These very easy fruit tarts use sweet shortcrust pastry which is similar to a basic biscuit, they work well with rhubarb and gooseberries.
Ingredients: for 6 small tarts
Pastry: 225g plain flour
125g butter, cold and cubed
125g caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
Filling: 400g gooseberries
75g caster sugar
1 tablespoon elderflower cordial
Glaze:
1 egg white
2 tablespoons demerara sugar
How to make Gooseberry Tart…. WASH YOUR HANDS
1. Preheat the oven to 200oc/gas 6/AGA Roasting oven.
2. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. You can use a food processor for this or a child if you can get them way from the WII or Minecraft.
3. Stir in the sugar and add the egg, a little at a time to the mixture and use the knife to ‘cut’ and stir into the dry mixture, keep adding egg until the mixture forms a soft dough. Wrap the pastry in cling film and pop it into the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Mix the gooseberries with the caster sugar and elderflower cordial.
5. Dust a clean, flat work surface with flour, or use a piece of baking parchment, split the dough into 6 pieces, roll each piece of dough into a ball and flatten it with your hands. Grease the baking tray and carefully lay each pastry shape onto the tray with gaps between them, or you can just put the baking parchment straight onto the baking tray.
6. Pile the gooseberries onto the pastry sheets, splitting them equally between the rounds, pull up the edges slightly to make a crust, brush the pastry edges with egg white and sprinkle with demerara suggar.
7. Bake for around 10-15 minutes until the pastry is golden brown. (AGA roasting oven – baking tray on oven floor for 10-12 minutes).
If you would like to make Rhubarb Tart instead, substitute the Filling for 400g chopped rhubarb, 75g caster sugar, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, grated zest of an orange, mix these together in a bowl at stage 4. and continue as before.
