Mini Tarts by Petit gâteau

In the book Mini Tarts, you’ll learn how to make minimini’s: the famous small tarts from Petit gâteau, each with the same base and a unique filling. Meike Schaling and her French husband Patrice Andrieu started their patisserie in Paris, but moved the whole operation to Amsterdam six years later. Something we’re enormously happy about.

Meike wasn’t always a pastry chef. At thirty-six, she owned a translation agency, was married, had three small children and a house just outside Paris. One morning, she decided to make her dream come true: to become a pastry chef. A month later, she began the six-month course. She interned at Michelin-starred restaurant La Grande Cascade and subsequently continued working there. After three months, she found the perfect premises for her first patisserie: Petit gâteau.

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Minimini’s

Meike started Petit gâteau with classic French pastries: including éclairs, macarons, madeleines and opéras. She also made cakes in the same classic flavours: lemon meringue, chocolate and pear. One day, she ran out of baking rings and found a box in the attic containing thirty small baking rings she had once bought. She made small tarts and put them in the display case next to the large ones. That same day, a customer came into the shop. Meike automatically picked up a large tart for him. ‘Non, les minimini’s’, he said. He bought all thirty of them. The tarts’ nickname has remained the same ever since. After a while, no one bought the large cakes anymore, so Meike decided to remove them from the range. The minimini’s appeared in more and more flavours and became hugely popular.

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In our capital too, tiny tarts are selling like hot cakes. The minimini’s are very simple; the filling often consists of just three components. Many ingredients are brought in from France, and everything is made in the shop. In winter, more tarts with chocolate are made; in summer, there is more fruit. By now, Petit gâteau has created almost 150 combinations with one feature in common: the pastry.

How to make the pastry (for 12 tarts)

Put the flour, icing sugar, almond flour and salt in a bowl. Break the cold butter into pieces and distribute them over the dry ingredients. Rub the butter and dry ingredients together until a crumbly dough forms. Beat the egg. Add one tablespoon of egg to the dough and knead everything into a cohesive ball. If the dough is very sticky, add a little flour; if the dough is too dry, add a few drops of egg. Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for one hour.

Tip: you can also make delicious biscuits with this dough. Roll it out, cut out biscuits with fun cutters and bake them for about 8 minutes at 170°C.

Lining the tart rings

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and knead it briefly. Dust the work surface and rolling pin with a little flour. Flatten the dough ball and roll the dough out evenly to about 3 mm thick. Cut out circles with the cutter. Place the dough circle on the tart ring and gently press the dough down and against the sides of the ring. Neatly cut away the excess dough along the edge and prick several holes in the base with a fork. Roll out the remaining dough again and cut out more circles until all the dough is used.Place the lined tart shells in the refrigerator for half an hour.

Tip: instead of small tarts, you can also make one large tart with a ring measuring, for example, 22 cm in diameter. Roll the dough out into a large sheet, place the sheet over the ring and line it in the same way as for the small tarts. The filling quantities in this book are approximately enough for 12 small tarts or one large tart. Naturally, larger tarts need to be baked a little longer.

Title: Mini Tarts
Author: Meike Schaling
Publisher: Kosmos Uitgevers
Price: €17.50