Summer Berry Flan

I'm not normally one to be too into making desserts with fruit. I like chocolate, cream, cake and other desserts, but normally I don't like to "pollute" them with fruit! However, this dessert is the exception - not only does it look beautiful and impressive to your guests, it tastes fantastic with the perfect balance of flavours and the berries don't "pollute" the dessert at all. They complement the rest of the dessert so perfectly. It was the aha moment where I determined that fruit has its place in dessert and that dessert can be just as decadent and delicious as non-fruit desserts. I'm hooked on this one! You should give it a try too. Its a bit involved, but the sense of satisfaction you get from making all components from scratch and the oooo's and ahhhh's you'll get from your friends and family will be well worth the effort. :)

 The beautiful thing about this dessert is that you can do so many variations to change it up - you could make a chocolate pastry cream and serve it with strawberries or cherries on top. Or you could do a tropical fruit tart with pineapple, papaya and toasted coconut... the options are endless!! What would be your go to flavour combination for this one?

Classic Fruit Flan
Minimally Adapted from Back to Baking by Anna Olson

Ingredients:

Tart Shell:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 oz white chocolate

Pastry Cream:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter

Fruits:

• 4 cups assorted fresh, tender fruits - I used raspberries, blueberries and strawberries
• 1/4 cup apple jelly

Method:

Tart:

1. Beat butter and sugar together until fluffy. Stir in egg yolks and vanilla. Stir in flour and salt until dough comes together. Shape dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours until firm.
2. Preheat oven to 350F. Knead pastry dough on lightly floured surface to soften it a little bit. Dust the pastry with a little flour, and roll out just larger than your tart pan (make sure it has a removable bottom). Line pan with dough, trim edges. Chill pastry for 10 minutes in the freezer.
3. Place the chilled tart pan on baking tray. Dock the bottom of the pastry shell with a fork, then bake in preheated oven for 16-20 minutes, until just the edges are golden brown and center of shell looks dry. Cool completely.
4. Melt 3 oz white chocolate. Brush to coat bottom and sides of cooled tart shell. Chill the shell while preparing pastry cream.

Pastry Cream:

1. Heat the milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan until just below a simmer. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and cornstarch. Whisk half of the hot milk into the egg mixture, then pour entire mixture back into the pot with the remaining milk. Whisk the custard constantly over medium heat until it thickens and just begins to bubble, about 3-4 minutes.
2. Strain custard into a bowl, stir in vanilla and butter until melted, then cover bowl with plastic wrap so the plastic directly covers the surface of the custard. Cool custard to room temperature, then chil1 in the pan for at least 2 hours.

Assemble the Tart:

1. Spoon the custard into the tart shell and spread it evenly. Top the custard with the fresh fruit, creaming an appealing design. Melt apple jelly in the microwave, then brush it over the fruit. Chill the tart in the pan until you are ready to serve. The tart can be stored in the fridge for up to one day.

So I told you it was a bit of work and I wasn't kidding, but its well worth the time and effort. Remember when selecing your fruits that some fruits turn brown (oxidize) upon contact with air. Those may not be best suited to this type of tart. Some examples of fruits that oxidize are - apples, bananas, peaches, and pears.

I hope you enjoy this one! Happy Baking my Friends!

Lemon Cheesecake Mousse Tart

I just love being on vacation - I actually have time for blogging and cooking and baking! Its so enjoyable and I feel like I'm a far better blog owner when I'm not just trying to get a post up for the sake of posting.  I've taken some time off between Christmas and New Years and it has been really nice - my family is staying with us so I've had a chance to "show off" with some delicious meals and some new recipes. This lemon cheesecake mousse tart from Anna Olson's cookbook In the Kitchen with Anna is a great dessert for occasions like this - where you want people to ohhh and ahhhh over the dessert and rave about it for a while. Its so delicious and really very simple to whip up. And of course, I have to mention how few ingredients this recipe has in it - you'll probably have a lot of them on hand already.

