Summer Garden Party Fruit Cups

I love the long evenings that we have in the summertime in Normandy. The light lingers until almost 10 PM at night and often our summer soirees go long past that! These fresh and vibrant fruit cups appear to be elegant and fancy, but are easy to put together and will impress and satisfy your guests! As with many of my recipes, feel free to use what you have on hand! I love our late summer figs and of course always indulge in the berries and nectarines that appear in our markets.

Part 1 - Mise-en-place

Makes six servings.

Gather the basic ingredients:

1 package ‘brik’ (Feuille De Brick ) type pastry sheets
2 tablespoons of melted butter
16 oz / 450 grams mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Zest from one lemon
1 1/3 cup / 325 grams heavy cream
Mixed fruit of your choice; blueberries, nectarines, fresh figs, strawberries and raspberries.
Lemon verbena or fresh mint for garnish
A few tablespoons of honey to drizzle (optional)

Part 2 - Method

Preheat your oven to 350F/180C.

Follow the instructions on the brik pastry package. With a pastry brush, ‘paint’ a small amount of melted butter on each sheet, on one side. For six pastry cups, you will use two sheets. This also depends on the type/dimension of the pastry sheet, but I find that a full sheet can be cut into 3 parts. Cut six pieces of pastry and fit them into an un-greased muffin tin or ramekin to create a free-form cup. Bake per package instructions, usually 10 minutes, or until golden and crisp.

In a food processor, blend the mascarpone, lemon juice, zest and heavy cream until smooth and uniformly combined.

Cut your choice of fruit into spoon size pieces

Part 3 - Bringing it all together

Place each pastry cup into a small bowl or cup. You can either pipe the mascarpone cream or add 1-2 tablespoons per pastry cup. Top each cup with fruit and garnish with mint or herbs. As a final touch, you can drizzle a small amount of honey.

A perfect colorful and vibrant summer-evening dessert!

What is ‘brick’ pastry?

Feuille De Brick as it is called in France or Brik/Brick pastry is a very thin pastry, about 1mm thick, which is predominantly made from water and flour. It has a lacy texture that becomes light and flaky when cooked, similar to phyllo/ filo and spring roll pastry. The initial cooking of brick pastry differentiates it from phyllo dough as phyllo pastry is completely raw before cooking and less sturdy. Brik pastry has been cooked to some extent, so it doesn't break as easily and the layers are less likely to stick together. If you are game to try making it, I found several recipes on the web when googling “Brik” Brick Pastry” or also Moroccan Warka Dough recipes.