Raspberry

It's been a while and I haven't really been focused lately so today I baked. Baking always helps me get my mind off of things, focus on the baking at hand. It helps me unwind and is way more practical and productive than just sitting on the couch, watching tv.

I made teeny tiny raspberry tartlets filled with vanilla pastry cream and decorated with freeze dried apricots. I also made some chinese coconut buns and worked on some fondant flowers but I'll put pictures and recipes up later for those. I just love these adorable tartlets. Definitely a one-biter but it's quite a bite!

Raspberry Lemon Tarts

These tarts have a layer of crushed raspberries on the bottom, then filled with lemon curd and topped off with luscious whole raspberries. I started running low on them so I did some with just three raspberries on top which I think still look adorable.

Last Minute Fruit Tarts

Rushing to get these fruit tarts done for my sister, a simple pate sucre, thin layer of raspberry jam, vanilla pastry cream, and fresh fruits. I had some extra pink modeling chocolate lying around so I did some quick roses out of that while watching tv (I love multi-tasking, haha).

Peach Tart

Peaches macerated in some sugar and ginger atop quark cheese. The tart is an ultra crumbly brown sugar sweet dough.

Strawberry Rhubarb Tartlettes

You know what's strange? After 23 years of being in Canada, I had never had a strawberry rhubarb tart before! In fact, the only time I ever worked with rhubarb was at a restaurant where we had a rhubarb custard tart that I wasn't a huge fan of.

I decided to change that after picking up a few stalks of rhubarb and a basket of strawberries the other day. I cooked the rhubarb with a vanilla bean and added a splash of rosewater at the end just for an extra kick, and macerated the strawberries in a little sugar and some lemon zest. For the tartshell, I opted for a pate brisee dough because of the crispiness and blind-baked those first. Filled it with the rhubarb and topped it off with the strawberries. A little sprinkle of sugar on top and then flash baked to glaze it.

I was really amazed at how well these turned out! The rhubarb was not too tart but still very distinct and the strawberries really shone through. They're great little bites for the summer!

Tiny Lemon Tartst

These cute little tarts were for an 8 year old's birthday. Fresh raspberries topped onto lemon curd gave it a pop of colour and flavour.

Cape Gooseberry Tart with Raspberry Sorbet

A little bit of research gave me the reason as to why these Cape Gooseberries were on sale at the local market. They're normally in season from March-July but I haven't really seen them in stores till just recently. Most of the ones I could find were without the papery husk which I find so beautiful. I did, however manage to find some with the husks that weren't at an outrageous price so I picked up two boxes.

Inside the husk is a golden-coloured berry that's slightly tart and sweet at the same time. I've always wanted to try out a variety of tarts so a gooseberry tart was the way to go this time.

I filled the tart shell with some fresh raspberries that I just mashed up with a fork and some icing sugar, piped in some orange pastry cream, and topped it all off with a gooseberry compote. I paired it with some raspberry sorbet to match the fresh raspberries in the tart. If you were to make the raspberry sorbet though, I strongly urge you not to buy the frozen raspberries in syrup as I did because it turned out way too sweet and yet the flavour wasn't that strong. Fresh would be best, and if not, frozen whole raspberries are the way to go! The sweet dough tart recipe, by the way, is really easy to work with and doesn't shrink at all.

Sweet Dough Tart

83 g icing sugar
167 g butter, soft
vanilla, lemon zest to taste
250 g pastry flour
1 egg yolk

-Beat the sugar and butter till combined and add the flavourings. Add the yolk and mix. Add the flour last and mix till combined. Line tart shells and blind bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit till golden. Cool.

Orange Pastry Cream

5 egg yolks
15 g cornstarch
50 g sugar
250 ml milk
zest of 1/2 an orange

-whisk together the yolks, sugar, and cornstarch. Bring the milk and zest to a boil and slowly pour in the egg mixture while whisking. Pour back in the pot and whisk over medium heat till thickened and whisk, cooking for one minute more. Pour into a bowl and chill.

Cape Gooseberry Compote

1 pint husked cape gooseberries, quartered
100 ml simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, boiled)
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
zest of 1/2 an orange
1 tsp cornstarch

-Bring the syrup to a boil with the vanilla and orange zest. Dissolve the cornstarch in some cold water and add to the mixture. Bring to a boil till thickened and add the gooseberries. Simmer for 5-6 minutes and drain. Cool down.

Raspberry Sorbet

500 g raspberries, pureed and strained
500 ml simple syrup
500 ml water

-Mix all and put in ice cream maker.

Cheesecake Tart and Rum Cake

This was kind of a last minute improvisation because I had some mango cheesecake mousse left over from an previous cake. I added some chopped lychees to it and filled up some silicone domes to set. I had seen some really pretty tarts before where it was filled with creme caramel or some other type of mousse so I decided to try it with some puff pastry. I made kind of vol-au-vent type thing with it, sprinkled a little bit of sugar, and baked it to a nice golden crisp.

I made myself some mango compote with a pinch of orange zest and filled the tart with that first before placing the glazed cheesecake on it. The sides were showing a bit and it needed a little bit of colour so I took some strawberries that I had and made little tiny balls with my mini melon-baller, which by the way makes everything look so cute and dainty. The little tiny balls of fruit were, as my old chef used to say, "fruit caviar".

This rum cake was a request of my mother's friend due to the fact that she loves rum so much. I had warned her that the rum in here was quite a strong dosage and she said that that was what she had wanted. This is a small version with some slivered almonds on the bottom (the cake is reversed after baking) and it is injected with lots of rum glaze.