These tartlets are summer on a plate. A few years ago when I was staying in Hobart, Tasmania I discovered lemon verbena. My friend Marion grows it in her garden as a straggly bush. In summer she picks the leaves and places them in hand thrown bowls her mother makes. The leaves dry in the warm air and fill her spacious, weatherboard house with a fresh lemony scent which smells clean and welcoming.
When I returned to the UK I found a pot of this herb in a garden centre for £3.50. It thrives so long as I protect it from any hard winter frosts. I use the small, vivid green sword shaped leaves for three things: I grind them with granulated sugar to make a bright green sherbet which I sprinkle on summer fruit; I douse it in boiling water to make a refreshing tisane and, like my friend Marion I dry the leaves to keep the air in the house smelling clean and fresh.
I have been making elderflower champagne this week - buckets of it - to be ready for start of the Tour de France which will race past the end of the road where I live in Ilkley twice over the weekend of the 5th and 6th July. I saved some of the beautiful lacy flowers to adorn these blackcurrant and lemon verbena tartlets. The combination of blackcurrant, lemon verbena and elderflower is heaven. If you don't have lemon verbena you must try and gets some but in the meantime mint would work really well.
Makes 10 tartlets
Sweet pastry
- 165g plain flour
- 50g icing sugar
- 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
- pinch of salt
- 90g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 1 small egg yolk
- 1 - 3 tbsp cold water
Mascarpone cream
- 100g mascarpone cheese
- 100g crème fraîche
- ½ tsp vanilla essence
- zest from half a lemon
- 10 - 20g icing sugar
Filling
- 100g blackcurrants - fresh or frozen
- 50g raspberries
- 3 tbsp apricot jam
- small bunch of lemon verbena leaves (or mint)
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp toasted pistachio nuts, chopped finely
- a few elderfowers to decorate but lavender would be lovely too
Place the flour, icing sugar, lemon zest, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse the ingredients until they resemble coarse breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and water and process until the mixture starts to come together (about 20 seconds). Empty the contents of the food processor bowl onto a cold surface and bring the pastry together with your hands, kneading it gently to form a ball. Cover in clingfilm and allow to rest in the fridge for half an hour.
To make the tartlet cases
Preheat the oven to 150C/Gas mark 2
Roll the pastry as thin as you dare - 3 or 4mm is perfect. Cut circles of pastry with a pastry cutter. Place each circle of pastry in a buttered tartlet tins approximately 6 cm in diameter and 3 - 4 cm deep and line with a circle of silicone paper (muffin cases work well here) and fill with baking beans. Allow the tarts to rest in the fridge for a further ten minutes, if you have time. Remove from the fridge and bake the tarts for about 25 minutes or until they begin to brown slightly. Remove from the oven and cool.
For the mascarpone cream
Place the mascarpone cheese, crème fraîche, lemon zest, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl and loosen with a whisk and then beat, as you would double cream, until it thickens.
For the blackcurrant filling
Place the blackcurrants and raspberries in a small saucepan with a couple of teaspoons of water and a tiny sprinkle of sugar. Heat gently until the blackcurrants just begin to soften. Place the apricot jam with a two teaspoons of water in a small bowl and heat in a microwave for 10 seconds to liquefy. Grind the lemon verbena leaves with the granulated sugar and allow to dry for a few minutes in the warm air of the kitchen.
To assemble the tarts
Three quarter fill each cooked and cooled tartlet with mascarpone cream. Top with the cooked blackcurrants and raspberry and brush with a little apricot jam glaze. Sprinkle with a little lemon verbena sugar. I tried to create a halo around the edge of the tartlet but I was not quire skilled enough to pull that off. Scatter with a few toasted pistachio nuts and some tiny elderflowers.
