JR Ryall's Green Gooseberry Tartlets
Take us with you this summer.
Ingredients
1 quantity Cream Pastry (see below), chilled
flour, for dusting
700g green gooseberries, topped and tailed
220-290g caster sugar
softly whipped cream, to serve
For the pastry:
110g plain flour
110g cold salted butter, cut into 5mm cubes
150ml cold fresh cream
Method
For the pastry:
Place the flour into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and then add the butter. With the mixer on low speed, rub the butter into the flour. Keep an eye on the mixture as it is being worked by the paddle. If overworked, the mixture will form a shortbread-like ball!
Before this happens, when the butter and flour are on the cusp of coming together, pour in all of the cold cream and continue to mix on a low speed until a smooth pastry forms, about 1 minute.
Wrap the pastry with baking paper and place in the refrigerator to chill overnight.
Always roll cream pastry straight from the fridge. If the pastry comes to room temperature it will be too soft to handle!
For tartlets:
Place the cold pastry on a generously floured work surface. Sprinkle flour over the top and roll to a thickness of 3mm, using a rolling pin.
Cut the pastry into disks using a 7.5cm round cutter. Transfer the disks of pastry to a shallow, flat-bottom bun (muffin) pan, lining each well with a circle. Place the lined pan in the refrigerator to rest for 15 minutes.
Shake excess flour from the pastry scraps, gather them together, wrap in baking paper and place in the refrigerator. The scraps can be re-rolled again when they are properly chilled and used to make another batch of tartlets.
Cut the gooseberries in half and arrange them cut side up on top of the pastry. It takes 7-8 halves to fill each tartlet depending on the size of the berries.
Sprinkle a scant teaspoon of the sugar over the berries in each tartlet and bake straight away for about 20 minutes, until the sugar begins to caramelise and the pastry is a deep golden colour.
While the tartlets are baking, line a heatproof tray with parchment paper and sprinkle a thin layer of sugar over the paper. Remove the tartlets from the oven and transfer them from the bun pan to the sugared baking paper while still hot. Arrange on a pretty plate and serve warm with softly whipped cream.
From Ballymaloe Desserts by JR Ryall published by Phaidon