Reducing a cooking recipe is easy but baking not so much. Yes, baking is a science and being off by an ounce or tablespoon can ruin things!
There are many reasons to to want a small batch of baked goods. Small Family, less guilt eating (don't want to throw out the leftovers), more variety (you can make a bunch of small deserts for a small party)
This recipe makes two of the easiest, sweetest, cutest tarts ever. And they will be gone right away. No wasted ingredients thrown out and no guilt eating! These tarts will feed two to four people and really that's enough!
Ingredients
1 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup melted unsalted butter
¼ cup powdered (10X) sugar
¼ cup chopped pecan or other nuts
2 cups chopped very ripe mangoes *
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon white sugar
2 ½ tablespoons water
½ teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 ½ tablespoons water
2 tablespoons powered (10X) sugar (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F Grease two 41/2 -5 inch tart pans.
2. Combine flour, butter, and ¼ powered sugar in a bowl. Stir in macadamia nuts. Press half of the mixture into a 1/2-inch-thick layer on the bottom of the prepared pan to make the crust.
3. Place on the tarts on a sheet pan and bake in oven until lightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes. Set aside when done.
4. Stir mangoes, sugar, 2 ½ tablespoons water and lemon juice together in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until mangoes are soft and reduced by 1/3 about 3-5 minutes.
5. Combine cornstarch and 1 ½ tablespoons water in a cup. Pour into the reduced mango saucepan and cook until thickened, 2-5 minutes. Cool briefly and then spread mixture evenly over each crust.
6. Crumble the remaining flour mixture on top mango mixture.
7. Continue baking until lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool until set, about 15 minutes and remove from tart pan.
Sprinkle powdered sugar over the top if desired.
* If your mangoes are very stringy or fibrous you can pass the the reduced mixture through a sieve then add them back to the saucepan and mix in the cornstarch.