Mini Fruit Tarts

This is my second pastry offering at my afternoon tea. They were a bit of a rush job and I didn't get as many photos as I wanted. I also ran out of time and only managed to glaze the strawberry tarts. I used Eric Lanlard's recipe for a sweet shortcrust pastry and also used the same creme patissiere as for the mini eclairs. The tarts were blind baked then filled with creme patissiere and topped with fresh fruit. They were really tasty little bites and my guests were impressed that I made my own pastry. 

As before, I'm sending this to the Pastry Challenge hosted by Jen from Jen's Food and Lisa from United Cakedom.

 rub flour and butter together then add in the sugar. Make a well in the centre..

 ... add in the egg and knead until you form a soft dough. Place in the fridge for about 30 mins 

 I couldn't find my other pastry cutters and only had 1 size with a straight edge! 

 ready to blind bake the pastry 

 mini fruit tarts 

Mini Chocolate Eclairs

Morning everyone. How was your weekend? I had a busy one with friends visiting both days. On Saturday, I hosted an afternoon tea party for some friends. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to bake anything during the week and was out late on Friday. So in Great British Bake Off style, I had 3 and a bit hours to bake a Victoria sponge, earl grey tea biscuits, mini eclairs, mini fruit tarts and plain scones. I was a little worried about the time management but also about the pastry bakes as frankly I'm scared of pastry! Somehow I managed to pull it off and we had a lovely afternoon tea. 

I've made choux pastry once a few years ago and not tried it again since so I was a little apprehensive. I followed a recipe by Eric Lanlard and it worked beautifully. The choux pastry was light and crispy and the creme patissiere was divine. As I was in a hurry, I didn't have time to set the chocolate which is why it looks so shiny and messy in the photos. I just poured some melted chocolate on top of each eclair and served it. My guests said they've never had eclairs with a warm chocolate topping before and it made for quite messy eating but it was absolutely delicious. 

I'm sending this to the Pastry Challenge hosted by Jen from Jen's Food and Lisa from United Cakedom. 

I'm also sending these to Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from the Baking Explorer. The theme this month is Mum. My mum lives abroad so I'm not able to send these to her but she loves eclairs so I know how much she will love these. I'm definitely baking these for her when she next visits and I'm sure she will be impressed! 

 

 melt butter and water then add in the flour all at once and stir 

 The dough should come together and look like this. Allow to cool for a few minutes. 

 beat in the eggs one at a time. Drizzle in the second egg as you may not need all of it. 

 choux pastry! 

I didn't have time to draw lines so I just piped these free hand 

 fresh from the oven

 making the creme patissiere

 

I used the recipe from Eric Lanlard's book Home Bake page 214. You can find similar recipes online such as this one which also has a very helpful video. He tells you the ingredients at the beginning of the video which is different to what is typed underneath!