Anything is cuter in its miniature form: mini poodles, tiny teacups, baby tomatoes, and these bite-sized Peach Basil Tartlettes.

Speaking of mini breeds of pets, I have a soft spot for miniature schnauzers. Everyone I come across calls them grandpa dogs and questions my liking of this bearded, skirt-wearing, scruffy grey dog with a hard to pronounce German name. And yes, that little trim of longer fur near their belly is called a “skirt”.

My explanation for this miniature schnauzer fetish (the “salt and pepper” coloured ones!) begins with the fact that my dog-loving aunt has owned several in the past decade, including Dong Dong and BoBo. Both with lots of personality and appetite, I really look forward to playing with them every time I visit Hong Kong. By the way, BoBo has super long eyelashes! See if you can spot them in the photo above.

Then in middle school, my friend came to me with an opportunity to adopt one of her miniature schnauzers; her parents are dog breeders. Surprisingly, I was able to convince my parents to finally raise a puppy, and not just on Nintendogs! We welcomed six month old Dina into our home, earthquake-shaking legs and all. You see, when she got scared, her legs would vibrate like an earthquake was happening underneath her. Dina was the cutest miniature schnauzer ever, with a multidimensional personality. Besides teething on table legs and shredding up newspaper or our dry wall, she loved to chase the vacuum cleaner and protected her chew bone like it was her life. To my dismay, all this only lasted for three weeks. My parents decided that raising a dog wasn’t really suitable for our lifestyle in the long run. We’re always out of the house, whether at work, school, or traveling, so Dina would get lonely at home and get into mischief. Reflecting on our goodbye, it really was my fault that we had to give Dina back. Twelve-year-old me didn’t contribute much to taking care of her daily needs and didn’t spend as much time as I should have playing with her. Sorry Dina… It didn’t seem like I had much interest in having her around (even though I really did love her!) so they decided to return Dina to the breeders before we got even more attached. Even though we spent a short while together, she’ll forever be part of my childhood.

Now that I’ve mentally taken you thirty thousand miles away from these Peach Basil Tartlettes, time to liven up the mood with a fruity dessert.

I contemplated whether or not to use a more traditional type of pie crust, the flaky kind that needs to be rolled out. But it’s so time consuming and it’s hot in the kitchen so let’s just go with an easy press-in type. Not only it is much easier to work with, but this oat and almond crust is gluten free too!

Peach and basil is one of my favourite fruit and herb combinations. It’s so fresh and totally embodies summer flavours. Once baked, this filling tastes like jam! Mmmm, so good~

Maybe there’s a lonely peach hiding in the back of your fridge, and maybe your basil plant is growing out of control. So maybe you should go make these tartlettes. And then come and tell me how they turned out. Just maybe.