So there I was with two jars of passion fruit curd in the fridge, both of them literally screaming into my gluttonous belly "eat me, eat me"! I had to do something with them to prevent me tucking in with a spoon so I decided to make a few little tarts. People are always a little bit nervous when it comes to pastry but honestly the key is to handle it as little as possible and to make sure everything is chilled. These ingredients make enough for four mini tart cases but feel free to double the quantities as this pastry will happily sit in your freezer and await it's baking adventure turn.
For the pastry cases;
125g plain flour
60g butter
50g icing sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1tbsp milk
Cream the butter, icing sugar and salt together.
Rub in the flour and egg yolk until it looks like breadcrumbs. I always use a fork at this stage.
Add in the milk gradually to form a dough.
Place dough onto a piece of clingfilm and roll into a sausage shape. Allow it to rest in the fridge for at least a hour.
For the meringue;
I always use Nigella's meringue recipe as it has yet to fail me. Meringue is possibly one of my favourite things to both make and eat and this one is foolproof!
2 egg whites
150g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
Whisk the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl until soft peaks form.
Add in the sugar a spoonful at a time and whisk till glossy.
Add in the cornflour and vinegar and give it one final whisk.
Spoon into piping bag.
Remove pastry from the fridge and cut into thin slivers. Place these into the tart cases and press down gently to join the edges, similar to a jigsaw puzzle. So much easier to do this than to roll it out. Bake blind in a 180 degree preheated oven for fifteen minutes or until golden at the edges.
Allow to cool.
Once the cases are cooled fill them up with passion fruit curd, use as little or as much as you like.
Pipe little noisettes of the meringue mixture onto half of the tart and place under grill until lightly browned. Keep a close eye as they can burn very quickly.
Take some fresh raspberries and add to one of the tart quarters and with the remaining section add some grated lime zest.
So there you have it, a very impressive looking tart that is super simple to achieve. The tang of the passion fruit curd, the sweetness of the meringue, the sharpness of the raspberries and the citrus flavour of the lime combine to make this a great taste sensation. I need to cook a dessert for Chef Derry Clarke in my upcoming Tesco Fresh Factor competition, do you think he would be impressed by this?
