Delightful mini fruit tarts or tartlets with cream cheese filling and lots of berries. A very easy to make dessert, perfect for any kind of celebration.
These miniature tarts are too good (and pretty) to be true!
Berries of choice and a creamy, wonderful cream cheese filling. Fresh and fruity, if it wasn’t for the pie shells that hold everything together, you wouldn’t even know that you were eating cake.
How to make mini fruit tarts?
Making pastry for tarts might seem like a difficult task, but it really isn’t. Especially if you have a food processor, which makes the whole affair a joke. And a kitchen scale is pretty important too, it will make sure that everything goes well.
Actually a super easy recipe, a tart shell recipe I use most of the time. You can fill the shells not only with this delicious cream cheese and fruit filling, but also make white chocolate raspberry tartlets, blueberry tarts, lemon curd tarts or any kind of mini-tarts or pies you like.
You can use the same recipe to make one pie shell for a regular-sized pie as well.
- Roll the pastry, place it in a pie tin and bake blind at 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 -25 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove the beans and the paper and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes if the shell doesn’t have the right color yet. Let cool and fill.
Tart shells:
- Make sure that the butter is very cold when you add it to the rest of the ingredients, you can even chop it in small pieces, place the pieces on a plate and the plate in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Place the flour, sugar, lemon zest, and salt in the food processor, pulse to mix.
- Add the very cold cubed butter, and process until the mixture is crumbly, you should still have some small butter pieces visible.
- Add the yolk and the water and mix shortly until the dough comes together.
- Turn the pastry onto the working surface and knead lightly, for just a few seconds, to form a smooth disc. Divide the pastry into two portions, wrap each portion in plastic foil and refrigerate until needed.
If you make the pastry without the food processor:
- Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the cold butter cubes and cut the butter into the flour with a knife or mix with your fingertips.
- Add the yolk and the water and mix shortly until the dough comes together.
- Your hands should be cold when handling the pastry and you should only use the fingertips and not the palms of your hands.
- To make sure that the hands are cold, hold them under cold water and dry them.
Filling:
- Mix the cream cheese with a whisk to loosen it up.
- Add crème fraiche, vanilla, and icing sugar and whisk until the cream thickens again.
- Fill the cases with the cream and arrange the berries on top.
- Dust with icing sugar if you wish.
Can I use bought pastry?
- Of course, you can use bought sweet pastry. Roll and bake as instructed.
- You can also use ready-made pastry shells as well.
Can I make the tartlets in advance?
- First of all, you can make the pastry in advance and refrigerate it for up to one week or freeze it for up to one month. I had it frozen for longer as well, it was still great.
- And you can definitely make the tart shells one day in advance. Let them cool and keep them at room temperature until ready to fill.
- The filling can be mixed a few hours in advance. Keep it in a covered bowl in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- You should only fill the tartlets with the filling and top with the berries shortly before serving, up to 3-4 hours would be fine.
- Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
The recipe was adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s book “The Cookbook”. He used mascarpone instead of cream cheese, but I prefer cream cheese, it tastes lighter and fresher.
More pies?
HOMEMADE TREACLE TART RECIPE – Harry Potter’s favorite dessert. A very simple recipe with golden syrup, fresh breadcrumbs, and lemon juice.
RHUBARB TART – German rhubarb meringue pie, this rhubarb pie is the best ever!!!
BERRY CRUMBLE PIE WITH BLACKBERRIES – The easiest berry crumble pie recipe you could make.
STRAWBERRY RHUBARB PIE WITH ALMOND STREUSEL – Strawberries and rhubarb, this is the perfect pie recipe to celebrate spring.
MINCEMEAT TARTS – Flaky mincemeat tarts filled with the most delicious mince filling I can imagine.
Mini Fruit Tarts
Ingredients
- Tart shells:
- 165 g/ 5.8 oz/ 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 50 g/ 1.7 oz/ ½ cup icing sugar
- ¼ teaspoon grated lemon zest
- pinch of salt
- 90 g/ 3.2 oz/ 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter
- a very small egg yolk
- ½ to 1 tablespoon cold water
- Filling:
- 220 g/ 7.8 oz/ 1 cup cream cheese
- 220 g/ 7.8 oz/ 1 cup crème fraiche
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 50 g/ 6 tablespoons icing sugar + extra for dusting
- about 300 g/ 10.5 oz berries of choice
Instructions
Tart shells:
- Dough: Place the flour, icing sugar, lemon zest, salt, and butter in the food processor and process until you get a coarse mixture that resembles breadcrumbs; you should still have some small butter pieces visible.Add the yolk and the ½ tablespoon water and mix shortly until the dough comes together. Only add more water if necessary; the pastry should hold together when you pinch it.
- Refrigerate: Turn the pastry onto the working surface and knead lightly to form a smooth disc for just a few seconds, to form a smooth disc. Divide the pastry into two portions, wrap each piece in plastic foil and refrigerate until needed. It will keep for a week in the fridge and a month in the freezer.Brush the muffin tin with melted butter, place the tin in the fridge and leave to set for about 30 minutes.
- Roll: Dust the working surface with very little flour. Take one portion of the wrapped pastry out of the fridge and divide it into 6 portions. Form 6 small balls and roll each one into a circle, about 2-3 mm thick and large enough to cover the bottom and the walls of the muffin tin. Repeat with the second portion of pastry.
- Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius/ 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Line each pastry shell with a paper muffin case, fill with dry beans or rice, and bake blind for about 25 minutes. Remove the beans/rice and the paper. The cases should be golden-brown. If they are not so yet, bake for another 5 to 10 minutes without beans and paper.
- Cool: Let the shells cool slightly but remove them from the muffin tin while still warm; they will slide out of the form. Place on a wire rack to cool completely, then fill.
Filling:
- Mix the cream cheese with a whisk to loosen it up. Add the crème Fraiche, vanilla extract, and icing sugar and whisk until the cream thickens again.
- Fill the cases with the cream and arrange the berries on top. Dust with icing sugar if you wish.