6. Mini Banoffee and Chocolate Strawberry Tarts

I made some banoffee tarts for my coworkers over the weekend to help use up some leftover caramel from a millionaire's shortbread. The shortbread didn't go great. I didn't thicken the caramel enough, so it didn't really hold together very well, but that doesn't matter in a tart!

Also helped me use up some bananas. The bananas weren't that brown when I used them, but the oxidisation of the slices made them look a bit off. Still tasty though! 

The banoffee tarts went down a treat, and as it turned out, I had made a load more pastry than was necessary, so I froze the leftovers for another day. When deciding what I wanted to do with the rest of it I had a real craving for chocolate, but I didn't want to do banoffee tarts (because obviously I would do them again with how well they'd gone) and chocolate banana tarts, so I went with the classic combo, chocolate and strawberries. These went down well too, but probably not as well as fan favourites banoffee. I think my coworkers just really like bananas?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these. Two recipes for the price of one this week!

Yields 48 tarts, 24 of each.

Ingredients

• One load of sweet shortcrust pastry, recipe in Lemon Tarts.

• 75g (2.5oz) dark sugar (I used light, so my caramel was lighter than I wanted)

• 75g (2.5 oz) butter

• 1 can condensed milk (397g)

• Pinch of salt

• 1 banana

• 50g (1.75oz) butter

• 1 tsp honey

• 100g (3.5oz) dark/milk chocolate (or 50g of each)

• 1 tbsp icing sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 100ml double cream

• 1 punnet of strawberries

Method

1. For both tarts I used the same recipe as in Mini Lemon Tarts to get my tart shells, as follows.

2. Preheat oven to 175C.

3. Roll your pastry to about 1/6-1/8" thick and use a round cookie cutter to cut out your tart cases. I used one about 3" in diameter, but you should adapt to the size of your tray/cases.

4. Line your tray/cases with your freshly cut circles, making sure you push them down to the bottom so that they have a flat bottom when baked.

5. Bake your cases for 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown and allow to cool.

Banoffee

1. For your banoffee "toffee" melt 75g of butter with the dark sugar and pinch of salt over a low heat until the butter is completely melted and the sugar is completely dissolved.

2. Add in your can of condensed milk and bring up to a rapid boil, stirring all the time.

3. Keep stirring and boiling your caramel mixture until it thickens and turns golden (or not if you used light sugar like me). If you're wondering if it's thickened yet, it hasn't. This should take 1-2 minutes.

4. Let your caramel cool a little and then pour into your tart cases, filling to the brim or just below.

5. Slice your banana and lay a slice on top of each of your tarts.

6. Chill in the fridge until the caramel is completely set.

Chocolate Strawberry

1. Melt your chocolate either in the microwave or a bain marie (bowl over a pot of simmering water).

2. Once your chocolate is completely melted, mix in the icing sugar and vanilla extract.

3. Whilst your chocolate is cooling a little, whip your double cream until it just holds its shape. Use an electric beater, or use it as a work out. My muscles recommend the electric beater.

4. Fold the melted chocolate into your whipped cream until combined, try not to knock out the air though!

5. Using a spoon fill your mini tarts up to the brim with your chocolate mixture, trying to smooth over the tops as you go.

6. Decide how you want to add your strawberries to the top. Personally I sliced the tops off, cut each one in half and then cut most of the way through each half from top to tip a couple of times so that I could fan it out to get "three" slices. I thought it looked good, but was probably more effort than necessary!

7. Chill your tarts, and keep chilled if they don't all go immediately!

Sorry for terrible photos, I forgot to take any until I got to work. Oops.