Steam Combi Recipe: Summer Fruit Tarts

These delightful and easy tarts really benefit from the addition of steam but can be cooked in a dry oven as well . Puff Pastry is one of the foods that people are most surprised to hear that benefit from the addition of steam.  Add at least 50% humidity to your oven to really see the effect that can result in up to 50% more rise in puff pastry.
I’ve included a basic Rough Puff Pastry recipe but you can just as easily use a commercial butter puff for this recipe.

METHOD

For the Pastry:

1. Using your hands roughly and briefly rub the butter into the flour or just pulse a few times in a food processor. You should still see clumps of butter in the mix.
2. Add chilled water and bring together into a ball
3. Dust a large board with flour and briefly knead the dough and then roll out to a  roughly 20x 40cm rectangle.
4. From the short end, take the bottom of the rolled dough and bring it up to the centre of the remaining dough, then bring the top down to meet the bottom.
5. Rotate the block of dough 90 degrees and roll out to 20x 40 cm rectangle again.
6. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes unless it's a really cold day. You don't want the butter to melt into the flour as it won't puff. It's the butter that helps create steam in the oven and helps with the puffing process
7. Repeat the folding and turning process 5 times.
8. Dough will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days or in the freezer for 2 months

For the Tarts:

1. Preheat oven to bake function, 210C with added steam
2. Mix butter sugar and cinnamon into a paste
3. Roll out dough into 15cm circles
4. Prick the dough with a fork leaving a 2cm border around the edge.
5. Dot the centre of each circle with several pieces of the butter/sugar mixture
6. Slice the fruit into very thin wedges.
7. Arrange the fruit in a spiral on the centre of each pastry circle, and then pull the edges up and over the top to form a rim around the fruit.
8. Dot a little more of the butter and sugar mixture over the fruit.
9. Brush the pastry rim with beaten egg
10. Sprinkle each tart with a little extra raw sugar
11. Bake on shelf 2 ( near the bottom of the oven) for 20 minutes or until pastry is golden.
12. Serve with cream, yoghurt or ice cream.