These tartlets make an excellent starter or small meal.
Ingredients
- for the filling:
- 230 g squash puree
- 100 g caster sugar
- 3 whole medium eggs
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- a pinch of mixed spice
- 100 ml cream
- fine jest of half an orange
- 75 g caramelised pecans (pecans and brown sugar see method)
- for the tartlets:
- 1 pack of jus roll filo pastry (cut into 5 inch squares)
- 100 g melted unsalted butter
- for the cream:
- 150 ml cream
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 1 dsrt spoon icing sugar
- ¼ tsp vanilla essence
- for the berries:
- 7.5 oz mixed berries (frozen)
- 3 oz caster sugar
- jest of ½ orange
Method
- To prepare the filling cut a medium sized butternut squash in half lengthways, remove the seeds, brush with sunflower oil and a little salt.
- Place in a roasting dish skin side down and roast at 170°C for 1 hour or until soft and sweet - then allow to cool.
- Remove the soft flesh and puree with a food processor.
- Pass the puree through a fine sieve scraping it through with the back of a spoon.
- Mix the fine puree with the spices, sugar, eggs , orange juice / jest and cream and leave in a jug to one side.
- Caramelize the pecans by sprinkling with the brown sugar and placing on a tray stirring every couple of minutes until nicely caramelized ( be careful when caramelizing using sugar) – leave to one side.
- Brush the squares of filo with the melted butter and place three sheets ,off square, on top of each other.
- Place these into a bun tin to achieve an empty filo pastry case.
- Divide the caramelized pecans into the cases and fill to the top with the tartlet filling.
- Place in a preheated oven at 170°C for 25 minutes or until just set.
- Cool a little and serve in a pool of the spiced cream, decorated with the berries and any spare caramelized pecans – Enjoy!
- For the Cream:
- Add all the ingredients into a bowl and whip until the cream is just lightly whipped for a beautiful spiced cream.
- For the Berries:
- Place the berries (frozen), the sugar and the remaining half and orange jested into a hot dry frying pan – cook for about 60 -80 seconds over a high heat until almost defrosted and the sugar is just dissolved.
- Place in a bowl to cool and finish defrosting.
- The berries are also a nice accompliment to duck, goose, cheese salads etc.
