Strawberry Mascarpone Tarts

There are some instances in life when I am scared of what the result will be. Each time I get a uni result back I work up the courage to open the email or paper to see what I was given. Sometimes when I receive an email it may sit unread for a little while till I decide whether or not I want to read what someone is telling me. There are times I take a photo and it may sit unlooked at on my computer for a day or two till I decide I want to see if it turned out how I imagined it in my head.

So why I am telling you this? The Friday just gone I spent the afternoon in a flurry in the kitchen making a myriad of things. I made a big batch (11 servings) of Pumpkin Soup to put in the freezer so I can take a packet out when I want soup for lunch, Chocolate Puddings for dessert (Friday was Mum’s 55th birthday) as well as Strawberry Mascarpone Tarts. In addition to the three different types of meringues I had made the night before with the extra egg whites from the Chocolate Puddings.

The Strawberry Mascarpone Tarts were either going to be a flop, so-so or a success I had no idea how they would turn out as there were a few firsts involved in the tarts. First time using Filo pastry, first time using mascarpone and I was really making the recipe up on the fly. In fact they stayed untouched for 42hrs before I took the step to try one. It was soooo nice. Not too heavy but not too light. Not too sweet but still sweet enough. Just Right!

If they were a flop you wouldn’t be hearing about them. Once I had wolfed down the one I had grabbed for morning tea, I rushed round the house getting my camera gear, setting up my little studio and “styling” the shot.

24 days ago I saw a post on Lex Culinaria for Cherry and Lemon Cream cheese Tartlets, I loved the idea of using Filo pastry for the shells. Shortly around this time also, the Filo pastry we sell in the freezer section at work was deleted which meant that the price went from $3.69 to $1.49. I was not going to put off making something with Filo now. The strawberry season for SE QLD started the other week and since it has been quite dry (rain, what is that?) the strawberries are fantastic, red all the way through and sweet. This of course means that strawberries would be the fruit of choice to go with the tarts I was dreaming up in my head.

I am essentially a shelf packing machine at work and I will often be packing something away and my brain will start turning with ideas of what I could make the item. Since I am mainly a shelf packing machine in the Dairy/Freezer section (Dairy Fairy is the correct term thank-you) I have often looked at the ricotta and mascarpone as I have packed it and thought of what I could do. As life would have it, when I was at the shops getting fresh eggs and caster sugar to make meringues, I saw a tub of mascarpone reduced to clear in the dairy. Well that went into my basket and I headed on my merry way home.

This isn’t really a scientific recipe, in fact most of the things I make that are not following a recipe I just add in the amount that feels, looks or tastes right.

Strawberry Mascarpone Tarts
250g Mascarpone
1 egg
1 tbsp caster sugar
2 or 3 tbsp honey
dollop of vanilla
2 maybe 3 tbsp plain flour
4 sheets Filo Pastry
strawberries, cream and icing sugar to serve.

Preheat oven to 160 °C.
Beat the egg and sugar for a few seconds until well mixed. Add the mascarpone and beat till it is creamy. Add the honey and vanilla and beat in as well. How much flour you add really depends on how runny your mixture is, I just added a tablespoon at a time until it had a nicer consistency.

Grease a muffin tray. Lay out the four sheets of filo pastry and cut the stack into squares that large enough to fit your muffin pans. Depending on how large your sheets are you may need more sheets to make enough cases for the tarts. Place the stacks of pastry in the muffin pans and fill with the mascarpone mixture. For me the mixture gave me enough to make 8 tarts.

Place the muffin tray in the oven and cook until a fork comes out of the mixture clean. I have no idea how long these took to cook as I was busy doing other things – I would say 10-15 minutes but it could have been less. Allow tarts to cool on the bench, then remove from the pans and chill in the fridge till serving time.

Serve with cream and strawberries, dust with icing sugar.

Something else you may have noticed, at the bottom of each post I have added a “Print This Post” link which will give you a printer friendly version of the post.