Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Passionfruit Lemon Brulee Tarts


Inspired by a lovely brulee tart that I'd had in Australia, I'd set my mind to trying to re-create it. This tart is made of a biscuit-like shortcrust but the one I tried had a flaky texture to it that was even more yummy.


The first step was, I made flaky pastry tart shells and baked them blind, meaning, I weighed them down with beans (you can use pie weights or rice), then baked them so that they would rise but still stay flat and thickly layered.


When they cooled, we chopped up strawberries, layered these at the bottom of the tart and scooped the lemon-passionfruit cream into each. At the last stage, sprinkle white sugar on the surface of the tarts and using a flame torch, sear the sugar till it melts and browns.


These are best eaten when the sugar has just cooled enough to harden. The combination of the warm crackled caramelized surface, the cold tart cream, sweet strawberry pieces and the savoury flaky pastry is very good. Luckily my cousins were over that day and they helped out!


A word on packaging- I finally got to use the Martha Stewart boxes that I'd bought on sale on her website. The packaging materials, with the thin satin ribbon, coloured circle stickers and patterned parchment paper were so pretty, they were worth hoarding it for a year, I think!

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