There is life beyond fruit salad for some of the delicious tropical fruits available at the moment. Papaya with its blush-pink colour, gives a subtle flavour of the tropics to these tartlets. And as I am on a roll with my mascarpone cheese, I have used it in the filling of these cute little guys.
I love making pastry and tarts and this sweet pastry can be whipped up in the food processor in a matter of minutes. Any extra pastry can be wrapped in plastic clingwrap and frozen very successfully, so if you only want to make a few of these, halve the recipe and try them out.
I am sure the tarts would work just as well with any fruit with a soft pulp like strawberries, blueberries or blackberries.
Being a big fan of old botanical drawings, I thought I would sneak in this papaya illustration from one of the great Victorian Botanical Illustrators Bertha Hoola van Nooten. Have a look at some of her other amazing works at BibliOdyssey, particularly versions of some of her other beautiful fruit illustrations.
- For the pastry:
- 225g plain flour
- 2 tblsp icing sugar
- 100 g unsalted butter
- 1 egg (50g)
- ½ firm papaya(paw paw) (about 300g) seeded and peeled.(for decoration)
- This recipe makes 12 small tartlets, so it can be halved, or the extra dough frozen.
- For the filling:
- 250g mascarpone cheese
- ¼ cup thickened cream
- 1½tbsp finely chopped glace ginger ( can add extra if you like a strong ginger taste)
- 1 tbsp honey or agave syrup
- ½ papaya (about 300g)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- For the pastry:
- Turn oven on the 180ºC Process the flour, sugar and cold butter in a food processor until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add the egg and process until mixture just comes together.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.
- Form into a sausage shape and wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for about 30 minutes until firm, but not too hard.
- Cut dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each piece out to fit into 3" tartlet tins with removable bases.
- Place baking paper over the pastry in the tins and fill with dried beans or rice (baking blind).
- Bake for 7-10minutes or until lightly golden. Cool
- For the Filling:
- Combine mascarpone cheese, cream, finely chopped ginger and honey to a bowl and whisk until soft peaks form.
- Remove the seeds from 300g paw paw and peel. Process the flesh in a food processor until pureed. Fold the pureed paw pay into the mascarpone mix, and whisk once again.
- Spoon the filling into the cooled tartlet shells.
- Using a vegetable peeler, carefully shave extra paw paw into thin strips.
- Fold the strips loosely over the filling.
- Serve immediately after assembling.
5 Comments
Payapa Tarts! YUMMY! 🙂
These look so cute and delicious. Great photos. Keep up the good work.
Thanks so much
I am crazy about papayas, but never seen a dessert like this before. Ev this is super creative and sophisticated, a must-try so I am pinning it. The photos are simply perfect, as always.
Hope you do get a chance to make this – the flavours are very subtle, and yes, different. Thanks for your lovely comments Georgina