I am so excited to have Anyonita guest blogging on Domestic Superhero today! I have followed her blog forever, and she has the best recipes AND tips for bloggers. If you are a blogger, you definitely need to go check out her how-to's, right now!

Even though Halloween's around the corner, there's nothing spooky about these gluten free blackberry meringue tartlets!

Hello! I'm Anyonita & I blog at Anyonita Nibbles where I like to focus on flavorful food for the whole family. A lot of my recipes are gluten free since I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease earlier this year. I'm happy to be blogging here for Allyson today; her blog is one of my favorites & I'm honored to have been asked to share this exclusive recipe with you all!

One of the biggest frustrations for me regarding Celiac Disease and being gluten free is having to give up foods that I love. I've made it my personal mission to recreate all my favorite dishes in a gluten free manner so that I can continue to enjoy them. That's where the basis of this blackberry tartlets recipe comes from.

Blackberries are on the verge of being out of season, and the last few crops are being sold. This is my favorite time of the year for blackberries. I much prefer them now,after they've had the sweetness of a long, hot summer with ample sunshine to ripen than at the beginning of the season, when they're unevenly sized and sometimes too tart. Late season blackberries always taste much sweeter to me than just-in-season ones. To celebrate them, here's an easy tart recipe that's perfect for fall. I used my favorite Golden Delicious apples, but you could use any native apples that are in season now.

These tartlets taste best when they've aged a few days. So make the blackberry curd and the pastry on the same day and refrigerate both overnight before filling and topping with the meringue. If you have a cook's blowtorch, you could burn the peaks of the meringue with it or you could pop it under a very hot grill/broiler and achieve the same burnished look.

Gluten Free Blackberry Meringue Tartlets

Ingredients

Ingredients
For the pastry
2 tablespoons cold water
50 grams butter
100 grams gluten free bread/strong flour
For the blackberry curd
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 eggs
40 grams sugar
60 grams butter
75 ml water
150 grams apples peeled, cored and diced
250 grams blackberries
For the Italian meringue
3 egg whites
15 grams liquid glucose
180 grams caster/superfine sugar

Instructions

For the blackberry curd
Cook the blackberries and apples in a pan with enough water to just cover the fruit.
Bring to the boil and reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Simmer the fruit for 20 minutes or until soft.
Remove the pan from the heat and pass the fruit through a fine sieve into a clean bowl.
Melt the butter in the pan used to soften the fruit and mix in eggs, lemon juice, sugar and blackberry and apple puree.
Whisk, while moderating the temperature for 15 to 20 minutes until the curd has thickened.
Pour into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap so that the plastic actually touches the curd; and refrigerate while you prepare the pastry.
For the pastry
Combine the flour and the butter in a bowl. Use a fork to mash until the mix resembles breadcrumbs.
Stir in water quickly and bring the dough together so that it forms a sticky ball. You may need to use more water than the recipe calls. If the dough isn't very sticky, add more water.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll the dough out between two layers of greaseproof/baking paper.
Grease the tart tins well and press the dough into the tart tins, being sure to press along the sides.
Blind bake the cases at 340f/170c for 15 to 20 minutes or until starting to color.
For the meringue
Pour 40 ml of the water into a saucepan fitted with a food thermometer. Add the sugar and glucose and bring to the boil, stirring every now and then.
Start beating the egg whites in a stand mixer, when the water, sugar and glucose, reaches 230f/110c on the thermometer. Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.
Keep an eye on the sugar syrup and stop cooking it, the moment it reaches 250f/121c. Remove the saucepan from the heat and wait a few seconds while it stops bubbling.
Pour the syrup into the stand mixer ever so slowly while the whisk continues to beat.
Keep whisking the whites for 10 minutes after the all the syrup has been absorbed. When the outside of the bowl of the stand mixer is cool to the touch, the meringue is ready for use.
Fill a piping bag with the mix and pipe onto the filled pastry cases.
Burnish the peaks of meringue using either a cook's blowtorch or by letting the tarts stand under a hot grill/broiler for a few minutes.