Tiny Apple and Elderflower tarts

Photographer: Adam
serve 6

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

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