Tag: tarte

A simple strawberry tarte

This is the recipe of a simple strawberry tarte. While simple, it is still excellent.  A more complex recipe may have a small sponge layer and a vanilla thick custard layer over the pastry base or an almond vanilla custard. All options if you want to add flavours. Note that cake shops would often have a sponge layer to absorb the juices as they prepare more in advance than you do at home (else you would have a soggy pastry).

This version for a simple strawberry tarte is always a success, is light, perfect for a summer day. This is the recipe I mostly make.  The quality of the strawberries is important. You can choose to use full strawberries or cut them in half, especially of they are big.

Preparation – 1 hour maximum.

tarte aux fraise tarte aux fraise

Ingredients:
  • 250 g of plain flour
  • 1250 g of soft butter
  • 125 g of white sugar
  • one large egg
  • Strawberries, a couple of punnets (sometimes 3)
Method:
  1. Prepare a sweet shortcrust pastry by mixing all ingredients together and making a ball. Don’t overwork it. If very friable, add a few drops of water. Allow resting for 1/2 hour, or up to a couple of days in the fridge.
  2. Place it in the tin by either rolling the dought or by pushing it into the tart tin with your fingers.
  3. Make dots with a fork on the bottom, this will prevent the formation of bubbles.
  4. Cook on 170 °C until lightly golden.
  5. Cut the bottom of the strawberry removing all unripe parts.  You can use full strawberries or you can cut them in half.
  6. Place the strawberries on top of the pastry (part cut facing the pastry) and brush them with red currant or apricot jam slightly warmed up and diluted with a few drops of water (to make it runnier).

This dessert is better done on the day, that said, you can do the bottom sweet shortcrust pastry earlier.  Do not place it in the fridge.

Random discovery, this week the fennel.

This week is the story of a random discovery around fennel.  A fennel is a great looking vegetable but apart from that quite puzzling ! I have always used it a little here and there in salad or as crudity.

I bought a batch of small fennels recently, obviously having no idea what to do with them, but they were saying “put me in your basket, please, please !”. So I did. And I did not give them another though until I realised it was about time to do something with them or I would just end up putting them in my compost bin. Which I hate doing.

So what did I have at hand?

  1. Four beautiful small fennels
  2. A batch of freshly made puff pastry (I wanted to do an apple tarte or tarte fine, I have run out of apples and still not tarte! )
  3. A nice piece of fresh soft goat cheese.
  4. An opened bottle of riesling.

No backup plan

And if you know about Scotland Island, you will know that popping up to the shop because you are missing an ingredient is not an option! I am taking that opportunity to provide you with a little slide show of this great place. 🙂

 

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Caramelised fennel and goat cheese tartlets

This is about something warm, yet light and fresh for autumn.

Fennel & goat cheese tartes

The concept:

The fennels are halved and placed in a thick bottom frypan with a generous amount of salted butter and allowed to slowly cook, covered. After 10 minutes, I added one glass of white wine, a good pinch of rock salt and further cooked for up to  minutes.  It should be almost cooked through, still a little firm on top.  A caramelisation is made at the end by adding a splash of balsamic vinegar to the frypan and reducing it. When ready, all you have to do is place some goat cheese on a square of puff pastry, then one fennel on each tartlet, fresh herbs, red pepercorns and a dash of runny honey.  use melted butter to brush the exposed pastry.  Bake for 15-20 minutes. Serve with a garden salad.  It was delicious! Quite melty wth this light sweetness and still the freshness of the fennel with the tasty butter puff pastry.

Recipe HERE.

The doing, got it?

puff pastry

assembling 1

 

v

The result?

Fresh out of the oven:

Fennel & goat cheese tartes

and ready for lunch, with no much fuss. Bon appétit!

Fennel & goat cheese tartes

Caramelised fennel and goat cheese tartlet

An easy meal which is highly rewarding!

Fennel & goat cheese tartes

For 4 tartlets

Ingredients:
  • 1 block of puff pastry – butter prefered, to roll 25×25 cm , about 3 mm thick
  • 2 small fennels, top trimmed
  • 50 g salted butter
  • One glass dry white wine
  • Fresh herbs and red pepper corns
  • Honey
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Method:
  1. Cut the fennels in two. Heat up a thick bottom frypan, melt the butter and allow to slowly cook, covered.
  2. After 10 minutes, add one glass of white wine, a good pinch of rock salt and further cooked for up to  minutes.  It should be almost cooked through, still a little firm on top.  A caramelisation is made at the end by adding a splash of balsamic vinegar to the frypan and reducing it.
  3. Place some goat cheese on a square of puff pastry, then one fennel on each tartlet, fresh herbs, red pepercorns and a dash of runny honey. Use some melted butter to brush the exposed pastry.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.
  4. Serve with a garden salad.

