Tartlet snacks are an excellent way to serve a festive treat, decorate a New Year's table or a party, or solve the issue of individual serving of dishes at a buffet table. The filling for tartlets can be fish, meat, salad, vegetable, fruit or dessert.
Ready-made tartlets are sold in abundance in cookery and regular supermarkets. The sizes of the baskets vary from 2 cm in diameter (for caviar and pate) to 10 cm (for salads and hot snacks). The classic form of a tartlet is a basket with curly edges, but for special occasions cups in the shape of a turret, a boat are baked, for the New Year's table you can prepare tartlets in the shape of a herringbone or a star, and for a romantic dinner or Valentine's Day in the form of hearts.
DIY homemade tartlets
Depending on the intended filling, the dough can be made sweet, salty, savory (adding spices, herbs or cheese) and neutral. For an even golden color of baked goods, part of the wheat flour is replaced with corn flour.
For shortcrust pastry tartlets you will need:
- Flour 300 g
- Chicken egg and one yolk
- Butter 100 g
- Salt 1/4 teaspoon
Remove the oil from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before cooking, so it will be easier to chop. Sift flour into a deep plate, add salt. Divide the softened butter into small pieces and add to the flour. Rub the mixture with your hands until large crumbs form. Then add the egg and yolk, knead the dough until smooth, then roll it into a ball, wrap with cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Sprinkle flour on a table or cutting board and roll out the dough approximately 0.5 centimeters thick. With a glass, cut out circles with a diameter slightly larger than the tartlet molds. Iron baking dishes must be greased with sunflower oil; silicone molds do not require this. Place the dough in the molds, pressing it firmly to the bottom and sides. Bake the baskets in a preheated oven for 20 minutes at 180-200 degrees. The baked goods must be cooled well, then removed from the molds with a knife and filled with the filling. From this amount of products, you will get about 10-12 tartlets.
Sour cream dough tart recipe
- Pack of sour cream 100 g
- Butter 100 g
- Flour 0.5 kg
- Soda and vinegar 1/2 teaspoon each
In a deep bowl, sour cream, softened butter and soda quenched with vinegar are added to the sifted flour. The dough is kneaded, steep enough and put into the refrigerator for 30 minutes. The dough rolled out to a medium thickness (0.5 cm) is cut into circles and placed in oiled molds. In an oven preheated to 180 degrees, the tartlets are baked for 7-10 minutes until golden brown and crisp. The baskets should be removed from the mold after they have cooled completely.
The approximate calorie content of an empty tartlet is 61 kcal.
Delicacy tartlets
It is difficult to imagine a more convenient way of serving delicacies to the table than tartlets. It is not customary to serve a gourmet delicacy in large quantities. Tiny, literally one bite, tartlets and a rare product are the most successful culinary duo.
Caviar tartlets are timeless classics of holiday snacks. You can cook such a dish in just a few minutes.
At the bottom of the tartlet, put half a teaspoon of the base, then red or black caviar and garnish with herbs. Base options:
- Pre-softened butter;
- Grated cheese mixed with butter;
- Chopped boiled egg and chopped boiled shrimp dressed with mayonnaise;
- Pounded processed cheese with egg, dill and mayonnaise;
- Finely chopped lightly salted salmon with soft cheese (Philadelphia or mascarpone);
You can decorate such a snack with sprigs of dill, arugula, green onion feathers, quarters of boiled quail eggs, olives.
Foie gras tartlets
The delicate, savory foie gras are known as foie gras. This French delicacy is easy enough to make at home. Required products:
- Goose liver (it is permissible to replace with duck) 300 g
- Goose fat 100 g
- Butter 150 g
- Onion, garlic (4 cloves), salt, pepper, Provencal herbs
Place the saucepan over moderate heat and melt the goose fat. Chop the onion into small cubes, chop the garlic and fry until golden brown. Free the washed and dried liver from the veins, cut into small pieces and add to the stewpan. Fry the liver for 3 minutes, then salt, add pepper to taste and herbs (basil, oregano, thyme). Cool the mixture slightly and beat with a blender until smooth. Add softened butter and whisk again. The warm mass will be very liquid, so place the container with the pate in the refrigerator for an hour. Fill the tarts with pate using a wide-nozzle piping bag or use a bag with a cut corner. You can decorate tartlets with pate as in the photo or come up with your own design.
Seafood tartlets
Snacks from seafood tartlets will decorate any festive table and diversify the menu with an exotic taste. The most interesting combinations of filling with red fish and shellfish:
- Finely chop fresh cucumber, boiled egg and dill greens and mix with curd cheese, lightly add salt. The resulting mixture is spread on the bottom of the basket. A thin slice of salmon is rolled up into a ring or rose and placed on top of the cheese mass. For decoration, use pitted olives, parsley sprigs, red caviar.
- You can make your own seafood cocktail for tartlets. Mussels, squid, octopus are boiled in salted water for 15 minutes. The shrimps are poured with boiling water for defrosting, then peeled from the shell. The ingredients are finely chopped and mixed with olive mayonnaise. Add chopped crab sticks and a boiled egg if desired. The filling fits into tartlets, garnished with olives, olives, herbs and whole shrimp.
- Ripe avocados are peeled, halved and pitted. Cut half of the pulp and red fish into small cubes, sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix the second part of the avocado with a package of cream cheese and beat in a blender. Boil the shrimps according to the instructions, cool and clean. Put the salad with fish at the bottom of the tartlet, fill the rest of the volume with curd mousse, decorate with shrimp on top.
Hot starters from tartlets
An original way to serve a hot dish is to bake it in tartlets. The trick to keeping the shape in is the large amount of cheese that seals the hot filling. The easiest option for a hot snack is a julienne in a tartlet.
Cut the chicken fillet and champignons into strips, fry in a pan in sunflower oil until tender, salt and put in tartlets, add a teaspoon of sour cream. Grate hard cheese and lay on top of the julienne with a tight hat. Put a baking sheet with tartlets in a preheated oven and bake until golden brown. Serve hot.
For a romantic breakfast, you can prepare an omelette in tartlets. Place a small layer of grated cheese on the bottom of the basket. Whisk the eggs and milk with a fork or whisk, and season with salt and seasonings to taste. The proportion is one egg per 25 ml of milk. Bake at 180 degrees until tender.
Mini pizzas in tartlets are a real find for a children's birthday party. Kids love hand-eaten compact snacks. Cooking mini pizza in tartlets step by step:
- Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them in half. Drain the olives. Cut sausage, ham, sausages or boiled chicken fillet into strips, pickled cucumber and olives into slices.
- Grease the bottom and walls of the tartlets with ketchup or tomato sauce, put the cold cuts, cover with cucumber.
- Three coarse cheese, sprinkle on tartlets.
- Put half a tomato and a few circles of olives on top of the cheese.
- We put in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 15 minutes. Serve slightly cooled.
Any salad, pâté, jam, and even fruit with whipped cream are suitable as a filling for tartlets. This pastry goes well with almost any dish.
