tart Archives - Page 6 of 7

Raspberry And Ginger Frangipane Tart

22|12|2014

I may need a few more Christmas-s in the southern hemisphere to reconcile with the fact that instead of sipping hot chocolate by the fireplace, I am actually filling up popsicle moulds in batches. And applying sunscreen before I hit the shops. We have barbecues and picnics planned all through the holidays Which does seem funny to me when I speak to my family at the other end of the world where my brother is going skiing instead.

The weather has been so warm this week that I haven’t enjoyed baking that much. But this tart has been worth it. I was literally waiting for berry season and now that it is here, I cannot have enough of them. A frangipane filling is my favourite filling in a tart. I added a spice component to the filling by adding including powdered and glace (crystallised) ginger. Nutty, spicy, buttery and very delicious. Combined with juicy red raspberries and pieces of finely chopped glace ginger, it provides a nice textural contrast to the tart. I used a store-bought sweet tart case as I was happy to avoid some of the heat in the kitchen. With the tart shell baking out of the way, this is a breeze to make.

Raspberry and Ginger Frangipane Tart
Serves 8

1 store bought tart case (18 cm)
100 g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 cup glace ginger
1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (180 degrees C for fan-forced).
Place 3/4 cup of raspberries on the base of the empty tart case.
Using an electric mixer or a whisk, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until just combined. Stir in almond, flour, powdered ginger and glace ginger. Gently pour almond mixture into pastry case. Level top with a spatula. Top with remaining raspberries and flaked almonds.

Bake tart for 35 minutes or until golden. Cool in pan. Dust with icing sugar. Serve warm with ice-cream on the side.

Herbed Ricotta, Cranberry Chutney and Duchess Potato Tart

8|11|2014

I don’t have a Thanksgiving but that has never stopped me from being a part of the celebrations. The events leading up to Christmas have brought me joy since I was in school. Even as a little girl my eyes would light up when I saw the trees on display, the tinsel, glittery ornaments, the fairy lights and the Christmas sales. At school we learnt about the different traditions and I embraced them with wide open arms. When I came to live in Australia I thought I might like to live inside the shops during Christmas. Having a food blog makes it a bonus for me. It allows for the planning and preparations to begin well in advance. And I am so up for it.

Would you believe me if I told you that it took me less than 15 minutes to put this together? I have cheated a bit on this tart…okay more than a bit to simply things. Unlike my usual recipes, I have used a few store bought ingredients, put them together and the result is something that can be a centre-piece on the table without spending hours in the kitchen.

There are 3 layers in this tart. A layer of caramelised onion and cranberry chutney, a herbed ricotta layer and the duchess potato on top. To speed up the process, I used a store bought tart case. To get a smooth pipeable potato mash without the effort, I used Instant mash which is basically nothing but dried potato flakes. To make great mashed potatoes at home, I may not use or recommend it but in this tart, it does not matter. To be honest, it makes life easier. You can of course, make your own from scratch if you want to. The caramelised onion and cranberry chutney packs a lot of flavour into the tart. Any home made or store bought chutney would do but I picked up cranberry to make it festive. Caramelised onion chutney or relish is available in most if not all supermarkets in Australia.
After this, we just mix, layer and bake.

Notes: The brand of Instant Mash I used, was already seasoned so I didn’t have to season separately. Most often they don’t need it but please do check on your package. I used a frozen tart shell that was already pre-baked. In case you are making your own pastry, you will need to pre -bake it before following the recipe. If you want more browning on top, put the tart for a few minutes under the broiler of your oven.

Herbed Ricotta, Cranberry Chutney and Duchess Potato Tart
Serves 6-8

1 store bought tart shell (I used frozen)
1 cup Caramelised Onion and Cranberry Chutney
400 g fresh ricotta
2 eggs, lightly whisked
a handful fresh herbs (parsley, mint, thyme, oregano), finely chopped
salt and pepper, to season
2 cups Instant Mash powder, cooked according to package directions
2 tbsp butter (room temparature)
2 egg yolks (reserve a tablespoon for brushing on top later)
Extra chutney, to drizzle on top
Fresh thyme to garnish

Preheat the oven to 170 degreec C.
Spread the Caramelised Onion and Cranberry Chutney on the base of the tart shell. In a medium bowl, mix together the Ricotta, eggs and mixed herbs.Season. Spoon over the chutney and spread evenly.

Add the butter and egg yolks to the Instant mashed potatoes and mix to blend. Fit a piping bag with a large round tip and fill in the mashed potatoes. Do this in two batches for ease of piping. Pipe rounds on top of the ricotta layer to uniformly cover the entire tart. Brush with egg yolks. Sprinkle with fresh thyme.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until potatoes are crisp and browned and ricotta is set in the centre. Remove from oven. Drizzle with chutney. Serve with salad on the side.

Golden Apple Tart

15|10|2014

I believe that names of most (if not all) people have a meaning. Most likely in their own language. When I found out that I was expecting twins I was faced with the exciting but quite complicated task of finding names for them. For a first time Mum, it can be quite daunting going through the multiple permutations and combinations. Two little personalities you are just starting to know and you are about to give them an identity for life. My children were born in my native land, India, where sex determination is a crime. So you can imagine my plight when I was in the dark till the very last-minute if they were going to girls, boys or one of each. I had 3 spreadsheets worth of names on my laptop that I continued to update as days came closer. Finally when they were born, quite premature I did not even look at those spreadsheets that I had been filling up so religiously. I did not have the time nor the stamina. Their names just happened. My own name has no meaning in the English language but going back to my roots, it means golden.