Rhubarb Tarte

Rhubarb is a summer to autumn food.  The plant grows in temperate climate, it produces large green leaves on thick stems.  The parts used in the kitchen are the stalks.  Apparently, the leaves are toxic and are most often used for compost and in natural home made preparatation against some garden insect pests.

To prepare rhubarb, first cut off the leaves and discard and was the stalks.  Cut each end of the stalk. Pull on the sting that comes from the sides of the stalk if any and discard too.

For a rhubarb tart for about 8 people.

Ingredients:
  • 1 shortcrust pastry
  • 1 bunch of rhubarb stalks
  • 1 egg
  • 2/3 cup brown soft sugar
  • 1/2 cup of cream (if ou don’t have cream, you can use milk)

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180 °C.
  2. Roll the shortcrust pastry and place in the tart tin.
  3. Cut the rhubarb stalks in sections 1/2 centimetre to a centimetre long and place on the pastry.
  4. Mix egg, cream  and sugar  and pour over the fruits.
  5. Bake until the crust is golden brown.

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Baking aplenty!

These last couple weeks, there has been intense activity in the kitchen, I mean more than usual.  There has been renovation works, still are actually.  Now, I have, after 18 month of cooking on an outdoor stove, a good oven and cooktop and, ceiling lights and power plugs there and there! You can imagine I was pretty excited to get this new oven to the test! In addition to that, I will be managing the food stall at my daughter’s school Halloween Fete and I am trialing a few recipes! A great adventure.  Hence, cooking aplenty at the moment!

Last pears of the year

Pears are nearing the end of their season in Australia and I came across a bunch of them just begging to be used on the seconds trolley of my grocery store.  Of course I could not resist!  I have been willing to do an almond pear tarte for a while.

tarte poire et amande

I ended by using a Donna Hay recipe .  The recipe is easy.  There is no tart shell. The tart consists simply in a cake dough placed in a tarte tin with pears pushed in it. Cool it down it its tin and serve on a long platter.  I would advise to place some baking paper at the bottom, this would make the removal of the bottom part of the tin easy.  Click HERE for the recipe.

Tarte amande et poireLook how we recycled an old laundry wash board!

tarte poire et amande

Bread renewal!

With my new oven which keeps the steam (and the heat), I have made a try at semi-sourdough baguettes.  Mines were quite short, just to make sure they could fit in the oven.  Success!!!

mini baguettes

 

These below is the preshape stage.

mini baguette preshape

And another beauty, this one baked Friday night. A semi-rhye sourdough

semi rhye sourdough

Halloween pre-taste

For the school fete food menu, I have decided to expand a bit into some creative pieces that the children will beg their parents to get them.   I will speak more about it in a coming post, here is a little pre-taste!

madeleine bugs halloween

These creatures are madeleines covered in coloured white chocolate. The antennas are pretzels.

 

Pear and Almond Tarte

Pear and almond are so good together. This tarte is not only very easy to make, it presents well. The recipe is from Donna Hay, with a few twicks in the method. This tarte has no shell, it is a cake with the fruits placed on top. The shape of the tin makes it (plus it is good!)!

Pear and almond tarte

Ingredients:
  • 90 g of soft butter (I use salted butter)
  • 90 g of brown sugar (1/2 cup)
  • 2 eggs
  • 120 g of almond meal (1 cup)
  • 40 g of plain flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons of finely grated lemon rind (decrease to 1 if you prefer the lemon flavour to be softer)
  • 2 pears (I used Corella, you can use Packham, Williams would work well, but not too ripe)
  • 90 g brown sugar (1/2 cup)
  • raw sugar for sprinkling
Method
  1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process until just combined. Add the eggs, almond meal, flour, baking powder and lemon rind and mix until just combined.
  2. Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased 9.5cm x 33cm loose-bottom fluted tarte tin. Here, you may want to use baking paper to cover only the bottom of the tarte tin, this will make the transition to the serving dish easier.
  3. Place the pears and extra brown sugar in a bowl and toss to coat. Press the pears into the tart mixture and bake for 35–40 minutes or until golden brown. You may not be able to place all your pieces of pear.
  4. Sprinkle with raw sugar and allow to cool in the tin. pear and almond tarte