I enjoyed another great evening at Leiths getting to know the Asda Extra Special range which is approved by the very same school of food and wine. It’s not a partnership that you’d automatically put together, but one that can only spell excellence and is certainly ruffling the feathers of other supermarkets.
Leiths Managing Director Camilla told us how they’ve even got on board with the Extra Special ready meals, and are already preparing for the next Christmas range.
Having done courses at Leiths before, I can tell you they’re sticklers for perfection, so you just know that anything they put their name to will be top notch.
We cooked our way through a delicious Easter menu, but what I really wanted to share with you was the dessert. A blindingly simple affair using ready-made pastry tartlet cases. These are a fab corner-cutter and have a myriad of uses. I recently tried Sainsbury’s TTD version and while the flavour was good they were rock hard, the texture of these were spot on.
The filling is a mixture of whipped soft cream cheese (a simply gorgeous product) double cream, icing sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and zest.
It’s summer on a dessert plate, and perfect for al fresco entertaining. I’ve never really shopped at Asda much in the past, but some of these products are definitely twisting my arm.
Individual strawberry tarts – recipe by Leiths
makes 8
150ml ES whipped soft cream cheese
50g icing sugar
250ml ES Channel Island double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 pack ES individual tart cases
Punnet of ES strawberries
zest and juice 1/2 lemon (optional)
For the glaze
4 tbsp ES strawberry conserve
2 tbsp water
1. Place the cream cheese in a bowl and mix in the icing sugar. Gradually stir in the cream, so you have a smooth mixture. Add the vanilla extract and lemon juice and zest if using.
2. Divide the cream mixture between the cases and spread so that it is even.
3. Hull the strawberries and make sure they are clean, then cut into halves or slices depending on their size and arrange over the tartlets.
4. For the glaze: melt the strawberry jam and water together, brush the glaze over the tartlets and allow to cool.
Tip: Don’t assemble too far in advance or the pastry case can become soggy. If you want to make them ahead, you can brush the bottom of the cases with melted chocolate, allowing to harden before filling them.
You can read more about the Asda Extra Special Easter evening at Leiths over at Maison Cupcake and English Mum who have both delivered fantastic write-ups of the evening.
Thanks to Leiths for making us feel so welcome in their kitchens and Asda for introducing us to yet more of the range and lovely goodie bags we brought home.
Oh wow. Yum! I adore strawberry tarts but can’t always be mothered with faffing about. I’ve found ready made bases to be on the hard side before but I’d be willing to give them another go if it meant one of these!
they’re great little bases Sian – i’m def going to seek them out again!
These look delicious! Can you give me some advise please? – I am thinking about making a huge batch of these for my tennis club’s stall at our village street fayre. When you say not to make them up with the filling too far in advance of serving – how long is too long? I obviously have a fairly long assembly line and then they need to sit at stall for a couple of hours (unless of course they are all bought and eaten immediately!). I’m not sure I fancy the chocolate layer idea…
I wouldn’t do them the day before – on the day and i’m sure they’d be fine for a few hours. It’s just cream and pastry can be a soggy combination!
I’ll do a test re soggy bottom time limit and try the chocolate. Thanks for getting back to me.