Buttery pastry cases filled with chocolate, mascarpone and strawberries and then glazed with toffee sound sensational and taste that way too. Using pre-made pastry, you can prepare them in no time, making them even more enjoyable.

Ingredients

• 2 sheets pre-rolled butter pastry
• 100 grams dark cooking chocolate
• 1 cup cream, chilled
• 300 grams mascarpone cheese
• grated rind of 1 lemon or orange
• 1 punnet strawberries
• 2 cups sugar
• ¼ cup water

Method

1. Use the pastry to line the base and sides of 6 10cm flan tartlets. You'll be able to cover 4 flan tartlets out of the two sheets and if you carefully re-roll the offcuts you will have sufficient pastry for the remaining two.
2. Blind bake at 200ºC for 15 minutes. It is easiest to get the tarts in and out of the oven if you place them on a baking tray. Remove the baking blind material and return the tarts to the oven for a further 5 minutes to ensure that the pastry is well cooked. Cool in the tins.
3. Chop the chocolate and melt over boiling water or in the microwave. Spread over the bases of the tarts. Leave until set, then remove the tarts from the tins.
4. Whip the cream until slightly thicker but still in a pouring state. Blend the cream, mascarpone and orange or lemon rind. Sweeten to taste with icing sugar. Spread evenly over the chocolate bases and put in the refrigerator to keep cool while you prepare the strawberries.
5. Wipe and dry the strawberries with a cloth. Leave the stalks intact.
6. Put the sugar and wter into a saucepan. Stir over a moderate heat until all the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly until the sugar begins to change to a light golden colour. Remove from the heat and stand on a very wet cloth immediately to stop the sugar browning any more.
7. Once the bubbles have subsided on the toffee, dip the strawberries, holding on to their calyx, into the toffee and place on a greased tray until set. Transfer to the top of the tartlets and serve.

Cooks Tips

Angels hair - If you have any toffee left you can make angel's hair to decorate the tarts. To do this, first place a large sheet of paper over the work surface. Take two forks and hold them back to back. Dip them into the toffee then quickly throw the forks backwards and forwards over the paper from a good height so that as the strands fall, they will form fine threads of toffee. This can then be cut and wrapped around or over the tarts. I always find that I end up with toffee everywhere! The toffee needs to be warm to work propery, so if it becomes too firm from standing, reheat it a little over a low heat and continue.