Cherry Frangipane Tartlets

Blueberry Tartlets

Remember the Strawberry Tartlets? Well when I was making those I also made a small batch of blueberry tartlets. I was originally planning to make a big batch of these tartlets for a friend's assignment, but cancelled (sorry).

Fresh blueberries are so frickin' expensive, so I simply substituted frozen blueberries. For some reason there was an excessive amount of syrup leftover, so next time I will cook it down a little longer. I did not use the crust recipe given in the recipe, but used the one in the Strawberry Tartlets instead. The blueberry filling made far more than what could be filled in the shells, but they were delicious on pancakes and oats.

The lemon cream was a light and zesty accompaniment to the sweet tartlets. I still have half a package of frozen blueberries in the freezer so I can't wait to throw them in a cake.

Bye!

Strawberry Tartlets

I said I was making a lot of tarts, and I wasn't lying. I immediately wanted to make this when I saw the delicious photo in The Big Book of Baking. The hardest part is the Crème Pâtissière (pastry cream) which ended up lumpy and ugly, but you can hardly see it under the strawberry. The recipe calls for redcurrent jelly, which I couldn't find, so I substituted with strawberry jelly to glaze the top. I halved the original recipe to accommodate my smaller tart pans.

Typing this, I've realised I didn't actually taste one. I think I only made 5 small tartlets, and each of my family members had one, leaving me with none. Hmm... according to them it was very nice. Oh well.

See you guys soon!

Lemon Cheese Tart

It's the last day of Winter, which means Spring is tomorrow. I'm sad that the cooler months are over, but happy since berries, mangoes, pineapples and other Summer fruit are coming. Technically lemons should be out of season soon, but these days shops have everything all year round. This recipe comes from a cookbook called Cheesecakes by Maxine Clark. I made this for a dinner with family friends, and they all loved it.

Basically, this is a cheesecake in a tart shell. The use of lemon zest is very interesting, and it produced a great citrusy flavour. I had a bit of trouble working with the pastry, but it obeyed me in the end. I also left the tart in the oven too long, giving it a brown surface, but it did not affect the taste.

I have been and will be making a lot of tarts, small and big, these days. This was so nice, but next time I would dust it with a little caster sugar, just to balance out the sourness. I say this year's Winter was awesome, and Spring's gonna rock!

Apple Tart

Continuing the list of things I made when guests came over last time is apple tart. Now, apple tart is not the same as apple pie. Apple pie has a top layer of pastry, and tarts do not. I think apple tarts are easier to make solely because you don't have to fiddle around with another layer of pastry. I've never actually made an apple pie before - shocking, I know. Another reason why I prefer to make tarts is I don't have a pie plate, and it's the shape of the plate that gives the pie its rounded shape. But I will get around to making an apple pie, promise.

This apple tart is a recipe by Paula Deen, from Foodnetwork.com. When I first read the recipe, I was surprised that the crust had no sugar or salt, and had sour cream. Always curious, I decided to make it as apples were on my mind.

I do not have a food processor, so I simply rubbed the butter into the flour until it resembled fine breadcrumbs, and added the sour cream. I used about half a tablespoon more sour cream, because I was working by hand and the cream wasn't distributed evenly enough. The dough was... interesting to work with. Don't worry if the base of the tart looks a bit thin - it's perfectly fine. The recipe doesn't call for it, but I blind baked it with weights, although I doubt it made much of a difference though, so next time I won't weigh it down.

The 'custard' mixture almost overflowed, but didn't which was good, but the glaze made too much. I would recommend halving the recipe for the glaze. Oh, and if you can't get orange juice concentrate, just use plain orange juice, much cheaper and I don't think you can get the concentrate in Australia. This tart was a hit with the guests who each had two slices. I will be definitely making this again.

Recipe

Obtained here.

Makes 6 servings.

