Tartlets

How to surprise guests at a festive feast? How to serve salads that have become familiar, even if original? How interesting is it to arrange cold or hot appetizers for the buffet table? Hostesses are familiar with these painful questions that precede most family and friendly banquets and celebrations. The answer is simple – you can buy tartlets in the nearest supermarket, or cook them yourself, since you can find a lot of recipes on the Internet. Tartlets are also called special molds made of unleavened, puff or rich dough, intended for filling with stuffing, and the dishes themselves cooked with them. These edible “helpers” make it easy and quick to transform salads, caviar and appetizers with an original form of serving.

Product history. Calorie content and nutritional value

Tartlets are round or oblong molds of small size, with simple or corrugated walls, which diverge cone-shaped to the top. Most often they are made from unleavened or shortbread dough, less often from puff pastry, however, in supermarkets you can also find wafer “stands” for filling. In fact, they play the role of edible dishes for various dishes. The French, British and Italians have not yet figured out which of them was the first to invent this way of serving dishes – in small dough baskets, which can also be eaten with a filling in them. The name comes from the French word tartelette, but in the printed sources of the British lands, pies similar to tartlets are mentioned earlier than in France. There is also a version that tartlets first appeared in southern Italy, in Naples.

It is believed that the predecessors of tartlets were pate – small open pies, a form of dough stuffed with meat, fish, game or vegetables, which were cooked on fire and served cold or hot. The fillings in the Middle Ages were very diverse: sturgeon, burbot, capon, eel, goose, venison, sheep tongues, veal, turkey and beef. Until the 19th century, many pate recipes, as a property, for the most part, of French cuisine, were dedicated to prominent figures of their time, and even to some administrative-territorial units, receiving the same name or consonant names.

For example, in France, the recipe for pate a la Mazarin, pate in honor of the Duke of Bouillon and the Dukes of Rogan, as well as pate d’Amiens, which is made from duck, is known, and the city of d’Amiens is its homeland. Around the end of the 19th century, through the efforts of culinary specialists, the spectacular form of serving took on the appearance of modern tartlets. 100 g of the product contains approximately:

• 9,1 g protein;
• 30,9 g fat;
• 48 g of carbohydrates.

The calorie content of tartlets is from 300 to 500 kcal (we are talking about a dough mold, and not about dishes prepared with them). The difference is justified by the fact that, for example, shortcrust pastry is more caloric than unleavened. The size of the crumbs usually does not exceed 10 centimeters in diameter, and the weight is 15-25 g.

What are edible coasters made of and what do they contain?

The main ingredients of the product are salt, flour, eggs, butter or margarine, sugar. There are dough recipes that use spices and seasonings, small amounts of sauces or dried seafood, cocoa, candied fruits, crushed nuts and seeds are added for taste. Indeed, if the dish is being prepared for a special event, why not treat your loved ones with an unusual taste?

The main thing is that the dough is combined with the filling and does not interrupt its taste, since the main note in dishes with tartlets is still the filling, and the dough should only slightly shade its taste. Flour and products made from it, and, therefore, tartlets, contain certain substances and vitamins that play an important role in the working processes of the human body. Among them:

• selenium;
• magnesium;
• sodium;
• phosphorus;
• chlorine;
• potassium.

In addition, the product is also rich in vitamins: A, B1, B2, B3 and D – elements that strengthen the immune system and the body’s defenses, participate in the process of assimilation of certain minerals, stimulate and tone the nervous and cardiovascular systems.

Tartlet Dough Recipe: Easy, Quick and Delicious

Of course, the first two points – “simple” and “quickly” – can equally apply to the purchased product. However, the dough prepared at home, also with the appropriate filling, simply cannot leave guests and household members indifferent. Therefore, an option for the non-lazy is a recipe for tartlet dough.

The choice of flour should be taken carefully: although products of this kind are usually prepared from white flour of the highest grade, you can also try untreated gray flour, with which the dough has a brighter taste.

To make the finished product have an appetizing yellowish tint, you can also add cornmeal. It is convenient to form baskets using cupcake molds or ordinary glasses. To prepare a gentle shortcrust pastry on mineral water, you will need:

• 2 eggs;
• 2,5 cup of flour;
• 1,5 teaspoon of salt;
• 200 g butter;
• a glass of ice-cold sparkling mineral water;
• 2 tablespoons of sugar or powdered sugar;
• turmeric at the end of a knife (for golden color).

First you need to chop and soften the butter. Sifted flour is mixed with salt, turmeric and sugar. Oil is added to the dry mixture, the ingredients are mixed. One by one, eggs are introduced into the mixture, after which cold mineral water is added. The dough must be kneaded by hand until a homogeneous texture, and then it is removed for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. After half an hour, the dough is taken out, divided into balls, and with the help of molds they are given the appearance of baskets.

You need to sculpt tartlets carefully, paying attention to the edges so that they are not too thick, otherwise the taste will be rough, or too thin – then in the future it will be difficult to fill them with stuffing and they will crumble.

