Caramelised Onion and Anchovy Tart

I looooove caramelised onion. I love the sweetness with the strong onion flavour. On burgers. On toast. And in a tart.

I also love going to a BBQ, so I have an excuse to make lots of yummy food to share. Like tarts and cakes.

This is a beautiful and simply recipe. Cook onions sloooooowly over a medium high heat. Add Sherry Vinegar (I used Malt as I didn't have any Sherry). Add brown sugar. Cook a little more. Half a sheet of Puff Pastry and score an outline around the edge before popping the mixture into the middle. Top with anchovies, olives and thyme. Brush with beaten egg yolk then bake till golden.

So yum. Love the sweetness of the onion clashing with the salty anchovies. Or melding together. I never know, it just tastes good.

So easy and so going to be making this one again.

Please excuse the dodgy iPhone photo, I forgot to take a decent one...

Pear and Almond Tart.

One morning I had a friend coming over so the afternoon before, Noah and I made this easy-peasy tart.

The almond mixture is made in the food processor and it's nearly a matter of pop'ing all the ingredients in and processing until combined. The butter and brown sugar is done first, than everything else. Empty into a fluted tart tin and press some beautiful ripe pears that have been tossed in brown sugar into the top then bake.

Easy. Peasy.

And so yummy that I didn't get the chance to take a photo. It was gobbled up way to quick.

Definitely a nice quick recipe if visitors are coming over. No pastry required and all you have to wash is the food processor.

I love this kind of food.

Caramel Pear Pie

Pie? To me a pie has a top. And is usually filled with meat. To me, this is a tart. A Caramel Pear Tart, not Pie. But it's titled 'Pie' so a pie it shall be called.

I love the Basic Vanilla Pastry. I am not a baker. At all. Don't get me wrong, I love baking. But I also suck at it. A lot. I love this pastry because it works for me every time. I haven't managed to stuff it up yet. I follow the recipe to a tee, so that might have something to do with it. I also love that this recipe uses home made pastry rather than bought shortcrust pastry.

There's something to be said about making your own pastry. Therapeutic, it can be. If your nearly three year old isn't standing at your feet demanding to eat it raw.

Oh well. Can't hurt him.

Making this dish made me want to cook poached pears. I love the smell of cooking pear. To me it's so fresh and beautiful. I cored the pears and poached them in a little water till they were just soft. Then arranged them in my pastry lined pie dish and poured the golden syrup caramel mixture around them.

Letting this set after cooking is a big thing. Don't be too eager to cut into it. Although it smells DEVINE, resist temptation!!

And luckily, I did. It was set so beautifully when we ate it.

With the lovely crumbly pastry. So good.

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!

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.