The seriously sweetest filled mini tarts recipe you can think of!

Mini tarts shells are so easy to make and versatile treats. Here’s our easy-to-follow recipe to impress guests the next time you are hosting!

Mini tart shells are amongst my favourite go-to recipes because they are so quick and easy and because I can pretty much fill these up with anything I like. I love a good contrast so most times I love filling half up with a white vanilla custard and the other half with chocolate. These go well as sweets on their own and are great at events as party food but also work great as top-tier treats for a home afternoon tea. 

We had quite a lot of Stork margarine left over from Whatsinstore and what better way to heat up a home, than turning on that oven to do some great home baking? We decided that contrasting the fillings was the way to go here especially since we would be adding them to our afternoon tea selection and presentation is SO important. We settled on vanilla custard and raspberry mini tarts and Novi CremaNovi mini tarts. A tiny hint here, the Novi CremaNovi tarts filling was just Novi CremaNovi meaning that less time was needed! We love that for when we are in a rush (which, admittedly is often). 

I’m going to be honest here. You can easily use a custard packet which requires you to heat after stirring in milk, but I wanted to make this from scratch. Truth be told, it tasted just like the vanilla custard packets you can find to buy at supermarkets but it actually didn’t take too long. I did make a lot more than I needed so I enjoyed the rest afterwards on its own as a dessert. I realise that I did miss the opportunity to make creamy vanilla rice custard. An idea for next time!

I’m going to start with the recipe for the mini shells first, and then we can discuss the fillings.

Ingredients:

200g plain flour
110g Stork margarine
75g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Method:

1. Sift the flour and salt in a large bowl
2. In another bowl, mix together the butter and icing sugar. Add in the egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract. Mix well.
3. Combine both mixtures and work until you get a dough. If needed, add another teaspoon of milk. 
4. Work the dough on a clean surface but be careful not to overwork the dough.
5. Form into a ball, wrap in cling film and leave to rest for 2 hours in the refrigerator.
6. When the dough has rested for 2 hours, preheat the oven to 180oC
7. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it rest on a counter for 5 minutes.
8. Roll out the dough to about half a centimeter in height
9. Cover mini bowls or shell moulds with butter and then line the moulds with dough.
10. Prick the dough in moulds with a fork
11. Bake for around 15 minutes until golden
12. Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from moulds.

Now for the fillings. 

Chocolate mini tarts filling

The chocolate mini tarts were filled with Novi CremaNovi. Simply add a generous amount to half of the mini tarts shells and top it off with a walnut.

Vanilla Custard mini tarts filling

Half of the tarts were filled with a homemade vanilla custard and topped with a raspberry.

Ingredients:

350ml milk
100ml Elmlea double cream
50g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
1.5 tbsp cornflour
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
Asiago raspberries (thawed)

Method:

1. Heat up the double cream and milk in a small pan just before it reaches boiling point.
2. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, cornflour, sugar and vanilla. Combine with the milk/cream mixture slowly whilst whisking.
3. Reheat combined mixture on low heat whilst stirring. Stop when custard is thick and before lumps are formed. 
4. When cool, fill the vanilla custard mixture into the remaining mini tart shells. Garnish with a raspberry on each vanilla tart.