Papaya, Mascarpone,and Ginger Tartlets

There is life beyond fruit salad for some of the delicious tropical fruits available at the moment.  Papaya with its blush-pink colour, gives a subtle flavor of the tropics to these  tartlets.  And as I am on a  roll with my mascarpone cheese, I have used it in the filling of these cute little guys.

I love making pastry and tarts and this sweet pastry can be whipped up in the food processor in a matter of minutes.  Any extra pastry can be wrapped in plastic clingwrap and frozen very successfully, so if you only want to make a few of these, halve the recipe and try them out.

I am sure the tarts would work just as well with any fruit with a soft pulp like strawberries, blueberries or blackberries.

Being a big fan of old botanical drawings, I thought I would sneak in this papya illustration from one of the great Victorian Botanical Illustrators Bertha Hoola van Nooten. Have a look at some of her other amazing works at BibliOdyssey, particularly versions of some of her other beautiful fruit illustrations.

Papaya, Mascarpone,and Ginger Tartlets   Author: Shades of Cinnamon.com Recipe type: dessert, fruit Serves: 12 Prep time: 45 mins Cook time: 10 mins Total time: 55 mins Print   Ingredients

• For the pastry:
• 225g plain flour
• 2 tblsp icing sugar
• 100 g unsalted butter
• 1 egg (50g)
• ½ firm papaya(paw paw) (about 300g) seeded and peeled.(for decoration)
• This recipe makes 12 small tartlets, so it can be halved, or the extra dough frozen.
• For the filling:
• 250g mascarpone cheese
• ¼ cup thickened cream
• 1½tbsp finely chopped glace ginger ( can add extra if you like a strong ginger taste)
• 1 tbsp honey or agave syrup
• ½ papaya (about 300g)
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions

1. For the pastry:
2. Turn oven on the 180ºC Process the flour, sugar and cold butter in a food processor until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Add the egg and process until mixture just comes together.
4. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.
5. Form into a sausage shape and wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for about 30 minutes until firm, but not too hard.
6. Cut dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each piece out to fit into 3″ tartlet tins with removable bases.
7. Place baking paper over the pastry in the tins and fill with dried beans or rice (baking blind).
8. Bake for 7-10minutes or until lightly golden. Cool
9. For the Filling:
10. Combine mascarpone cheese, cream, finely chopped ginger and honey to a bowl and whisk until soft peaks form.
11. Remove the seeds from 300g paw paw and peel. Process the flesh in a food processor until pureed. Fold the pureed paw pay into the mascarpone mix, and whisk once again.
12. Spoon the filling into the cooled tartlet shells.
13. Using a vegetable peeler, carefully shave extra paw paw into thin strips.
14. Fold the strips loosely over the filling.
15. Serve immediately after assembling.

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