Hi Anna, I thought I would let you know I have made this twice now, and the second time I made three versions. I found that the dough came together before adding any egg, because it was so buttery, so I couldn’t keep any crumbs or small lumps for the topping. After the first one, which I made as you suggested without a pre-bake, I thought I would try for a crisper crust second time around. The filling was very juicy. So I chilled the bottom crusts (to avoid butter leakage) after pressing them into the tins, and then baked them uncovered and unfilled for about 20 minutes. I then filled them with the cooled fruit filling and grated the chilled last third of the dough through a box grater over the top . That gave the tarts a good crisp shell and an attractive crumbly top which I was really happy with. Regarding the fillings, strawberries with lemon and sumac was delicious, and a great way to add some zing to lacklustre strawberries (mine were extremely dull). I found there was so much juice I had to remove the strawberry pieces as you suggested, then throw in some small tapioca pearls and boil the juices down hard to reduce them before adding the strawberry pieces back in. The crust also worked very well with a mixed berry and cherry filling (also very juicy so added some little tapioca pearls there too) and a roast apricot and redcurrant filling.
I love how you adapted and played with this recipe! When developing the recipe, I played around with the idea of blind baking the crust but most iterations called for just the one bake (I think because of the rustic-ness of the recipe), but I'm so glad to know that worked for you for future reference :)
Adding tapioca pearls to thicken the juices is such a smart idea! And I love your flavor combinations. My absolute favorite thing about recipe writing is when people make the recipes and adapt them to make them their own so you just made my day by sharing this with me :) Thank you so much!
Hi Anna, I thought I would let you know I have made this twice now, and the second time I made three versions. I found that the dough came together before adding any egg, because it was so buttery, so I couldn’t keep any crumbs or small lumps for the topping. After the first one, which I made as you suggested without a pre-bake, I thought I would try for a crisper crust second time around. The filling was very juicy. So I chilled the bottom crusts (to avoid butter leakage) after pressing them into the tins, and then baked them uncovered and unfilled for about 20 minutes. I then filled them with the cooled fruit filling and grated the chilled last third of the dough through a box grater over the top . That gave the tarts a good crisp shell and an attractive crumbly top which I was really happy with. Regarding the fillings, strawberries with lemon and sumac was delicious, and a great way to add some zing to lacklustre strawberries (mine were extremely dull). I found there was so much juice I had to remove the strawberry pieces as you suggested, then throw in some small tapioca pearls and boil the juices down hard to reduce them before adding the strawberry pieces back in. The crust also worked very well with a mixed berry and cherry filling (also very juicy so added some little tapioca pearls there too) and a roast apricot and redcurrant filling.
I love how you adapted and played with this recipe! When developing the recipe, I played around with the idea of blind baking the crust but most iterations called for just the one bake (I think because of the rustic-ness of the recipe), but I'm so glad to know that worked for you for future reference :)
Adding tapioca pearls to thicken the juices is such a smart idea! And I love your flavor combinations. My absolute favorite thing about recipe writing is when people make the recipes and adapt them to make them their own so you just made my day by sharing this with me :) Thank you so much!