RECIPE
Yield: 5 tarts
SHORTCRUST PASTRY
250 g Plain Flour
80 g Icing Sugar
30 g Almond meal
150 g Unsalted Butter (Cold)
50 g/1 Whole Egg (Cold)
2 g Salt
1 Lime Zest
PASSIONFRUIT & MANGO CURD
100 g Whole Eggs
20 g Egg Yolks (Save the egg whites for the Italian Meringue)
40 g Passionfruit Puree
20 g Mango Puree
60 g Castor Sugar
60 g Unsalted butter - room temperature
ITALIAN MERINGUE
70 g Castor Sugar
20 ml Water
30 g Egg Whites
Method
For the Short Crust Pastry
1. Cut the cold butter in to small cubes. Place all the ingredients except the egg into a stand mixer bowl with a paddle attachment.
Note: Ensure that the butter is cold but not too solid. You should be able to press on to the butter without it melting in your hands.
If you do not have a stand mixer at home, you can do the short crust pastry by hand. Visit my post on "Sweet Short Crust - Rub in Method"
2. Mix the ingredients at low speed until it resembles a fine bread crumbs with no big chunks of butter present.
3. Add the cold egg in to the pastry mix and continue mixing until the mix just comes together and form in to a dough. Do not over mix!
4. Transfer the dough over a cling wrap and gently knead the dough with your hands until the come together, split the dough in to two portions, then flatten and wrap with the cling film and store in the fridge overnight or for at least 2 hours.
5. Remove the short crust from the fridge and leave at room temperature until it is soft enough to roll without breaking but not too soft that it is hard to handle.
Note: It is best to roll the dough while it is still slightly cold. As you roll the dough out it will soften further.
6. With the first batch of dough, roll it out to roughly 30 mm in thickness, then with the tart ring, cut out the base. Transfer the tart rings with the base on onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Continue this process for the rest of the tart rings.
7. With the other pastry dough, roll it out lengthwise so that it is long enough to go all around the border of the tart ring. Roll the dough until it is roughly around 20 mm to 30 mm in thickness. Cut the pastry in to strips, roughly around 2 cm width x 32 cm length. Line the strips around the border then gently press on to the sides of the rings and to the base of the tart base.
At this point, there should be some excess dough hanging off the rim of the tart rings.
Note: It is important that you do not grease your tart rings. Make sure that you press the two ends of the strips to seal and seal where the strips and base meets by pressing both ends gently to ensure that they stick.
8. Place the line tart shells in the fridge for 15 minutes or until the pastry have harden slightly.
9. Once the lined tart shells have rested, using a sharp pairing knife, trim off the excess dough. Par bake the tart shells in the oven for 7 minutes at 160°C.
At this point, the pastry will still look slightly pale. Remove the tarts from the oven,. Whilst the pastry is still slightly hot, gently press down the base and the sides that have puffed up then let it cool completely at room temperature.
10. Once the pastry have cooled completely, return the tarts, still in its rings, back in to the oven and bake for a further 20 to 25 minutes until they turn light golden in color.
Remove the tart shells from the oven and let it cool completely at room temperature. Set aside until ready to use.
Note: Baked tart shells can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. Simply defrost before using.
For the Passion fruit & Mango Curd
1. Place the passion fruit and mango puree into a saucepan and bring to a mere simmer.
Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk the egg, yolks and sugar together until well incorporated.
2. Stream in the hot purees in to the egg mix while continuously whisking, then transfer the curd mix back in to the sauce pan over low heat and keep cooking while whisking constantly until it turns in to a thick consistency or when you dip a wooden spoon into the curd and run a finger over it, the line stays.
3. Turn off the heat and transfer the curd into a deep jug and let it cool to 35°C.
Meanwhile, cut the room temperature butter in to small cubes.
4. Once the curd have cooled, place the butter cubes in 3 addition into the curd and stick blend until smooth.
5. Transfer the curd in to a pastry bag then pipe into the tart shells to the top. Tap the tarts gently to even out the curd then place the filled tarts in to fridge for the curd to fully set.
For the Italian Meringue
1. Place the water and sugar into a pot and bring to a boil until it reaches 115°C.
2. Meanwhile, place the egg whites into a stand mixer bowl with a whisk attachment and start whisking on low speed when the sugar reaches 110°C.
3. When the sugar syrup have reached the required temperature, turn off the heat and let the sugar syrup settle a little while turning up the the speed for the egg whites to medium. Once there are no watery egg whites present, turn the speed back to low then gradually stream in the hot syrup in to the egg whites.
Make sure that you do not aim the syrup on to the whisk as this can cause hot syrup splatter all over and can be quite dangerous.
If you have not made this meringue before, make sure you use a safe guard for this process.
4. Once all the syrup have been added, increase the mixer peed to high and keep whisking until the meringue are thick and do not run off the whisk when you try to scoop the meringue with the whisk.
Do not over whisk the meringue as this can cause the meringue to separate and turn in to lumps. The process should only take roughly around 2 to 3 minutes since it is a small amount.
5. Transfer the meringue in to a pastry bag with a petal tip then pipe on top of the set custard. Torch the meringue to toast then grate lemon zest on top, decorate and serve!
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