In real life I have no yearning for gold…neither literally nor figuratively. However, when it come to food, golden to me spells ‘delicious’. Whether a golden brown crust, gold dust on a cake or dessert, liquid forms like caramel, dulce de leche, honey or just golden syrup, the lustre in my eyes go up by 10 folds.

Remember my Chocolate Treacle Tart? Apparently, you guys loved it and so did I. So it was time to recreate the magic whilst tweaking things a little bit. This one has the golden syrup again with a hint of spice and fresh apples to adorn the top. In the filling, I have used breadcrumbs, almond meal, dessicated coconut along with golden syrup. The amazing thing about the filling is that it tastes quite like frangipane, actually better but is easier to put together. The flavours are lovely, almost like toffee apple. If you have used golden syrup before you know what I mean. If you haven’t, I highly recommend giving it a try. You may fall in love with it like me. If you ask me, it is quite easy to put together a gorgeous tasting dessert with golden syrup if you (partly or wholly) substitute it for sugar in a recipe. The pastry has a bit of nutmeg added to it so you can smell all those warm comforting flavours as the tart is baking.

So tell me now, do you believe that names have anything to do with one’s personality? Did you ever wish you could change your name or are you pleased with it?

Golden Apple Tart (slightly adapted from here)

Serves 8-10

For the pastry
1 2/3 cups plain flour
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted, plus extra, to dust
125 g cold unsalted butter, finely chopped
1 egg
2 Pink Lady apples

For the tart filling
400 g golden syrup
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
150 g fresh white breadcrumbs (about 4 slices of bread)
1/2 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
1 tsp cinnamon
3 egg yolks

Place flour, nutmeg, sugar, butter and a pinch of salt in the bowl of your food processor and process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add egg and 1 tablespoon chilled water and process until mixture just comes together. Shape dough into a 1.5cm-thick disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface and line a greased 23 cm tart pan. Trim sides and refrigerate for 30 minutes

Preheat oven to 190°C. Line tart shell with baking paper, fill with rice or beans and bake for 15 minutes. Carefully remove paper and beans, then bake for a further 10 minutes or until pastry is dry and golden. Cool.

For filling, place golden syrup, zest and juice in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until just liquefied. Whisk in remaining ingredients. Pour into tart shell

Quarter apples, core and cut into 2-3 mm-thick slices. Starting at the edge of the tart, arrange slices in concentric circles. Bake for 35 minutes or until firm to the touch (cover loosely with foil if pastry is over-browning). Cool for 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature dusted with extra icing sugar.

Chocolate Treacle Tart

15|09|2014

Would it be so clichéd if I told you how much I love sugar? All forms of sugar. The spoon-able sprinkle-able kind is of course the one I use more often but the other forms intrigue me as well. On the topic of sugar sprinkling, I am crazy for that famous shot where sugar is being sprinkled from a height. It comes through controlling the shutter speed in your camera, something which I am trying to master and have messed up my kitchen table and the floor this weekend, much to the amusement of my baby boys. But we ended up having a lot of fun. The sugar formed a slate for us to write on. We scribbled names, drew faces and laughed while the camera was completely forgotten. It feels amazing to let go when you are with children and bask in the joy of the moment without having to worry about the world around you.

Back to the forms of sugar, I am equally smitten by the other forms of its existence. Golden syrup, honey, treacle, molasses, glucose syrup and so on. Some of these are not direct by-products but they are related in some way. They are gorgeously sticky, luscious and take your desserts to the next level. The intensity and depth of flavour that these impart cannot be achieved by regular sugar or for that matter even brown sugar. I love to work with them and you may find quite a few recipes in my archives that use them. So what is a treacle tart? Simply put, it is a mixture of breadcrumbs and golden syrup baked within a pastry shell. It is so simple yet so gorgeous in the way it looks and tastes. Something unique. With golden syrup, how can you go wrong! Technically the recipe should use treacle, but you will find most out there using golden syrup. I have experimented with both individually and a combination but I think the flavours are better with the former. Plus I believe it is easier to find golden syrup in certain places than treacle.

To make things more decadent, I have covered the treacle tart in bittersweet chocolate ganache. It works like magic to complement the rich sweetness of the golden syrup mixture. Once the tart bakes, you make a simple ganache with chocolate and cream and it gets poured onto the tart.
The treacle tart is great on its own. a beauty of simple ingredients. But it’s nice to have some variety and options, especially if it involves good old chocolate. If you love caramel, this is a must try. It is close to a bi-layered chocolate caramel tart but richer in texture. You will taste a crunchy caramel-like base and a soft luscious chocolate topping. So good!

Like I always say, if you find pastry intimidating, get a store-bought crust and try out the filling. You’ll be inspired to make your own.

Chocolate Treacle Tart

1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
1/3 cup (50g) icing sugar
125g unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small cubes
1 egg
400ml golden syrup
150g fresh white breadcrumb
grated zest of one orange/lemon

For the Dark Chocolate Ganache
200 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
2/3 cup heavy/thickened cream

Place flour and icing sugar in a food processor, whiz to combine, then add butter and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add egg and process until pastry forms a smooth ball. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface and use to line a greased, 23cm loose-bottomed tart pan. Keep in the fridge till you make the filling.
Place golden syrup in a pan over low heat to warm through, add the breadcrumbs and orange zest, then stir to combine. Remove from heat, cool slightly (about 5-7 minutes) Pour into tart shell and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until set and pastry is slightly brown. Remove from oven and cool the tart to room temperature.

Make the ganache : Place the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Heat the cream over medium heat in a saucepan. When it just comes to a boil, remove immediately and pour over the chocolate. Stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a spoon until fully blended. Pour warm ganache over the tart. Set in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Remove from fridge at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on the side.