Fruit Compote Tartlets
Ingredients
PASTRY
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
- 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting surfaces
FRUIT COMPOTE
- 2 cups Riesling
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 star anise
- 2 cloves
- 1 4-inch cinnamon stick
- 18 dried apricots halved
- 12 dried dates halved
- ⅓ cup dried sweet cherries
- ⅓ cup golden raisins
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- 1 8-ounce container mascarpone (such as Vermont Creamery's mascarpone)
- 1 6-ounce container nonfat plain Greek-style yogurt
Instructions
THE PASTRY
- Heat the oven to 350°F. In the bowl of a mixer, beat together the butter, sugars, lemon zest, and salt until light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, and baking powder; beat until well combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low, and add the flour, beating until a dough forms. Wrap and refrigerate dough 1 hour or freeze for up to 2 months.
- Place the dough on a well-floured clean surface, and roll out to a scant ¼-inch thickness. Cut out three 5-inch circles, and place them in 4-inch tart or mini pie pans. Repeat with the remaining dough to make six tarts.
- Fill the tarts with pastry weights, and place on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven, removing the pie weights after 12 minutes. Continue baking until lightly golden, about 8 minutes more. Transfer the tarts in their pans to a wire rack, and let cool completely.
THE FRUIT COMPOTE
- Combine the wine, sugar, anise, cloves, and cinnamon in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Add the dried fruits. Reduce the heat to low, and cook until the fruit is tender, about 25 minutes. Drain the fruit, reserving the liquid and setting the fruit
- aside. Return the liquid to the saucepan and heat to a boil. Cook, uncovered, until the mixture is thickened to a syrup and reduced to 1 cup—about 12 minutes. Discard the spices in fruit mixture.
- Blend the mascarpone and yogurt in a medium bowl.
- To assemble the tarts: Place about ¼ cup of the mascarpone mixture in each pastry shell. Top with the fruit mixture, and drizzle with the compote syrup.
Jacqueline Plant
Jackie Plant freelances as a recipe developer and editor/food writer for magazines and websites such as Weight Watchers, Family Circle and Culture magazines, while contributing to the development of cookbooks. She has spent much of the past 20 years developing recipes and writing about food for national magazines, such as Parents, Country Living and Woman’s Day Magazine.
Photographer Michael Harlan Turkell
Michael Harlan Turkell, a once aspiring chef, now photographer, captures the inner workings of kitchens. As former photo editor of Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan, his recurring BACK OF THE HOUSE series appeared in the magazines from 2006 – 2011. Michael’s been nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award in Visual Storytelling, included in 25 Under 25: Up-and-Coming American Photographers V2, (PowerHouse Books), received a Photo District News Photo Annual Award, and has had his photos printed in an array of publications, and cookbooks. Learn more about Michael at http://harlanturk.com/
