Strawberry Dessert: Shortcrust Tartlets with Fresh Berries in Sweet Jelly

Name: Strawberry Dessert – Tartlets with Fresh Berries in Jelly
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Strawberries 300 g; Sugar 2 tbsp (27 g); Water for the syrup 0.5 cup (100 ml); Edible gelatin 10 g; Lemon juice 1 tbsp; Pastry baskets 8

☆ Rate it

30 mins

Perhaps the most common strawberry dessert is fresh berries in sweet jelly, set in pastry baskets. It’s the simplest version, requiring almost no effort or preparation. Ready-made pastry baskets or tartlets, fresh strawberries and edible gelatin – and just half an hour of your time, plus waiting for it to set.

Besides strawberries, you can use all sorts of fruit and berries, from apples to the truly exotic. The principle of jelly is simple: fruit, sugar syrup and gelatin. Jelly desserts are always delicious, for example cherry jelly.!

As it happens, I don’t eat strawberries – I’m allergic to them. But my family devours them with incredible speed and enthusiasm. And under the right circumstances, they could eat a whole bucket. There have been precedents, more than once. Still, any strawberry dessert is a fantastic success!

I remember that in Las Vegas in October fresh strawberries were very expensive. At buffet restaurants you could eat strawberries to exactly the volume of free space inside you, which my wife took full advantage of while I sampled crab and oysters and had for dessert cheesecake..

Actually, my other half can eat strawberries anywhere, in any amount, and, amazingly, with no visible limit. In Florence she happily ate them with whipped cream, with ice cream, and with who knows what else. The most surprising thing she tried was a strawberry dessert in sweet baskets with jelly: tasty little baskets with fresh strawberries and clear jelly that looks like ice.

More with shortcrust pastry

Sweet Tartlets

1 h

Grated Blackcurrant Jam Bars

1 h 10 min

Tarte Tatin: French Apple Tart

1 h 30 min

Royal Vatrushka – Cottage Cheese Pie

1 h

Crostata: Italian Apple Pie with Shortcrust Pastry

1 h

More berries recipes

Ingredients

8 servings

Strawberries 300 g
Sugar 2 tbsp (27 g)
Water for the syrup 0.5 cup (100 ml)
Edible gelatin 10 g
Lemon juice 1 tbsp
Pastry baskets 8

Step-by-step recipe

Turn on cook modeKeeps your screen from turning off while the recipe is open

Strawberries

Sort the ripe strawberries and wash them. Remove the hulls and any underripe berries. If the strawberries are large, you can cut them in half.

Syrup with gelatin

If you look closely at what jelly actually is, you’ll lose your appetite for it right away. I’m sure of it. As they say, the less you know, the better you sleep. Jelly (from the French gelée) is an edible colloidal solution (usually fruit-based) with gelatin added, so that as it cools the whole mass takes on a gelatinous consistency.
Gelatin, as we know, is made by boiling down calves’ feet and heads. It’s used everywhere in cooking – aspic, meat jelly and so on. Fruit jelly can be made without gelatin if the fruit contains a lot of pectin, such as Antonovka apples. But strawberries have little pectin, so this dessert is made with gelatin.
In my childhood, back when the trees were big, gelatin was sold as thin sheets, like chips. You soaked them in water for a long time before use so the gelatin would swell. Now gelatin is a powder, and an “instant” one.
Make a sugar syrup. Mix half a cup of water (100 ml) with 2 tbsp sugar (27 g), add 1 tbsp lemon juice and bring to a simmer over medium heat. The sugar must dissolve completely.
Take the syrup off the heat and dissolve instant edible gelatin in it, stirring until completely dissolved. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.
Be sure to strain the sugar and gelatin mixture through clean cloth so the jelly comes out clear.

Assembling the dessert

Pile the fresh, washed strawberries into the baskets or dishes. If you don’t have ready-made sweet pastry baskets, you can use small dessert glasses or any other small bowls. Of course, in that case only the strawberries in jelly will be edible.
If you had to cut the berries, put them at the bottom and place one large whole strawberry on top.
Spoon 1-2 tbsp of the gelatin (11–21 g) solution over the strawberries and wait for it to set. Then pour over a little more and wait for it to set again.
Depending on the size of the baskets and what you want, the fruit dessert can be any size, even as big as a large cake.
Gradually the gelatin solution in the cup will start to set and become like thick honey. Pour this gelatin over the dessert as the final layer, and it will set like clear glass.