Raspberry Tarts with Pistachio Pastry

A delicious treat, it combines tart raspberry flavours with the subtle flavour of pistachio. You can replace the pistachio nut with coconut if you like.

Makes 9

Ingredients:

For the pistachio pastry:

100g pistachio nuts, crushed

110g plain flour

40g icing sugar

55g butter

15ml water (if the dough doesn't come together)

Raspberry filling:

80g butter

150g fresh raspberries

3 tsp caster sugar

30g cornflour

Method:

Preheat the oven to 195 degrees Celsius and grease a muffin tin. To start, combine the flour and butter and rub together until they form breadcrumbs. Next, add in the icing sugar and stir to combine. Keep working the dough and it should start to come together, then add the pistachio nut a handful at a time. If the dough doesn't come together add a tablespoon of water and that should do the job. Take the pastry out of the bowl, cover it in cling film and let it chill for a minimum of 10 minutes. When chilled, take the pastry out of the fridge and roll out to 0.25 cm thickness (it shouldn't break when you lift it). Then cut out twelve 9.5 cm circles and push them down into the muffin tin, using the remaining pastry to fill in any cracks. Lay a small sheet of baking paper on the pastry and add a handful of baking beans in each tart. Cook them in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

To make the raspberry filling, heat 30g of the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add in the raspberries and the sugar and stir until the raspberries begin to break down. Once the mixture is a liquid and is runny, put the mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds. Next, stir in the cornflour and stir vigorously until you can no longer see the lumps. Return to the pan and simmer on a low to medium heat and you should begin to see the mixture turn from a chalky pink colour to a thicker, more see-through pink. Once the entire mixture has thickened, add the remaining butter and stir. The mixture will then become more runny, but still be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

To prepare the tarts, remove the pastry from the tin by slowly tipping the tin upside down. Be careful as when you are trying to remove one pastry, the other tarts may fall and break. Next add 2 tablespoons of the raspberry filling to each tart and shake gently to flatten it out. Then immediately put the raspberries on top because the filling will start to set and otherwise the raspberries wont stick. Sprinkle a small amount of icing sugar on top of them and serve!

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