Crust


1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (114 grams) butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons sour cream

Filling

About 6 medium apples, peeled, pitted, and sliced (I used Granny Smith)
3 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Glaze

1/2 cup apricot preserves or jelly
1 tablespoon frozen orange juice concentrate (Or just plain orange juice)
Mint, for garnish
Whipped topping, for garnish


1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

To make the crust:

2. Place the flour, butter, and sour cream in a food processor and pulse to combine. When the dough has formed a ball, pat with lightly floured hands into the bottom and sides of an ungreased 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and 1/2-inch sides, or a round au gratin dish.

3. Bake for about 18 minutes, until the crust is set but not browned. Let cool while preparing the filling.

4. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

To make the filling:

5. Peel and thickly slice the apples. Arrange the apple slices in overlapping circles on top of the crust, until it's completely covered. Overfill the crust, as apples will shrink during cooking.

6. Combine the egg yolks, sour cream, sugar, and flour and beat until smooth. Pour the mixture over the apples.

7. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake for about 1 hour, until the custard sets and is pale golden in color. Cover with an aluminum foil tent if the crust gets too dark.

8. Transfer the tart pan to a wire rack to cool. When cool, remove the side wall of the pan.

To make the glaze:

9. Combine the preserves or jelly and orange juice. Spread with a pastry brush over the top of the warm tart.

10. Serve the tart warm, at room temperature or chilled. Garnish with fresh mint.

Apple Tarte Tatin

The good thing about the school holidays is that it gives me time and an excuse to make more food. I don't have to worry about school the next morning or an assignment I have to complete. I am feeling so happy right now because I am creating something every day. First it was Hot Cross Buns, then the Lemon and Orange Tart, and now it's Apple Tarte Tatin.

This recipe is from 'Ultimate Cake' by Barbara Maher. I decided on it because it was easy to throw together and my neighbour had some apples that I could use up (Yeah, she's very nice). I made a large Tarte and several small ones, but the big one was consumed (by 10 people) before I could shoot it.

The pastry (pâte brisée, which means shortcrust pastry) came together pretty well, but it all started to get a bit wonky when we moved on to the caramel. It says to put 90 grams of butter and 100 grams of granulated sugar into a saucepan and heat until golden brown. I used caster sugar the first time round, thinking it wouldn't make a difference. I also stirred like crazy in the beginning, which was another mistake. My head started spinning as the sugar clumped together under the layer of melted butter and bubbled like crazy. I don't have words to describe it. It was quite disheartening and rather unsightly.

Another try, with granulated sugar, and we were off to a good start, until I realised you shouldn't stir. So as the sugar edged towards the same fate, I cranked up the heat and told my neighbour not to stir. Both of us watched the pot of bubbling sugar and butter in earnest, hoping it would work. After about 5 minutes, I decided to move the pan to a bigger flame. It bubbled more fiercely and colour started creeping in. For a second we were rejoicing, but then the sugar started burning. We quickly moved it back to the small flame and dropped in the apples. They cook in the 'caramel' for 10 minutes and are then moved away. In the end, we ended up with what looked like caramel but I'm not sure that it actually was.
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The rest of the procedure worked quite well. Preheated the oven without exploding, greased the tin without droppinng it, placed the apples into the pan without breaking. The only problem was that I rolled out the pastry too much. It was too thin so once I inverted it, the base broke into a few large pieces. That wasn't a problem though, as it was gobbled up well within 5 minutes. The individual ones weren't so bad either, but I only baked them for half the time.

I hope everybody enjoyed their Easter as I certainly did. Now it's time for me to relax as it's the school holidays.

Recipes

Obtained from 'Ultimate Cake' by Barbara Maher

For the pastry

1 quantity pâte brisée

For the topping

1.5kg small dessert apples

90gr butter

100g granulated sugar

Cake Tin: 24cm moule à manquer tin or heavy-based, shallow, round cake tin

1. Allow the pastry to come back to room temperature. Remove the cores from the apples with an apple corer. Peel and cut them in half.

2. For the topping, put the butter and sugar into a large saucepan or deep fryer pan. Heat gently until melted. Cook, stirring now and then, until the mixture starts to caramelize and turn golden brown.

3. Take the pan off the heat and add the apple halves. Gently turn them over in the mixture until well coated, return to a high heat and cook, stirring gently now and then, for 10 minutes or until the sauce has thickened even more and the apples are golden brown.

