Portuguese Tarts

A couple of weeks ago now Boyfriend asked his brother over for dinner so I decided to make a recipe from Jamie's 30 Minute Meals book. I got this book at Christmas and me and Boyfriend take turns in picking a recipe for the other to cook. Most of the recipes in the book include a main, 1 or 2 side dishes and usually either a dessert of a drink / smoothie.

This time Boyfriend had chosen the Piri Piri Chicken with roasted peppers for me to make. And it turned out great, nice and spicy but so rich in flavour. I didn't make the potatoes suggested and just served it with rice and dressed salad. The dessert that was suggested with the recipe were Portuguese tarts. These were really easy to make, not the prettiest neatest of dessert but a really refreshing tasty little treat after dinner, and could be easily whipped up whilst dinner is cooking away. (Being a little treat meant I could eat 4 hehehe) The tarts comprise of a Cinnamon puff pasty case with a baked orange cream centre and an orange syrupy glaze. I love how easy they are to make an how once they're on the table they don't last very long before they're all scoffed.

And here are the tarts:

 Sorry about the terrible picture but have you ever tried taking a picture of a dessert when there's 2 hungry boys hovering around the table waiting to dig into their dinner (I couldn't get a picture of the chicken for that very reason) And here's how they're made.

I've doubled the recipe as there's no way you could just have 6 -  they would get eaten to fast hehe. Although I think you could get more than 12 out of this recipe ( if you have more pastry) as the mixture for the filling gives a generous amount.

Portuguese Tarts

Makes 12

Plain flour (for dusting)
1 x 375g pack of pre rolled puff pastry
Ground Cinnamon
250g Creme Fraiche
2 eggs 
2 tsp vanilla extract
10 tbsps Golden caster sugar
2 oranges

Preheat the oven to 200degC

Dust a clean surface with flour. Unroll the sheet of pastry and cut into two 20 x 20cm squares of pastry. Sprinkle the pastry with a few good pinches of cinnamon, then roll the pastry squares into sis roll shapes and cut each square into 6 rounds. Put these into 12 holes of a muffin / bun tin and use your thumbs to stretch and mould the pastry into the holes so the bottom is flat and the pasty comes up to the top to make a casing for the filling. Put on the top shelf of the oven and bake for 8 - 10 mins until lightly golden.

Spoon the creme fraiche into a bowl, add the eggs, 2 tbsp Golden caster sugar and the zest of the oranges. Mix well.

When the cases are baked, take them out of the oven and use a teaspoon to press the puffed up pastry back to the sides and make room for the filling. Spoon the filling mixture into the tart cases and return to the top shelf of the oven for about 8 mins.

Put a small saucepan on a high heat. Squeeze in the juice from the zested oranges and add 8 tbsps of golden caster sugar. Stir until it thickens and forms a syrupy caramel.

Pour some caramel over each tart (They'll still be wobbly but that's fine) Put aside to set and cool. Enjoy

And that's it.

Being Easter weekend I have a busy weekend of cupcake orders and baking ahead so I best get planning.

Till next time.

Cupcake Kris
xxxx