Barquettes & Tartlets

Barquette tins are shaped like small gondola boats. Tartlets are round fancy moulds. They are easily available in the market. If you don’t find them you can use any ordinary tart moulds. I have used different shapes like you can see in the picture. I have a wonderful collection of these mini tart moulds in different shapes which are gifted to me by my sis-in-law. I adore those!

When you think of tarts the instant picture about them is something small filled with lemon curd or jam filling. I like to do alterations in the recipe and try to use non ordinary things to give it a not so common look or taste. They are as much fun to make as they are to nibble.

These tarts are homemade made out of scratch from short crust pastry dough. Its look is simple, its medley of textures is surprising and it’s taste the most important part is – sublime. I find short crust pastry the most easiest and less tricky of all the other pastries. It is surely less time consuming and less messy to handle while rolling out and shaping the dough. Of course one has to take certain precautions while handling the dough. In all these pastries only the ratio of flour and fat differs.

Barquettes & Tartlets filled with Cream Cheese Icing & Seedless Red Grape

Once your barquette shells are baked, rest them for quiet sometime until they are at room temperature. You can prepare your filling along side. You can either make sweet or savoury filling depending on the occasion and time. You can also prepare your pastry shells 2 days before the actual serving. I prefer to do that, so that you don’t have to do all at once on the same day. These tarts are a quickie.

These bite sized pieces are irresistible. I have filled them with a delicious cream cheese filling and studded them with a seedless red grape. You can use a slice of your favourite fruit. They look gorgeous and tastes heavenly. Similarly you can also stuff them with a savoury filling topped with cheese and they are perfect for a large gatherings. In no time they will vanish from the platter!

In my next post I will display how to decorate your cute pastry shells with savoury fillings and will give you more ideas about it. You can be creative and innovative with whatever things you have at home and sometimes surprise yourself. They are a lovely surprise treat to make as a gift for someone special.

Bye for now,

The Baker,

Chica's Bakehouse