Mini, Open Apple and Elderflower tarts

With summer finally gracing us with her presence, I am eagerly anticipating spending several afternoons, when the sun is shining, gathering elderflowers to make cordial and hopefully elderflower champagne, which our colleague Simon (of Simons lemoncello cake ) has very kindly given us a recipe for.

Apparently, the trick for gathering elderflowers is to wait for a really sunny day, so the flowers are fully open, before going to pick them. It is the first time I will be attempting to make both; so I will let you know how they turn out.

Until I am lucky enough to have some of the homemade cordial to use in this recipe, the supermarket does stock some lovely brands of the syrupy goodness in the juice section.

I have chosen to serve these as mini desserts; the prep is simple and can be done a day in advance, but you could also serve this as one large tart. Simply blind bake your pastry in your desired tart tin, before making up half of the apple/elderflower mixture below. Meanwhile, finely slice an additional 3 -4 apples, before following step 4 below.

I cheated and used store-bought pastry, but there is a great pastry recipe here if you have the time.

Ingredients

serve 6

• Apple and Elderflower mixture
• 3 red apples, cored and diced (skin on)
• 1 knob of butter
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup elderflower cordial
• ½ cup of water

• Additionally
• 3 sheets of sweet, short crust pastry (cut into your desired shapes)
• 200ml creme fraiche, to serve
• 6-8 strawberries finely sliced, to serve.

Method

• -
• Preheat your oven to 170ºC on pastry bake (or bake if you don't have this function)
• 1. Place the diced apples, butter, vanilla, cordial and water into a saucepan and allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the apple is tender and the liquid has reduced to a syrupy consistency
• 2. Meanwhile blind bake your pastry shapes (or your tart shell) for around 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Allow to cool.
• 3. To assemble the mini desserts, simply place a spoonful of the apple/elderflower mixture onto the pastry, and top with a small dollop of crème fraiche and a slice of strawberry to finish. Serve immediately.
• 4. To assemble the full tart, place the finely sliced apples into the tart shell and spoon over the apple/elderflower mixture, ensuring it fills all the gaps – bake for a further 20-30 minutes until the mixture has started to set and then allow to cool before serving