Gooseberry and Elderflower Fool Tarts

I love this time of year for two reasons: Rhubarb and Gooseberries. My favourite way to eat both of these sharp sour fruits (yes, I do know rhubarb is technically a vegetable) is puréed and stirred into custard and whipped cream to make a Fool.

But all that creaminess need the contrast of something crisp – shortbread or other biscuits alongside are great, but as it's shortcrust pastry month, I decided to try encasing it in a pastry shell.

I made these tarts in a mini muffin tin I found in a charity shop. They would make excellent dessert canapés, but as I have never had the occasion to serve dessert canapés, I ate them for breakfast instead. They were delicious.



Things I have learnt from making these tarts...

These are best served as individual tarts as the filling will not hold it's shape when sliced. Although I used a mini muffin tin, larger muffin tins or individual tart tins would also work very well.

In the original recipe the elderflower cordial was cooked with the gooseberries, and this meant most of the flavour disappeared. I've altered the recipe so its added after the purée is cooked, which requires less cordial to get a good elderflower flavour.

The roasted gooseberries are very sour, this contrasts the fool nicely but you only need one on a each tart of this size.

Gooseberry and elderflower fool tarts: makes 20 small tarts
(the fool was adapted from this recipe on the BBC Food website)

For the shortcrust pastry:
120g plain flour
a pinch of salt
60g butter
1½ tablespoons cold water

• Put the flour and salt into a food processor and whizz briefly to combine
• Cut the butter into chunks and pulse with the flour and sugar until it has the texture of breadcrumbs
• Slowly add the water and pulse briefly before tipping out onto a square of cling film and shaping into a round
• Chill the pastry for 15 minutes
• Preheat the oven to 180°C
• Roll the dough out to a few millimetres thick
• Cut out with a circle shaped cutter of the appropriate size for your tins
• Trim the excess pastry and prick the base of each pastry case with a fork
• Line each with foil and fill with a few baking beans
• Bake for 10 minutes before removing the foil and beans and baking for a further 10 minutes or until nicely golden brown and crisp
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool

For the gooseberry and elderflower fool:
450g gooseberries
2 tablespoon of light brown sugar
2-4 tablespoons elderflower cordial (to taste)
150ml cream
150ml fresh vanilla custard

• Top and tail all the gooseberries
• Take 100g of the prepared gooseberries and place in an oven proof dish
• Sprinkle with half the sugar and cover with foil
• Bake at 180°C for 10-15 minutes
• Put the remaining gooseberries in a saucepan with the remaining sugar and 1 tablespoon of water and simmer to a pulp
• Leave to cool to room temperature and add the cordial
• Whip the cream until it just holds it's shape and stir into the gooseberries
• Fold in the custard, leaving some swirls of the custard through the cream and gooseberries
• Dollop the gooseberry fool into the pastry cases and arrange some of the baked gooseberries over the top of each tart

Either serve immediately or chill in the fridge for up to 4 hours before serving