Mini Blackberry Tarts

I love cooking and baking with seasonal fruit and veg, and one of my favorite things is making berry tarts with seasonal berries. In September or just the beginning of October I love to go picking wild blackberries to make a tart or mini tarts. Last weekend I was out walking in Bohernabreena reservoir in south county Dublin, where the bushes are teaming with blackberries at this time of year and i got lots of juicy blackberries to make some tarts.

You can either make a full tart or make mini tarts.  I prefer mini tarts because you can eat them on the go or pack them for lunch, and also they are easier to freeze.  If you don't have enough blackberries, you can mix it with an apple which also tastes great.

For a large tart or mini tart I use my recipe for sweet Shortcut Pastry.

Ingredients

For the pastry

250g plain flour

pinch of salt
50g caster sugar

140g butter (like Kerry gold, if you use salted butter you don't need to add extra salt) 

2 egg yokes

1 ¹⁄₂ tsp water

For the filling
150/200g Blackberries or apple/blackberry mix
30g caster sugar
a little water

Method 

1. Grease your tart tin and preheat your oven to 220c.
2. Sift the flour into a bowl,  add the salt. Cut up the butter into small cubes and rub into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Next using a fork mix in the egg and water until it holds together and forms a ball, add extra water if necessary.
4. Roll the dough out on a clean floured surface and kneed gentle. 
5. Wrap dough in clingfilm and chill for an hour before using. 
6. Meanwhile prepare your filling. Wash your blackberries well, and add to a pot with the sugar and about 2 tablespoons of water and stew on a low heat for about 15 minutes until the blackberries have broken down but you still have loads of texture. If you are doing half and half blackberries and apple, the same applies. Peal and cut your apple and cut it into small squares, add it to the blackberries, sugar and water mix and stew on low heat for a similar time or until fruit is soft but retains some texture.
7. After chiling roll out your dough on a well floured surface, using a round pastry cutter cut out your rounds and place them into the individual tart moulds in your tart tin. Leave a little dough aside if you want to make a top or a lattice shape as I did here. To make the lattice shape just cut thin strips of dough to decorate in a criss cross manner.
8. Now add a heaped spoonful of our stewed blackberries to each mini tart. Criss cross the pastry stripes over top to form a lattice shape or you can add a lid or even leave open.
9. Brush over each mini pastry case with an egg wash and place in the oven for 15 minutes, checking after 12 minutes. Take them out when they are lonely and golden brown.
10. Allow them to cool for about 10 minutes in the tart pan before turning out.