4. Pack the apples tightly into the bottom of the tin, rounded-side down. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface into a circle slightly larger than the top of the tin. Lift carefully on to the apples and tuck the edges down well around the fruit.

5. Bake in the preheated oven (220°C) for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

6. Remove from the oven and leave to rest in the tin for 5 minutes so that the juices have time to set slightly; but do not leave longer or the caramel sauce and the apples will stick to the base of the tin and not to the tart.

7. Run a round-bladed knife around the edge of the pastry and carefully turn out the tart on to a plate. Leave to cool slightly. Serve warm with whipped cream.


Pâte Brisée (Shortcrust Pastry)

180g plain flour, sifted
Pinch of salt
100g chilled butter
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
1-2 tablespoons iced water


1. Sift the flour once more, together with the salt, into a large mixing bowl or on a clean work surface. Make a well in the centre.

2. Cut the chilled butter into pieces and add to the flour. Lightly rub the butter and the flour together with the tips of your fingers, lifting the mixture and letting it fall back down, until you have a fine, crumb-like mixture.

3. Add the caster sugar to the bowl and stir in with a fork, making sure it is evenly distributed throughout the mixture.

4. Mix the egg yolk with the water until well blended. Drizzle over the mixture while stirring continuously with a small, round-bladed knife.

5. Work swiftly yet lightly, continue to stir everything together until the mixture starts to stick together in little lumps.

6. Gently bring the small lumps of pastry together using the heel of the hand until they form a rough ball. The quicker you do this the better.

7. Knead briefly on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 1 hour

Lemon and Orange Tart

Happy Easter! Bring on the eggs, the bunnies and the chocolates!

I was originally planning on posting about the hot cross buns I made. Unfortunately, due to my camera's bad (sucky) viewfinder, I was unable to take a good, clear, shot. I've got a Fujifilm S5000, and it is 3 megapixels! 3!!! Currently, I'm saving up for a Nikon D90. Much better image quality and overallness.

So instead, I'm posting about a tart I made yesterday. I made it with my neighbour's kid, who was visiting from Queensland. Apparently, he likes cooking too, but he doesn't have much experience... Quote: 'It says 2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks, so I think it means just 2 eggs, because there are yolks in the eggs...'

I know. But we worked together and created a beautiful Lemon and Orange Tart, taken from 'Heavenly Desserts' by Linda Fraser. It was delightfully tart and sweet at the same time.

It was the first time I made and actual full-sized tart. I've made tartlets before, but this was a completely different story. The pastry was very hard to work with, and was crumbling on us. Plus, when I took the shell out of the oven, I got this massive burn. It looks like I got stung by a jellyfish or something. But the filling was delicious. We made our own Lemon Curd and folded that into some whipped cream. I didn't whip the cream enough, I think. I whipped it to medium peaks when I should have to stiff peaks. This caused the filling to not hold it's shape that well. It still tasted darn good. It is adorned with a crown of orange slices, which added sweetness and colour. All-in-all, it was a success. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Yes, that is a Wii controller in the background. We were playing Wii!


Recipe

Obtained from 'Heavenly Desserts' by Linda Fraser

Serves 8-10

115g plain flour, sifted

115g wholemeal flour
25g ground hazelnuts
25g icing sugar, sifted
Pinch of salt
115g sweet butter
60ml lemon curd
300g whipped cream or fromage frais
4 oranges, peeled and thinly sliced


1. Place the flours, hazelnuts, sugar, salt and butter in a food processor and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add 30-45ml cold water and process until the dough comes together.

2. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth. Roll it and line a 25cm flat tin. Be sure not to stretch the pastry and gently ease it into the corners. Chill for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 190°C.

3. Line the pastry with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans or bread crusts. Bake blind for 15 minutes, remove the paper and continue for a further 5-10 minutes, until the pastry is crisp. Allow to cool.

4. Whisk the lemon curd into the cream or fromage frais and spread over the base of the pastry. Arrange the orange slices on top and serve at room temperature.