These Shortcrust Pastry Baskets with Cream and Berries have a long history and I’ll explain why: I first made this delicious and charming sweet treat in 2012 at my ex’s house with his mom, then I stopped making them because they require a calmness and precision that I lack, many of you know me and can understand. But today is an important day, and these Shortcrust Pastry Baskets with Cream and Berries can be the crowning of a dream, the dream of my dear and sweet friend Alessia who is soon to become a Mom! Little Ginevra will have a mom as sweet as the cream and as tender as the pastry, with a bit of tartness from the berries added by Aunt Bea!
If you find berry drops, you can use them as an alternative to fresh fruit. Also, if I may recommend another recipe with the drops, try the Berry and Coconut Cake, super fragrant. An easy, quick, and delicious recipe that you can read here on my recipe blog!
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 15 baskets
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Energy 294.03 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 51.32 (g) of which sugars 38.65 (g)
- Proteins 5.11 (g)
- Fat 8.28 (g) of which saturated 2.19 (g)of which unsaturated 5.40 (g)
- Fibers 1.35 (g)
- Sodium 271.15 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 100 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for Shortcrust Pastry Baskets with Cream and Berries
- 1 roll shortcrust pastry (you can make it yourself)
- 200 g Custard (you can make it yourself)
- 200 g Berries (mine were frozen)
- 50 g Sugar
- 1 to taste Lemon juice
- 1 to taste Powdered sugar
Tools
- Oven
- 1 Mold
- 1 Bowl
Preparation of the Shortcrust Pastry Baskets with Custard
Let’s start with the pastry, as indicated in the ingredients list, if you have time you can make it at home, I included the link for my recipe. I often buy it due to lack of time and I do well with both brand-name pastries and the basic supermarket ones. The same goes for the berries, it’s not always easy to find them at the greengrocer, so I often choose frozen products. For the cream, however, I suggest you prepare it in advance because it needs to be very cold, otherwise, you risk soaking the shortcrust base and it would be a real mess. I also put the link for the grandma’s recipe for the cream.
Now let’s move on to preparing the shortcrust pastry baskets with cream and berries. Preheat the oven to static mode at 350°F. If you follow the preparation with ready-made pastry, know that you need to take it out of the fridge at least 10 minutes beforehand, roll it out, and prick it with a fork. Then, with a knife, create circles to insert into the cupcake liners with parchment paper. I use a 12-muffin tin and 3 aluminum liners, always with parchment paper. Once all the baskets are created, I spoon in the cream. Do not overdo it because during cooking it rises a little and it may be too much. Bake for about 10 minutes, you will see the surface of the cream and the pastry itself turn golden. Now we just have to let them cool well before proceeding with the berries.
Take the bag of frozen berries and pour them into a non-stick pan with the 50g of granulated sugar and a bit of lemon juice. When the berries have released some juice in the pan, you can turn off the burner and use a spoon to place them in the center of our baskets. Before serving to our guests or, as in my case, my friend Alessia, sprinkle with some powdered sugar.
Enjoy your meal!!!
Notes
At this point, you might wonder: where do you need calmness and precision? Let’s say these Shortcrust Pastry Baskets with Cream and Berries are not very simple to make if a crazy person like me is preparing the pastry! Well, you cut the pastry, make the baskets without breaking a single one, make the cream thick and lump-free – in 2012 when I had just started cooking for about a year and the blog was in its beginnings, try adding my bad temper and maybe you’ll have the answer to your question.
