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Mini Fruit Tart Canapés with Creme Patissiere
Delicious sweet canapés that are easy to make. Make creme patissiere beforehand, and use bought pastry cases. Assemble and serve on the day.
Servings: 24 tarts
Ingredients
Creme Patissiere
- 250 ml full fat milk
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3 egg yolks
- 45 g caster sugar
- 10 g plain flour
- 10 g cornflour
Tartlets
- 24 mini pastry cases
- soft fruit
Instructions
To Make the Creme Patissiere
- In a saucepan on a low heat, warm the milk and vanilla. Heat gently until the liquid is just simmering.
- In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and flours with an electric whisk until pale and creamy.
- Add one third of the hot milk mixture to the egg, flour and sugar. Whisk together.
- Add the resulting mixture to the rest of the milk in the saucepan. Heat gently, stirring all the time until the custard is thick and coats the back of a wooden spoon.
- Allow the custard to cool. Store in the fridge, either in a piping bag or with cling film pressed to the surface, until you are ready to assemble the mini fruit tarts.
To Assemble the Mini Fruit Tarts
- Fill the tart cases with the creme patissiere.
- Top the tartlets with soft fruit. Garnish with mint leaves and serve immediately.
Notes
Hints & Tips for Creme Patissiere
- If you don't have full fat milk use (semi) skimmed with a splash of cream.
- You get what you pay for with vanilla. I like the paste, but you can also infuse pods in the milk for a few hours before starting to make the creme patissiere. Always use vanilla extract. Avoid vanilla essence, which uses artificial flavours.
- Use a silicon spatula when heating the creme patisserie. Keep scraping the sides, corners and bottom of the pan, as the custard will be thicker closer to the heat.
- Creme patissiere thickens quite fast. If lumps form, just whisk again.
- Creme patissiere gets thicker as it cools so don't be tempted to carry on heating past the recommended point.
- Creme patissiere keeps for two days in fridge. To minimise mess on the day of serving, pop straight into a piping bag and store in the fridge with the end clipped. When you are ready to fill the mini fruit tarts, snip off the end and go. Alternatively, store in the fridge in a box or bowl with cling film pressed to surface of the custard to stop a skin forming.
- Freeze leftover egg whites for meringues and macarons. Use a scrupulously clean air tight container and make sure that you don't get any egg yolk in with them. Alternatively, you can use them fresh for a low-fat omelette.
- Canape cases are your best friend. We love the light, thin ones – crunchy and bite sized. Canapes must be bite sized.
- You can glaze your fruit tartlets with apricot jam – but we prefer them without.
- Serve with some fresh mint leaves for flavour and appearance. (You can dust them with a little icing sugar if you like.)
- Assemble within an hour of serving for best effect.
- Make them more special by brushing insides of canape cases with melted chocolate. (Do this in advance, when you make the creme patissiere.)
- This recipe is 1 Weight Watchers Smart Point per portion
• Please note that the nutrition information provided below is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
• Unless stated otherwise cup conversions have been made with an online tool. For accuracy please check with your favoured conversion tool. We recommend buying inexpensive digital kitchen scales.
Calories: 35kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 25mg | Sodium: 6mg | Potassium: 16mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 49IU | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 1mg