Gluten-free passion fruit and chocolate meringue tartlets

  • medium
  • Makes 12 tartlets
  • 60 minutes
Not yet rated

Howard's gluten-free meringue tartlets are a real treat; sweet and sour passion fruit curd is paired with a chocolate and orange zest pastry which is easy and quick to make. Topped with a delicious Swiss meringue and finished with the lick of a blowtorch, these classy looking tarts are definitely worth a try.

First published in 2020

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Chocolate pastry

Passionfruit curd (makes 350ml)

Swiss meringue

Equipment

  • 12 hole cupcake tin
  • 12 cupcake cases
  • Electric hand whisk
  • Piping bags
  • Jam jars
  • Blowtorch

Method

1
To make the pastry, put the flour, cocoa powder, icing sugar, salt and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until there are no visible lumps, then stir in the orange zest (You could also do this in a food processor)
2
Beat the egg with the egg white and add this to the mix. Stir with a knife to begin with, then gather the dough together using your hand
3
On a well-floured surface, roll the dough to about 4mm thick. It's easiest to do this by rolling out a quarter of the dough at a time. Stamp out circles or flower shapes using an 8–9cm cutter and carefully ease into the indentations of a shallow 12-hole tart tin
4
Chill for a few minutes in the fridge or freezer while you preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6
5
Put a paper cupcake case in each pastry shell and spoon in a few baking beans (don’t use too many as the more beans you use the more likely it is that the paper case will stick to the pastry). Bake blind for 12–15 minutes, then leave to cool in the tin before removing the baking beans and paper cases. (You won’t be able to tell when the chocolate pastry is cooked just by looking at it so it may be worth baking one or two testers to get the timing exact)
6
To make the passion fruit curd, put the pulp of the passion fruits in a bowl and whisk to loosen the seeds a bit (or you can do this by giving it a quick blitz in a food processor). Strain the juice into a jug or bowl and reserve 40g of the leftover pulp and seeds
7
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together
8
In a heavy-based pan, melt the butter over a low heat, then stir in the sugar and egg mixture and the larger amount of passion fruit juice. Cook gently, stirring constantly until thickened
9
Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the reserved 40g of passion fruit pulp and seeds
10
Let it cool slightly before pouring into a jar. Keep in the fridge
11
To make the Swiss meringue, bring a pan of water to the boil, then turn down to a gentle simmer
12
Put the sugar and egg whites in a metal or glass bowl and place over the pan of water, then hand-whisk gently for about 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved (or a temperate probe reaches 70°C)
13
Take the bowl off the heat and use an electric whisk on medium speed to whip the mixture into a glossy, smooth Swiss meringue. Transfer to a piping bag
14
Once the tartlet cases and curd are both chilled, spoon some curd into each tartlet – any leftover curd will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week
15
Pipe 6 dots of meringue on top of each tartlet and use a blowtorch to lightly caramelise the tops
First published in 2020

Howard is a food writer and presenter from Sheffield, who first caught the public’s attention on series four of The Great British Bake Off, going on to win their affection with his quirky style and love of unusual ingredients.

Get in touch

Please sign in or register to send a comment to Great British Chefs.