Valentine’s Day Sweet Pastry Raspberry Tarts

As Valentine’s Day draws nearer I’m full of ideas for topical bakes – top of the list today was these little raspberry tarts shaped (adorably) like hearts!

I don’t know about you but the smell of baking makes a home feel cosy so what better way to set the mood for a cosy Valentine’s night in with a bit of tasty romance?

So without further ado, here’s the recipe…

Enjoy!

Ingredients – Sweet Pastry (makes 3-4 tarts)

225g Plain Flour

110g Butter

80g Sugar

1 Large Egg

Ingredients – Filling

100ml Crème Fraîche

45g Caster Sugar

Juice from 1/2 a Lemon

1 box of Raspberries

2 tblsp Raspberry Jam

Method – for the pastry cases 

Cube the butter and mix with the flour and crumb together with your hands until evenly mixed.

Add in the sugar to the mix and stir in.

Crack the egg into the mix and blend it all together until you have a firm dough.

I’ve used small heart shaped silicone moulds for this, however you could use any kind of tart tin, just scale up the portions accordingly and if you use a metal mould make sure to grease the tin!

Take a section of the pastry dough and press it with your fingers into the tart mould making sure to get it up the sides and into the corners.

With a fork pierce the bottom of the pastry a few times, this will stop the pastry puffing up and changing shape.

Cover each mould with baking paper and use ceramic beads to weigh the paper down into the corners and onto the base of the pastry.

Blind bake these for 15-30 minutes depending on the thickness of your base, and then uncover and bake again for 5 minutes until the pastry is hard and going golden brown.

Remove the pastry from the moulds and leave to cool. Trim the edges if needed.

Method – for the filling 

Add the crème fraîche, lemon juice and sugar into a mixing bowl and whisk until it has thickened slightly.

Spoon this into the pastry cases until the bottoms are covered.

Cut each raspberry in half and place carefully in the pastry case (don’t worry if the creme filling can be seen as this will be covered by the glaze).

For the glaze heat the raspberry jam in a sauce pan and then sieve this into a bowl to get the seeds out.

Use a pastry brush or spoon and cover the raspberries, making certain to fill in the gaps in between each piece.

My pastry  hearts might not be the most perfect, but they’re home made with love and that’s really what Valentine’s Day is all about…

Cliona xox