tasty & low-fat autumn tartelletes

Truth is... the idea of tartelettes has been there in my mind for a long time now... more like a year and a half. Two major factors stopped me from fulfilling the project:

1. I know the butter pastry dough is a challenge, plus it's full of butter and calories

2. I did not have the forms (but thanks to a small shop in Sofia I encountered in the summer with my mom, I got them and really cheap as well)

What I read in my issue of the BBC Good Food (which I bought on the morning of my trip to Prague) is that they have put together a low-fat dough for an onion tart and I figured it could be used for sweet tartelettes, so I immediately adapted the recipe. And I could not resist to add some seasonal fruits to make the whole experience a tasty picture :) Another discovery in this recipe is the very convenient Czech product called cinnamon sugar (sugar with 10% cinnamon, conveniently pre-packed in 20g packages). This is one of the most delicious desserts I have ever made, it had crispy, soft, tasty, and aromatic elements - a true celebration  for the senses.

You simply cannot eat just one of those!

Autumn apple/pear/fig low-fat tartelettes 

Ingredients

(makes 6)

for the dough (which makes 8,                   for the filling

but I only had 6 forms :D )

175g all purpose flour                               1 apple

1 tsp baking powder                                   1 pear

25g cold butter (in cubes)                         50g chopped hazelnuts

100g yoghurt                                           20g cinnamon sugar

2 tbsp milk                                               20g raisins  

2 tbsp light brown sugar                           1, 2 figs

Even though this dough is comparatively easy to prepare, there are a few tricky moments. First the flour, baking powder, salt and an pinch of salt are mixed by hand until big crumbs are formed. The yoghurt, milk and sugar are mixed as well, then added to the dry ingredients; the mixture is rather quickly stirred (BBC Good Food say with a knife, I did it with a spoon, still successfully). The dough is then formed into a ball (the dough should not be stirred or pressed too much) and rolled over a surface with flour. Then 6 round forms with a diameter slightly bigger than the tartelletes forms are cut from the dough and placed in the pre-oiled forms. The bottom is punctured three/four times with a fork and the forms are filled up with dry peas (or beans/pasta) before the tartelletes are baked for 15 mins in a pre-heated oven at 175C.

In the meantime the filling can be prepared. The apple and pear are cut into small pieces and added together with the raisins and 20-30ml water in a pot to boil together for 10-12 minutes until the apple is tender and raisins soft again. In the last 2 minutes, we add the cinnamon sugar and stir all ingredients together. Aside we chop the hazelnuts. After the 15 mins of baking the dough, we take the peas out and put the filling in: the fruits, sprinkled with hazelnuts and a piece of fig on top.

We put it back in the oven for 10mins at 165C to blend all the tastes together (the hazelnuts will give crispiness and aroma, the fig as well contributes a lot to the overall taste). Then we take them out and voila - there is a little treasure :) I cannot even describe how the whole kitchen smells during th cooking process, as well as I cannot describe the taste after that - simply heavenly! :)