Bitter Chocolate Meringue Tart

Oh. My. Gosh.

So. Much. Chocolate.....

Can you guess I liked this tart?

I made it to take to a friends for a coffee afternoon with girlfriends. In hindsight, I should have made it the night before as it wasn't completely set when I got there and I had to pop it in the fridge for a while, but if I've done that I know it would've gotten there in once piece (Hubby likes chocolate even more than I do). 

It was a simple dish to make and if I made it again I'd use regular milk chocolate instead of dark as the dark chocolate made it intensely rich. I was ecstatic that the meringue top worked!! I'm so good at making meringue flops that when it worked and was all nice and light and fluffy, I thought that was the best part! And it made the dense chocolate tart less full on, adding that little bit of lightness to it.


It was supposed to be made in a round tin, but I don't have one. I didn't have to adjust the measurements for my rectangle tin though.

Decadence....

Little Custard Pies

Now, I have a bee in my bonnet from all these custard baked things.

I don't like them. They don't work for me and it's rather annoying!!

I really liked this recipe and that I had to make my own pastry. I've never really made a lot of pastry before so was excited to try it again and quite happily surprised at the result when rolling it out and cutting it.

Then the recipe says to cut it to size, pop it in the tin and blind bake. Ok....for how long? I knew blind baking involved weighing the pastry down and baking it so the liquid filling doesn't make the pastry all soggy. So I loaded my pastries up with some lentils and baked for 10min. It wasn't until after they were filled with custard and back in the oven that I was able to further inspect the book and find blind baking instructions in the glossary. A reference to that within the recipe would have been helpful...

The custard is a basic egg custard that's made on the stove but finished before it's custard-like-thick. After blind baking you add the top embellishments, pour in the custard mixture then bake till set.

I think this is where it goes all wrong. Just like my Creme Brulee, the custard part looks like its turned into scrambled eggs when you bite into it. The flavor is there and its not as watery (maybe the pastry absorbed it) as the brulee, but it's not smooth and creamy as a custard tart should be.

I was so disappointed and have no idea why all my baked custards are doing this! If anyone out there knows, please help!! I'm now thinking I need to get an oven thermometer and check how hot its actually getting. Or maybe I'm making the custard wrong initially? But its smooth and yummy before its baked? I'm so puzzled.....

So, I have leftover pastry and might just have to make them again and see how I go.  

Either way, they still tasted good!

Fig, Haloumi and Pomegranate Salad

I was all set to make this salad without the Pomegranate as I thought there'd be no way I could find any around here at all. How surprised I was when we got to Coles last week and they had a whole crate of them!!! Score!!

Oh, and I'm officially in love with Haloumi. I made this salad for lunch one day and had to make it again for dinner. The Haloumi....ohmigod. I'm addicted. It's amazing. Like...A-MA-ZING!!! Love it!

The beautiful subtle sweetness to the fig married wonderfully with the crispiness of the fried cheese. The red wine vinegar and juice from the pomegranate added just enough sharpness and complimented the peppery rocket. This is definitely on the regular cards for me. I might just buy a whole crate of Haloumi while I'm at it....

Working on my photography...what do you think? It tasted even better than it looks!!

Pumpkin, Spinach and Goats Cheese Pie

I've been looking forward to making this pie for a while now. I love all of these flavor combinations together and wrapped in pastry is a nice crunch heaven compared to the softness of the roast pumpkin and smooth cheese. 

The main vegetables are roasted first then piled onto some good store-bought puff before being topped with spinach and goats cheese. Good luck buying goats cheese in Dysart. I used a good Feta instead. 

Tasting the vegetables after roasting them they tasted awesome. It's amazing what oil and seasoning can do to some pumpkin. But something seemed to go wrong between that roasting and when the pie was finished... The cut pie slice tasted...bland. There was no sweetness from the pumpkin or tang from the feta. I thought about the pumpkin I used and wonder how old the vegetable was in the first place, and now I wonder if that impacted on the end result? Knowing the vegetables we get out here have mostly been frozen and are mostly in poor condition, I don't know how much that impacts on the flavor at the end of baking when half way through it tasted so good.

Or it could be the quantity? Not enough pumpkin maybe? Or a stronger tasting one might have been better? Either way, its a nice simple dish and definitely one I'm going to try again. I already know these flavors work well together, I just need to tweak it a bit...

Nectarine Tart with Orange Syrup

I had to go out and buy a tart tin for a few recipes in this book, as I didn't have one, so when going to a friends for an early Easter dinner, I thought I might test it out with this dish.

Really simple, it mimics the blistered plums in the previous dessert dish with a frangipane-like tart filling. I found it odd that it specifies the filling be made in a food processor, rather than a mixmaster, but it worked, so who am I to question it?

I was worried for a little bit about my orange syrup. It didn't thicken as quickly as the sugar syrup I'd previously made and I thought it might not work for me, but it eventually did. I didn't add the dash of orange liquor to the syrup, but I don't think that detracted from the dish much.

I went really well with my morning coffee for the next few days. Nice and light. The orange syrup gave it that 'fresh' taste, and wasn't too heavy.

A lovely tart.

Vanilla Mascarpone Tart with Blistered Plums

I love a good tart.

I also love fruit and sugar and cheese. And this dish marries them all together in a wonderful sugary syrup, so I was just destined to love it.

So so so so easy. A good bit of puff, blister sugar coated plums, sweeten the mascarpone and make the syrup. I have to confess though, the recipe called for brandy to be put into the syrup and I don't have any. And I wasn't going to go and buy a whole bottle just for a few spoonfuls into a syrup, so it was a brandy-less sugar syrup instead.

I sat for about an hour after finishing the tart, just admiring the syrup. Oh. My. God. Just sugar, water and vanilla make this nectar? Why haven't I learned this earlier.....?

And how AMAZING would it taste with Brandy in it!!

I expected the tart to be heavy, being laden with the mascarpone, but the puff seemed to offset it and lighten the texture. The plums were the perfect sweetness, but I suppose almost any fruit could be used if plums were out of season.

And smothered in syrup, anything would taste amazing.

Mozerella, Prosciutto and Rocket Pesto Bruschetta

I love a simple dish.

Simple in flavors. Clean. Not over powering. A nice easy lunch. 

Oh, I also love pesto. And how I can smear it on everything. Dollop it into my pasta and hide it in a toasted sandwich. 

I haven't made rocket pesto before and assumed it would taste really strong and peppery but this pesto surprisingly doesn't. It's nice and light and compliments the torn bocconcini and salty prosciutto. The toasted bread hummed lightly with the rubbed garlic. I believe if you forgot the garlic in this recipe, it would be ruined. It just seems to bring it all together.