Neenish Tarts

A couple of weeks back I finally got around to attempting Neenish Tarts.  I cheated though – I bought the pastry shells.  In my defence it was the long weekend and I wanted to relax.  If you want to make your own pastry cases you can make some short crust pastry using this recipe, roll it out and line 12 – 18 patty tins.  Prick the bases and chill cases for about 30 minutes before baking then at 180°C for about 10 minutes or until they are golden and crisp.


Ingredients:
500g sweet short crust pastry (see note above) or 12 store bought pastry cases

For the filling:
115g butter, softened
55g icing sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoon lemon juice
pinch of baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons gelatine
3 tablespoons boiling water

For the icing:
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon hot water
¼ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 tablespoon butter


Making the filling:
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then mix in the vanilla essence and the baking powder.  Add the gelatine (dissolved in the boiling water), a teaspoon at a time and the lemon juice, then mix through.
Fill the cooled pastry cases with the mixture and level off the tops.  Store in a cool place until firm.

Icing and Finishing:
Put the icing sugar into a heatproof bowl, mix in 1 teaspoon of hot water and heat over simmering water until the icing softens.  Add the vanilla, then use immediately to ice one half of each tart.
Add the cocoa and butter to the remaining icing, return the bowl to the heat and stir until glossy.  Add more hot water if needed.  Ice the other half of the tarts, making more icing if needed.  Run a hot knife across each tart or use a small drop of hot water to smooth the icing if needed.