Just make sure when you are making this dessert that you have set aside enough time for it to cool properly!

My Beautiful Presentation

You can use as much or as little fruit as you like, and really whichever fruits are your favourite, I think that strawberry’s taste great with the cream and meringue pieces and I added kiwi as I only tried it for the first time a few weeks ago and discovered that I like it and had been avoiding it for no apparent reason! I would love to hear your suggestions for toppings for this dessert.