Welcome to the summer version of apple roses! They taste just as bright and happy as they look. # 216: Mango Blossom Tartlets

I’m stuck in bed with side effects from my second vaccine shot, but these happy tartlets are definitely improving my mood!

Have to say, I still don’t know how people can gracefully pit and slice a mango. I’ve watched several how-to videos and mine never turn out as neat and tidy. I’m sticking to my description of mango as a slippery football from my Summer Mango Tart post a few years ago.

We’ve started using Imperfect Produce again and we had some surprise mangoes show up in our last delivery! I wanted to find a way to showcase them in a dessert, and my first thought was a custard tart. I know I know, there are way too many tarts on this blog, but hey they’re my favorite! The crust is buttery like shortbread, and can be customized in so many ways. I decided to go with a classic vanilla pastry cream filling, and add a hefty amount of cardamom to the crust. No regrets.

Since this was an on-a-whim bake, I didn’t do a full mise en place spread. You can find the steps to make the vanilla pastry cream in my Craquelin Cream Puffs post, and the tart crust in my PB&J Tartlets post. You can add a small amount of any spice to give the tart crust more depth!

My goal was a mini bake, just enough to test out my mango rose skills. I froze the rest of the tart crust for a future tartlet craving. You’re welcome, future me!

Parchment paper is magical. End of story.

The cookie cutter I picked was a half-inch wider on all sides than my mini muffin tins, so the shell walls would come up high enough. I went rogue and decided to not use my lil fluted tartlet tins (who am I? I don’t even know) and decided to try out a method I saw on Nancy Birtwhistle’s Instagram last week.

Hers looked wayy neater than mine did, but the idea is to use the end of a rolling pin to push the dough rounds into the muffin tin, and then fill a mini muffin paper with baking weights to keep it in place. Since I wanted tartlets ASAP, I didn’t chill the dough before this step, which would have helped a lot in the looks department.

While they baked, I tackled the mango footballs. Okay I’m done with this analogy, I promise!

The first video I watched had me individually wrap slices of mango on alternating sides, and it came out with a very tidy rose. I was hoping more for a rose with artsy petals, but it wasn’t a bad start!

Second attempt was much less work and closer to what I was aiming for! Slice the mango and wiggle the slices until you have a long line of offset mango slices, and roll them up into a rose.

They’re rustic shells, alright? You can see the two I tried trimming to make them cleaner, but honestly why bother? More crust = more flavor and more structure to hold in the mango rose.

Will you accept this rose?

Happy munching!