Fruity Fireball mini tarts with Mulled Coffee Martini

While it’s always fun to play with flavors in coffee and desserts, this one was an exceptional creative pleasure for both Audrey and myself. The cool thing about this pairing is that each component is really enticing and tasty on its own, but the combo takes it to ‘next level’ flavor. The mini tart, with it’s apple, pomegranate and Fireball (cinnamon whiskey) has a sweet short dough crust, to which we added some finely minced dried cranberries. The drink is little, but packs a mulled spicy punch. But when you sip it with the tart….magical. Seriously.

Fruity Fireball Mini Tarts

Tart Shell

Tart shell recipe by Chef Doug Flick

Yield 10-15-  1 ½- 2oz tart shells

• 4oz Butter
• 8oz Cake Flour
• 1 Egg
• 4oz Sugar
• 1oz Minced Dried Cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line lightly greased mini tart molds on cookie sheet.
2. In medium mixing bowl, Cream Butter and Sugar together.
3. Add Eggs, Mix until just combined.
4. Add Cake Flour and Cranberries all at once, mix until just combined.
5. Wrap dough tightly and let chill for around 45 minutes.
6. Take dough out of cooler, roll it out on floured surface until about 1/4 inch thick.
7. Use round cookie cutter to cut dough to put into tart molds, forming it to the edges and cut off any extra dough.
8. Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.
9. Take out of the oven keep shells in molds.

The Filling

Filling recipe by Audrey Bastin

• 3 fl oz Fireball Whiskey
• 3 Sweet Apples (the firmer the better) cut into medium dice
• ½ fl oz Pomegranate Juice (we used an actual pomegranate, but POM will do the trick too)
• 1 ½ Tbsp Honey
• 1 oz Sugar
• 2 Tbsp Butter
• ¼ tsp Orange Zest
• ½  liquid Pectin packet (optional)

1. Add all ingredients into a large sauce pan.
2. Cook on medium to low heat until desired thickness (we went to a preserves level)

Tart Assembly

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Spoon Desired Amount of filling into tart shells
3. Put in the oven for 15-25 minutes or until edges of crusts are golden brown.
4. Take out of oven and let cool
5. Garnish with whole Pomegranate seeds and Orange or Clementine zest for some color and aromas.

Mulled Coffee-tini

When it some to assembly, this drink is pretty simple to construct. There is a little bit of leg work to prepare the coffee, but overall this drink is an easy one. The first step is making a batch of “mulled cold press”. When it comes to cold press I like to choose a coffee that has a lot of chocolate inherent to the flavor profile. While you can use most anything for cold press, for that chocolate flavor character I tend to gravitate towards Guatemalas and Brazils. In my experiments I used Messenger’s Guatemala Mezcla Perez.

Mulled Cold Press