Glazed Nectarine or Roasted Strawberry Tart Anyone?

Hello!

I'm back! I have been cooking alot lately, but the competing demands of work & trying to get enough sleep have seen my blogging capacity severely curtailed!

But now I'm back! With a tart couple of wonderful tarts to boot!

Mascapone is actually a type of cheese; kind of a sweet cross between cream cheese & ricotta. Have a tub of it in the fridge and you can have a pretty fabulous dessert ready to roll in just a few minutes.

I didn't follow a recipe for the below, I  just kind of made it up. You could use any combination of fruit, fresh or cooked, that you fancy.

Balsamic Roasted Strawberry Tart

If you haven't tried the combination of strawberries & balsamic vinegar you are missing out. It may sound a little odd, but they really bring out the sweetness in each other .

1) quantity shortcrust pastry, blind baked & cooled. Or just buy a shell from the supermarket!
2) 2 punnets of strawberries, hulled, and sliced if you like (I just took the tops of b/c I like the way they looked in the tart)
3) 2 tubs of mascpapone (250g I think it comes in)
4) 3 tbs pouring or thick cream (if you have it)
5) 1 tsp vanilla essence
6) 1 tbs + a bit more of balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180'c. Take a baking dish put the strawberries in, and then drizzle with the balsamic vinegar. Mix well with your hands. I then stood the strawberries 'up' in the pan (as they appear in the photo of the tart). That way if any of them stuck to the bottom, it wouldn't be obvious in the presentation.

Roast the strawberries for 15-20 mins, but no longer. You want them to be warm, but no-where near mushy.

In another bowl, combine the mascapone, the cream if using, and the vanilla, and gently combine together.

Use to line the base of the tart shell, then top with the strawberries. Serve!

Glazed Nectarine Tart

Everything is the same as it is for the strawberry tart recipe (above), you just substitute 8 nectarines (sliced in the thickest slices you can manage).

Press the flesh into a saucer of caster sugar, so it has a coating of sugar.

Pop into an oven-proof frying pan, and grill, sugar side down, over medium high heat for around 5 minutes until the sugar (combined with the fruit's natural juices) starts to caramelise on the top.

Then put the whole pan into the oven (preheated to 180'c) for 20 minutes or so.

Spread the mascapone mix over the base of the tart (as per the strawberry recipe), and then scatter the nectarines on top.

I'm back! And Baking Pies!

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

I can't believe I haven't pasted a recipe for sweet shortcrust pastry on here yet!

Given how much I love baking pies this just seems like a ludicrous situation, and one that I am rectifying right now.

This recipe is from the wonderful book called 'French' by Damien Pingolet. It is a gorgeous cookbook (thanks little brother!), and he really is an amazing chef.

The trick with pastry, and I've indicated before, is to keep the ingredients chilled, and DO NOT  OVERWORK THE PASTRY!! You don't want to activate the gluten in the flour. so keep kneading / food processor times to an absolute minimum.

It literally takes 3 minutes to make your own pastry; it really is very easy: don't be put off - just try it!

180g unsalted butter, chilled, cut into cubes
240g plain flour
2tbs caster sugar
pinch of salt (omit if using regular butter)
1/4 water, chilled

Combine flour, sugar & butter in a food processor, and pulse until it looks like breadcrumbs.

Add some water, just a little at a time (maybe 2 tbs at a go), pulsing in between until the mixture starts to come together.

Lay a piece of clingwrap on the counter, and turn your dough out onto it.

Form into a flat disc, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Roll out on a lightly floured surface, and use to line a pastry dish (chill the dish first in the freezer if you can), and then pop the whole thing back into the freezer for 30 minutes.

Blind bake with pastry shells / rice / beans for 10 minutes, then brush with a beaten egg, and bake for a further 10 minutes or until golden.