New Year's Eve - Strawberry Custard Tart recipe

For New Year's Eve, I had a get-together lunch + movie with my girls. My mother was gracious enough to let me use the kitchen and helping me to clean up. Credit to CC for the picture :P

Feta and Herb Yoghurt Dip with carrots, celery and chips

Sweet tarts recipe

Strawberry Custard Tarts - made from scratch.

Making the tarts were the most time-consuming element simply because it was my first time. But I had promised a friend that I will put up the easy recipe, filled with my own notes and baking experience. My apologise, I am not posting up the recipe for custard, as it is widely accessible. Plus I had to make adjustments with my custard by sight and taste so I wasn't following a definite custard recipe. 

Ingredients:

115g butter (softened)

115g sugar

1 egg

225 glour; plus extra for rolling

1 tsp baking poder

pinch of salt

Preheat oven @ Bake - 180 degree elsius

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar in a food mixer until pale. Add the egg and mix well.
2. Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix on low speed. As it comes together, remove the mixer and make it into a ball using your hand.
3. Wrap the pastry ball in plastic wrap and store in the refridgerator for 30 mins.
4. Remove from the fridge and divide the pastry dough in 2 (easier to work with one half first). With a bit of flour on your work bench and on your hands, knead the dough until it starts to cogulate and hold together well.
5. Flouring your rolling pin, roll out the pastry til 5mm thick.
6. Cut out rounds of pastry using a pastry/cookie cutter to fit the mini-muffin tray. Carefully place it in the muffin tray and prick the base with a fork to reduce puffing.
7. Bake the cases for 10-15 minutes until very slightly brown.
8. Remove cases onto a wire rack for further cooling.

Makes approx. 60
Tart cases can be stored in an airtight container for a couple of weeks.

My notes
This recipe is only a rough estimate in the number of cases it can make. The original recipe makes 48 cases whereas I have managed to reach 60. So here are some pointers to guide you along the way:

• Experiment with different sizes of pastry/cookie cutter until you've found the right size that will enable you to fit the pastry without overlapping (this most undoubtedly took up most of my time).
• The tarts, once removed from the oven, did not expand at all thanks to the fork pricking.
• The base and rims of the tarts should be slightly brown before removing them from the oven to cool.
• Depending on your oven, you may need to extend the amount of time slightly to cook the tarts. If something doesn't come out right, your pastry is either too thick or the size of it is too large for the mini-muffin holder itself.
• Small cases = quick to cool. I could remove it straight after it came out of the oven.

The first time isn't always a success but I'm glad I managed to pull that off successfully during the day I had my friends over. Otherwise it would've been a huge disaster!! :) Leave comments below if you have anything you'd like to add. Happy Baking!!