Bake the dough for no more than 25 minutes in an oven heated to 200 degrees. It should be noted that shortbread dough tends to rise during baking, but this can be avoided. The bottom of the baskets must be carefully pierced with a fork, and dry beans or peas should be placed inside each. Legumes are removed after the procedure in the oven, and the finished tartlets will have sufficient depth and capacity.

The use of tartlets in cooking

Neat dough baskets are one way to serve salads, cold or hot appetizers, fish, meat, and desserts. You can simply decorate them with fresh fruit, cream, chocolate, put ice cream inside and pour jam on top.

There are so many options for salty fillings that it is hardly possible to list them all: they are cooked with liver, crab sticks, shrimp, cheese, sardines, green peas, red fish, caviar, Philadelphia cheese, feta and herbs, walnuts and garlic, carrots and melted cheese, sausage, chicken, mushrooms, and also stuffed with a variety of salads.

There are two ways to cook a dish with tartlets: in the first case, the dough remains raw, the filling can be raw or semi-finished, and they are sent together to the oven, microwave or frying pan. In another option, already baked tartlets are taken, the filling in them can be raw or ready , for example, it can be a salad already prepared and seasoned. In this case, heat treatment is not always needed. A delicious appetizer that can become a light dinner is salmon tartlets. For them, you need to take cream cheese, butter, salmon slices and greens. A thin slice of butter is placed at the bottom of the basket, fish is placed on top. Cream cheese and sour cream are mixed until the consistency of thick mayonnaise, so that the resulting structure is homogeneous. Next, the cheese-creamy mass is spread on the fish, this can be done with a spoon or a confectionery syringe. On top of the appetizer sprinkled with finely chopped herbs.

As an exquisite hot dish, you can cook julienne in tartlets. Of course, it is also cooked in cocottes, but small edible baskets look no less appetizing. For 15 tartlets you will need:

• 2-3 medium-sized chicken fillets;
• 200 g onions;
• 300 g champignons;
• 100 g hard cheese;
• 300 g cream or sour cream;
• 2 tablespoons of flour;
• salt;
• pepper;
• vegetable oil.

The meat is boiled until cooked, cooled and cut. Onions and mushrooms are peeled, finely chopped and fried until all the liquid has boiled away, then fillets are added to them, salted, peppered, mixed and removed from the stove. Now you need a dry frying pan – you need to fry the flour a little on it, add cream to it, also salt and pepper, and then bring to a boil. Put meat with mushrooms in the sauce, mix again and remove from heat. When the mass has cooled slightly, it is laid out in tartlets and sprinkled with pre-grated cheese. After that, the julienne is placed in the oven, heated to 180 degrees, and baked until golden brown.

How to decorate a dish in tartlets

The presentation of food plays an important role in how guests enjoy it. So just cooking tasty is not enough – the dish on the table should look beautiful, appetizing and neat. Why not use the “handy tools” from the refrigerator to make a salad or appetizer even more attractive?

Fish salads or appetizers can be garnished with a thin slice of lemon, red caviar, chopped olives or black olives, fresh dill sprigs are also suitable.

The taste and appearance of the chicken filling will be emphasized by lingonberries or cranberries. Meat, ham or liver are decorated with pomegranate seeds or green peas. You can also use green onion feathers, and, of course, your own imagination. Vegetable salads and snacks are combined with multi-colored strips of thin bell peppers or small cherry tomatoes. Mushroom fillings can be garnished with grated egg yolk or small pickled mushrooms.

Tartlets: the benefits or harms of eating

Like any product, dough baskets can bring unpleasant surprises to a person’s well-being and even health. The reason is simple – any abuse does not lead to anything good, so you should not overeat with dough, otherwise the results will not keep you waiting. A high-calorie product can cause extra centimeters on the sides and waist, so it is better for obese people to eat them in small quantities.

It is also possible manifestations of food allergies to any of the components of the test. As for the benefits, tartlets are a satisfying product rich in carbohydrates, therefore they give a person a feeling of fullness, a charge of vitality and energy. They contain some vitamins and minerals that together have a positive effect on health. If you cook tartlets from unleavened dough by adding flour with bran, they, together with the appropriate filling, may well become a diet meal or a full-fledged snack in a diet. Graceful tartlets have won a place of honor on the festive tables absolutely deservedly.

Such an interesting (and hearty) way of serving familiar dishes looks interesting and appetizing, because it makes you want to know what is inside. Edible dough baskets can serve as the basis for a mini-pie, julienne, appetizer or salad, dessert or ice cream. The main thing is that the filling is combined with the dough to taste, and not too crumbly in consistency. Tartlets are made from shortbread, unleavened or puff pastry, waffles are also made in the form of edible baskets. They can be baked with the addition of various spices, seasonings, additives and spices, because the dough for tartlets does not have to be simple. In addition, blanks are sold in any relatively large supermarket. So even for the lazy, there is an option to buy ready-made tartlets, stuff them to taste with anything from what is in the refrigerator, and arrange a small festive dinner for yourself or your family, even if we are talking about an ordinary weekday.