{"id":120,"date":"2011-08-06T16:10:58","date_gmt":"2011-08-06T23:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/?p=120"},"modified":"2011-08-06T16:10:58","modified_gmt":"2011-08-06T23:10:58","slug":"miniature-fruit-tarts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/archives\/120","title":{"rendered":"Miniature Fruit Tarts"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got some small tart pans 4.5 inches in diameter for my birthday, so naturally, I was excited. I love tarts. I also love miniature cakes and things like that, since you get the wonderful taste of the big version, just in a smaller package.<\/p>\n

So I tried using these small tart pans to make miniature fruit tarts this past weekend. Well, “miniature” is pushing it a bit, since they’re still half the diameter of the usual 9-inch tart. But they’re small nonetheless. I used the same recipe as for the big tarts I make.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0263\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Miniature Fruit Tarts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Makes four 4.5-inch tarts.<\/p>\n

Tart Crust<\/strong>
\n1 cup flour
\n1\/4 cup packed brown sugar
\n1\/2 cup butter<\/p>\n

Mix these together in a bowl, and then press into four 4.5-inch tart pans. Bake at 400F for about 9 minutes.<\/p>\n

Pastry Cream<\/strong>
\n2 cups milk
\n1\/4 cup sugar
\n2 egg yolks
\n1 egg
\n1\/4 cup cornstarch
\n1\/3 cup sugar
\n2 tablespoons butter
\n1 teaspoon vanilla extract<\/p>\n

Stir together the milk and 1\/4 cup of sugar in a saucepan until it comes to a boil. Put the egg yolks, egg, cornstarch, and 1\/3 cup sugar into a bowl, and whisk them together. Pour the boiling milk in a thin stream over the egg mixture, while you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re continuously stirring, so that the eggs don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t turn into scrambled eggs. Then after that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all mixed together, return the mixture to the saucepan, and bring to a boil while constantly stirring. The bottom can burn if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not stirring enough, so be careful. Once it comes to a boil, take it off the heat, and put in the butter and vanilla extract. Once those are stirred in, you can stick it in the fridge (with some plastic wrap over the surface so it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t form a skin) for a few hours until it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cool.<\/p>\n

Now you can assemble the tarts by putting a layer of pastry cream in each tart, and then topping each one with whatever fruit you like.<\/p>\n

For some reason, I decided to double the recipe, even though it wasn’t like there was double the number of people. I guess since I had six tart pans, I felt like I had to use them all at once…<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0257\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s what two sticks of butter with half a cup of brown sugar and two cups of flour look like.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0258\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The first six tart pans.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0259\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After baking. The small tart pans are shallower than the large ones, so the bottom of each tart is pretty thick in comparison to the entire tart.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0260\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s all nine of them. I should have ended up with eight, but somehow I ended up with an extra one.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0261\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The pastry cream. I also doubled the amount of pastry cream, which was too much.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0262\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Because the tarts were shallower, I wound up using only half the amount of pastry cream I made, which means I should’ve just made one recipe worth, not two.<\/p>\n

I put different fruit arrangements on each tart!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0264\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a simple one I made, just with blueberries.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0265\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One with kiwi and blueberries.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0266\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s one with strawberry slices. I tried making it into a flower-like pattern, but, as you can see, I failed miserably. The tart was too small to be able to make a nice center.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0267\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A strawberry spiral with a cluster of blueberries in the middle. The spiral turned out pretty well.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0268\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I made a strawberry wall around the edge of this one, with a layer of strawberries and a single kiwi slice in the middle.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0269\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I made some with mango slices, but since they were all about the diameter of the tart, they ended up not working too well. I just couldn’t do any spirals or anything pretty with the mango slices being what they were.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0270\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A ring of blueberries on the outside of this one, with overlapping kiwi slices. This is one of the designs I liked the best, with the overlapping spiral thing going on.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0271\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s another one with mango slices, but surrounded by blueberries. It’s Berkeley colors!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0272\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Strawberries with mango slices on top. Again, the mango slices don’t work too well…<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0263\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s all nine of them together. My favorite two are on the upper left side, with the spiral of kiwi slices and the spiral of strawberry slices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got some small tart pans 4.5 inches in diameter for my birthday, so naturally, I was excited. I love tarts. I also love miniature cakes and things like that, since you get the wonderful taste of the big version, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[38,53,22,94,36,21,35],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baking","tag-blueberries","tag-kiwis","tag-mangoes","tag-miniatures","tag-pastry-cream","tag-strawberries","tag-tarts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}