APPLE TARTLETS IN A LIGHT, CRISPY PASTRY
Recipe source: Art of Cooking by Carolié de Koster
Edited posting and photo: Elsabie Templeton
“Featherlight sweet (not too sweet) pastry. Quick to mix, easy to work with and bakes perfectly when filled (as for tartlets or a lattice pie) or baked blind (as for milktart).”
- 75 g/150 ml corn starch
- 225 g/400 ml cake flour
- 5 ml baking powder
- 50 ml castor sugar
- 200 g/225 ml butter or margarine at room temperature
- 2 eggs
- 2½ teaspoons vanilla essence
- pinch of salt
- icing sugar, for serving
- Apple filling
- 1 tin (385 g) pie apple slices
- sugar, cinnamon, mixed spices, nutmeg and ginger to taste
- 1½ teaspoons corn starch
- a little bit of apple juice or water, to make corn starch slurry
- If made using an electric mixer or food processor, place all ingredients in the bowl and mix or process only until the pastry holds together.
- If made by hand, mix all ingredients and knead together lightly only until a smooth pastry is formed.
- Press the pastry into a ball, cover or seal in clingwrap and refrigerate until required. Shape and bake as per the recipe you are using it for.
- For these small tartlets, I rolled out the pastry, cut circles to fit my muffin tray and pressed it gently into the hollows. I got eight pastry cases out.
- I did not roll it out too thin, it could have been thinner. Spoon your filling of choice into the pastry case (I made it level with the muffin tin).
- Press out any fancy pastry shapes or make a little lattice for the top. No need to brush with milk or egg wash.
- I baked in preheated oven (second shelf from bottom, my oven has five shelf positions) at 190 °C for 10 minutes then turned down to 170 °C for another 10 minutes.
- Let it cool in the muffin tin until completely cool as it will break when removed straight away. Sift icing sugar over before serving.
- Can be warmed up a bit in airfryer and served warm with ice cream.
- Apple filling
- Cut pie apple slices into smaller pieces and cooked for 10 minutes with sugar, cinnamon, mixed spices, nutmeg and ginger.
- Make a slurry with apple juice and corn starch and stir into the apples. Let it simmer and thicken and remove from the heat.
- Spoon into a plate and spread it to cool down quicker.
