A seasonal treat using freshly picked blackberries and apples, but these are also great swapping the apples for pears or using different berries.
I love a fruity tart and these mini blackberry and apple tarts are made with a slightly sweetened nutty pastry and topped with an almondy frangipane sponge.
The cream and fondant icing on top of some of mine in the photos are totally optional as these tarts are delicious with just the frangipane sponge topping.
The almond extract in the frangipane and the pastry adds a wonderful intensity of almonds, but you can leave it out if you wish. If you don’t want to make the pastry you can use a good quality bought shortcrust pastry.
As I have done with some of the tarts, you can camp them up by piping cream on top of them (once fully cooled down) or even spooning over a thick fondant icing*. Or a bit of both as in the photos below, which has a bit of a retro vibe.
*For a simple fondant icing, mix fondant icing sugar with enough blackberry purée to give a thick, glossy icing. I simply press a few blackberries through a sieve and straight onto the icing sugar.
I love to eat the plain ones slightly warmed up, with pouring cream or custard but they are delicous eaten as they are at room temperature.
But whether plain or iced, warmed up or at room temperature, these fruit tarts are sure to be devoured in no time!
Recipe: blackberry & apple frangipane tarts – makes about 16
Pastry (or use about 250g bought shortcrust pastry):
- 150g plain flour
- 75g unsalted butter, in smallish pieces
- generous pinch of salt
- 20g caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 30g walnuts, crushed finely, or use ground almonds
- cold water to mix
Filling:
- 2 small apples, peeled, cored and chopped into small cubes
- about 150g blackberries, halved if they are too big
- juice of half a lime
- 1 teaspoon caster sugar
Frangipane topping:
- 1 medium egg
- 50g unsalted butter, softened
- 50g self-raising flour
- 50g caster sugar
- 50g ground almonds
- 20ml milk
- 1 teaspoon almond extractYou will need 2 mince pies tin either lightly greased or, as I have done, use small foil tart tins (about 7cm top diameter) popped in there, and circular pastry cutters.
(1) Make the pastry: add the flour, salt, sugar, walnuts and butter to a food processor and pulse gently to break up the butter so the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add a couple of tablespoons cold water and pulse again, adding a little more water at a time just until it comes together to give a soft but not sticky dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill at least 30 minutes.
(2) Roll out the pastry thinly and cut out circles to line small mince pie tins or the foil tins. Chill until needed.
NB: if using foil tins, I use cutters about 8cm in diameter, place the cut-out pastry on top of a foil tin and lightly press a foil tin onto this: you get a cleaner finish.
(3) Mix the prepared apples with the lime and sugar and add a teaspoon or so to the pastry bases. Top with a few of the blackberries. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160C (fan).
(4) Make the frangipane: add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl and beat well until it becomes a smooth. Spoon on top of the apples and blackberries, smoothing gently around the edges: you don’t have to be too precise here as the sponge will settle naturally in the oven.
(5) Bake for 20 minutes or until the sponge is a light golden-brown and you can see a little of the filling bubbling through in places. Cool in the trays.
