Sugar Free Very Berry Tarts for Toddlers and the Whole Family

Regular readers will know that I have been nominated for a Britmums Brilliance in Blogging award and I have made the final.  Yesterday a local paper contacted me to do a story about it.  It feels strange and humbling to think how far my blog has come.  A friend of mine said to me once that you should do what you're passionate about with passion and it will be successful.  This is just my hobby, I do it for the love of it and the love of cooking.  It feels amazing to be recognised in this way so thank you everyone who reads and I hope I continue to come up with ideas you like to make and thank you Britmums.

I came up with the idea for these tarts while trying to think of something visually impressive but not loaded with sugar.  Although I am a little more lenient than I used to be, there's no need to fill up kids with sugar and artificial colourings, they don't need it and if proper food looks good, why would they want it?

These tarts are easy to make, no added refined sugars and would be great as part of a party menu.

Very Berry Tarts - makes approx 18

Ingredients

2 Small apples
3.5oz, 100g Strawberries (plus additional berries see below)
5oz, 140g Plain flour (all purpose flour)
1oz,  30g Cornflour (Cornstarch)
4oz, 115g Unsalted butter

To decorate:
Blueberries
Strawberries
Raspberries

Method

Grate the apples including the skin back to the core on a fine grater (discarding the core).  Cut up the strawberries and put into a saucepan with the grated apple.  Simmer on a hob for 5-10 minutes.  Mash up the strawberries and then simmer for a little longer to thicken and drive off some of the water.  Take it out of the pan and put in a bowl to cool.

Ideally use a food processor for the pastry.  Rub the butter into the two flours then add some cold water a tbsp at a time until the mix still looks dry but it starts to come together if you press it in your hands.  Bring it together with your hands on a board or clean work surface.  Kneed it briefly (handle pastry as little as possible) then roll out thinly.

Use a large round cutter with a fluted edge to cut circles and put them into a bun tin (fairy cake or cupcake tin).  Press the pastry down in the centre.  Put in the fridge until ready to cook.

Preheat the oven to 200oC / 400F.

Put 1 tsp of the apple / strawberry mixture in the centre of each pastry well.  Bake for 10 minutes or until cooked.

Use a blunt knife to take each out and put onto a cooling rack.  Once cool enough or when ready to serve, top with a variety of summer fruits.

And there you are, or rather here I am!

Best served fairly quickly and on the same day as then the pastry will stay crisp but if you have any left, put them in the fridge.  A hit with husband and toddler.

If you prefer, to save time you could use a low sugar jam instead of the mashed fruit in the base, however, this will increase the overall sugar content but that's fine if you're just cooking for adults.

This post has been linked up to here.