After getting myself into somebody’s bad books this week (let’s just say somethings just don’t translate well). I thought I’ld make something to keep him sweet. Chocolate always being a good solution (plenty of serotonin = feelings of pleasure) and raspberry tarts being his favourite dessert. I thought these might get me back in his good books…

For the sweet shortcrust pastry

100g flour
50g butter, very cold cut into cubes
2g salt
10g sugar
1 tbsp water
1/2 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence

Best made in a cool room a day before.

Raspberry coulis

250g fresh or defrosted raspberries
55g sugar
5 tablespoons of water

Dark chocolate mousse

150g dark chocolate (this best you can find)
150ml whipping cream
1 egg yolk

450g fresh raspberries

Fresh mint optional

4 small tartlette tins

Makes 4 tartelettes

For the sweet shortcrust pastry
1. Sablage
Mix flour and salt add cubed butters. Rub flour mixture and butter together to create a breadcrumb texture. Make sure to work quickly. Add sugar, water and egg. Mix slightly.

2. Frasage
Turn out mixture onto clean surface (preferably a cool marble surface). Using the palm of your hand. Push a small amount of the mixture about 20cm along the surface of the table. Do this with all the dough. Repeat once or twice until the mixture has come together.

Chill dough for 30mins. Roll out to knife edge thickness and line already greased and floured tins. Prick base. Chill again for another 30mins. Meanwhile preheat oven to 160°c. Blindbake 20-30mins or until cases are baked through.

Raspberry coulis
Place sugar and water in pan. Dissolve and then bring to boil for 2 minutes. Pour over raspberries. Then puree raspberries in food processor. Pass through a sieve to remove the seeds. Taste, add sugar if needed. Chill.

Dark chocolate mousse
Whip cream. Fold in egg yolk gently. Meanwhile melt chocolate over a ‘bain marie’. Before adding melted chocolate to whipped cream mixture, make sure it’s body temperature. Add a bit of whipped cream to the chocolate to loosen up mixture. Whip well. Then add all of the chocolate to cream. Fold gently and quickly. Spoon small amount of mixture into tartelette case. Add a teaspoon of raspberry coulis in the centre. Cover with mousse. Make a small mound. Place fresh raspberries on top. Chill for 4 hours.

To serve, remove tartlettes out of the fridge 30 minutes before. Pour some raspberry coulis over tartlette and garnish with mint leaves (optional).

On Wednesday I play nanny/cook. The family I work for had some leftover pastry in the fridge (the ready made stuff). So I thought a nice tart would go well with the homemade shepherd’s pie for dinner. The peaches are a nice addition but can be easily left out. Unfortunately there wasn’t much left to take a photo of.

Custard & Peach tart

1 tin of peaches, optional
1 portion of ready made shortcrust pastry
4 eggs
200ml single cream
200ml milk
140g caster sugar
1 tsp of vanilla essence
20g plain flour

25cm tart tin

Serves 6-8

Preheat oven at 200°c. Line tin and blind bake. Takes about 40 mins. Meanwhile bring milk, cream and vanilla to boil. Whisk sugar, flour and eggs together until creamy. When milk has started to boil add a little to the egg mixture, making sure you whisk continuously. Then add the egg mixture to the rest of milk (keep it on a low heat). Whisk until the custard becomes creamy and thick. Make sure the custard doesn’t burn on the bottom. Pour into pastry case. Place peaches on tart and bake for 30 – 40 minutes at 180°c. Or until the custard has set and taken on a golden brown colour. Serve warm or cold.

I’m officially living in the suburbs. Not quite Wysteria lane, but it’s cheap. My new flatmate invited the landlord and sister for dinner and I was asked to make dessert. Unfortunately my new place has no oven and I had no time this week. So with an hour to spare between coming home from work and dinner. I had to whip up something which wouldn’t dissapoint the French tastebuds. And here it is: a strawberry cinammon tart, fast food style. I found some very yummy, super crunchy cinnamon biscuits in the supermarket, if you don’t have them, add some powdered cinnamon. Don’t make this the night before the strawberries and mascapone will make this base go a bit soggy.

Strawberry cinnammon tart – Fast food style

70g butter, melted
150g biscuits, crushed
2 tsp cinnammon, optional
250g mascapone
2 x packets of vanilla sugar
500g strawberries or any other ‘berry’ type fruit you fancy, washed
1 x 20cm tart tin

Mix melted butter into crushed biscuits. Pour into tin and press firmly down with a cup/glass to make base. Whisk mascapone with sugar. Spread evenly on base. Slice straberries in half. Put on tart. Chill for at least 1hour. Take out of fridge 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with sugar if the strawberries aren’t sweet enough.

Light fluffy almond cream filling topped off with some summer raspberries surrounded by a crisp shortcrust pastry… hmmmm, might be going overboard with the copy?

Anyhow, as the countdown is now on (exam day is this wednesday), you’ll be seeing plenty of different variations of tarts as I’m trying to perfect mine for the exam.

Been a bit quiet as I had another disaster with a Charlotte aux poires (pear mousse cake surrounded by a belt of sponge fingers). The mousse exploded out of the surrounding sponge fingers on it’s way home. It’s just toooooooo hot. So unfortunately it wasn’t blog worthy.

Well it’s exam time. I have a written exam today and in a couple of weeks I have my practical. We’re being tested on our short crust pastry aswell as another cake. Hence me making another tarte and I think by the result I’ll be making plenty more.

By the way this is a Peach tarte done in the style of the ‘Tarte aux Pommes’ only difference is that it has a coconut milk custard filling. Not a bad summer combo, if I dare say.