Fruit Tarts

For the Tart Casings:

For the Filling:

1. To make the pastry, stir together the flour and salt, then rub in the butter until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in the icing sugar.
3. Whisk the egg yolk with the water and vanilla.
4. Add 2 tablespoons to the bowl and mix with a knife. The pastry should stick together, if not, add more egg mixture a tsp at a time. Form into a ball.
5. Divide the disc into 8 roughly equal pieces and shape into flat balls.
6. Wrap each piece in clingfilm and chill the pastry for 30 minutes.
7. Lightly dust a surface and your rolling pin with flour. Then roll out each piece of chilled pastry to around 3mm thick. It should be just a little bigger than the tin.
8. Use the pastry to line the tart tins. Don’t worry if you make a hole – simply squash a bit of spare pastry over the gap.
9. Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/Gas mark 4.
10. Trim off the excess pastry. Chill the cases for 10 minutes, then prick the bottoms with a fork.
11. Put on a baking sheet and bake for 15 – 18 minutes until golden brown.
12. Take the cases out of the oven and leave to cool in the tins for 20 minutes, then remove from the tins and transfer to a wire rack.
13. For the filling, whisk together the mascarpone, cream or creme fraiche , sugar and vanilla until slightly thickened.
14. Spoon the filling into the pastry cases until they are about half full. Top with different types of fresh fruit. Try mixed berries – blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, kiwi fruit and green grapes etc.
15. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.