Here’s a fairly simple recipe to prepare that will be perfect with the arrival of sunny days: raspberry tartlets on breton shortbread. They’re made up of a breton shortbread, a raspberry confit, a vanilla diplomat cream and fresh raspberries filled with confit.
In the same spirit, I’d already published a recipe for a strawberry tart, also with a breton shortbread base. It’s fairly simple to make, no need to line the tartlets with pâte sucrée, and the breton shortbread brings crunch and indulgence. I love this version 🙂
How do you make a diplomat cream?
Diplomat cream is made from pastry cream. In fact, pastry cream is the base of many pastries:
- diplomat cream, which is a mix of pastry cream, gelatine and whipped cream (for millefeuilles, choux buns, tarts…),
- crème Madame, which is a mix of pastry cream and whipped cream (for fruit tarts),
- chiboust cream, which is a mix of pastry cream, gelatine and Italian meringue (for the Saint-Honoré),
- mousseline cream, which is a mix of pastry cream and butter (for the Paris-Brest or the fraisier),
- frangipane cream, which is a mix of pastry cream and almond cream (for the galette des rois).
So to make a diplomat cream, you first need to make a pastry cream (it’s a mix of egg yolks, sugar and cornflour to which you add hot milk, then you put everything back in the saucepan and boil it for a few minutes to cook the cream properly). You then add gelatine to it, and when the pastry cream is cold, you finish by adding whipped cream. This gives a cream that’s lighter than pastry cream.
Note that diplomat cream can easily be flavoured by adding vanilla, pistachio paste or hazelnut praline. It pipes very well. It’s really delicious!
Ingredients & method
4 components · Full recipe
Breton shortbread
Ingredients
- 3 egg yolks
- 130 g (4.6 oz) sugar
- 150 g (5.3 oz) softened butter
- 200 g (7.1 oz) flour
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 sachet of baking powder
Preparation
1
Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is smooth and pale.
2
Fold in the softened butter and stir with a spatula until smooth.
3
Sift the flour, salt and baking powder over the mixture. Stir with a spatula.
4
Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.
5
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F.
6
Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of about 4–5 mm.
7
Cut out 8 discs using a 7 cm (2.8 in) diameter ring. Leave the ring on each disc of dough.
Vanilla diplomat cream (can be started the day before)
Ingredients
- 220 g (7.8 oz) whole milk
- 1 vanilla pod
- 40 g (1.4 oz) caster sugar
- 40 g (1.4 oz) egg yolks (about 2 large eggs)
- 20 g (0.7 oz) cornstarch
- 1 gelatine sheet
- 15 g (0.5 oz) unsalted butter
- 75 g (2.6 oz) whipping cream
Preparation
1
Soak the gelatine sheet in very cold water for 10 minutes.
2
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns pale.
3
Add the cornstarch and mix.
4
Bring the milk to a boil with the vanilla seeds and pod in a large saucepan. Pour three-quarters of the milk slowly into the bowl in a thin stream, whisking constantly, then pour everything back into the saucepan with the remaining hot milk.
5
Whisk over medium heat until the cream thickens, about 2–3 minutes.
6
Off the heat, add the squeezed gelatine and the cold butter cut into pieces, and mix well.
7
Pour into a wide dish, cover with cling film directly on the surface, and leave to cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour (you can even do this step the day before).
8
The next day (or 1 hour later), transfer the pastry cream to the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk at full speed for 2–3 minutes to aerate it.
9
Fold the whipped cream into the pastry cream in 3 additions.
Raspberry compote
Ingredients
- 150 g (5.3 oz) raspberry purée
- 15 g (0.5 oz) caster sugar
- 3.5 g (0.1 oz) NH pectin
Preparation
1
In a saucepan, gently warm the raspberry purée.
2
Add the sugar and NH pectin, mixed together beforehand. Bring to a boil, stirring well with a whisk.
Assembly
Ingredients
- about sixty raspberries (7 per tartlet)
- raspberry compote
Preparation
1
Quickly rinse the raspberries under cold water.
2
Take the raspberry compote out of the fridge and whisk it briefly. Transfer to a piping bag without a nozzle (you can also simply spread the compote directly with the back of a spoon).
3
Place the Breton shortbreads on a serving platter.
4
Pipe the raspberry compote over the shortbreads, then pipe small balls of diplomat cream around the edges first and then in the centre.
5
Arrange the raspberries on the diplomat cream (hole facing up) and fill each raspberry with a little compote. You can also grate a little lime zest over the top for a touch of freshness.
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