Lemon Cheesecake Mousse Tart
Recipe adapted from In the Kitchen with Anna

Crust Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chilled
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk

Mousse Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 12 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• dash vanilla extract
• raspberries, for garnish

Method:

1. For the crust, stir the flour, sugar, lemon zest and salt to combine. Pour into the food processor and  add butter. Pulse until the mixture has the texture of coarse meal. Add the egg and the yolk and process just until the dough comes together. Shape the dough into a disk and chill for at least an hour.
2. On a lightly floured surfact, roll our dough to just less than 1/4 inch thick (this didn't work for me, so I just pressed the dough into the tart pan and up the sides). Sprinkle an 8 inch tart pan with a removable bottom lightly with flour and line with pastry. Trim the edges and chill for an hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350F. Place tart shell on a baking sheet. Dock the bottom of the pastry with a fork, line the shell with foil and weigh down with dried beans, rice or pie weights. Bake for 15 minutes then remove the weights and bake for another 8-10 minutes, or until the centre of the tart shell appears dry and the edges are browned. Let cool while preparing the mousse.
4. For the mousse, whip the cream to soft peas and chill. In a separate bowl beat the cream cheese until smooth and beat in the sugar and lemon zest, scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Beat in the lemon juice and vanilla. Fold in the whipped cream in two additions. Dollop the mouse (or pipe with a piping bag) into cooled shells. Garnish with fresh raspberries and chill until ready to serve. Gently remove outside ring and bottom of tart pan before plating.

You could also make 8 4-inch mini tarts instead of one big one if you want something cute for a dinner party. Hope you enjoy this recipe!! I'm heading off to enjoy my last weekend of freedom before I have to head back to work.

I've linked up this post with Whatcha Baking Wednesday over at CajunSugarPie.Com - head on over there to check out some more scrumptious dessert recipes to test out (or even just drool over if you're into that!).

Happy Baking my Friends!

Cranberry Pear Linzer Tart

Can you believe today is February 27th already? Do you know what happens on the 27th of each month? Thats right, I post my daring bakers challenge. Well, this is definitely NOT my Daring Bakers challenge! This is a different post that I've been meaning to share with you for a while and while I have a few quiet minutes to myself this morning while hubby is still asleep and the dishwasher is washing the many dirty dishes from my dinner party last night I am going to write this post! Daring Bakers post to follow this evening after I have had a chance to photograph my dessert... thats right... I really saved it to the last minute this month!

I made this tart on boxing day, hence the sort of Christmassy holly looking thing on top of the tart (if you can't tell what it is, don't feel bad, I just didn't want to throw away leftover pastry!!!). It was really delicious, the pears are lovely and sweet and the cranberries add a tart burst here and there to really balance out the sweetness of the pears. But the part of this recipe that was the most interesting (and the most challenging) was the crust. As you'll see in the ingredients that follow, the majority of the ingredients go into the crust resulting in the most delicious flavour and texture in a pastry crust that I have ever tasted. Be warned though, this dough is not easy to work with... it caused me a lot of frustration, but the delicious results made it worth it!

Pear-Cranberry Linzer Tart

The Best of Fine Cooking Magazine

Ingredients:

• 4 oz (1 cup) walnuts, lightly toasted
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 8 oz (1 3/4 cups) all purpose flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 2 hard-cooked egg yolks, crumbled
• 8 oz (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 raw egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 lb ripe pears, peeled, cored, and cut int 1/2 inch slices (about 4 cups)
• 6 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, picked through and rinsed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup heavy cream or whole milk

Method:

1. To make the dough: in a food processor, grind the walnuts with the first amount of sugar to a sandy texture. Add first amount of flour, cinnamon, lemon zest, salt, cloves and crumbled hard cooked egg yolks. Pulse briefly to combine. Add butter and pulse until dough starts to come together and looks clumpy. Add the raw yolks and vanilla and pulse until well combined. The dough will be sticky and moist - more like a cookie dough than a pastry dough. Cut dough in half and set each half on a large piece of plastic and shape each into a flat disk, using the plastic to help you flatten. Wrap each disk in its plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
2. To assemble the tart: on a floured work surface, roll each disk of dough onto an 11 inch round, about 1/4 inch thisk. Put one round on a plate and refrigerate, uncovered. Fit the other round into a 9 inch fluted tart pan with removable bottom. Fold the excess dough into the sides of the pan and press to get an edge flus with the side of the pan. Sprinkle 2 tbsp of the flour in the bottom of the tart and spread evenly to cover.
3. Toss the pears and cranberries with remaining 4 tbsp of flour. Arrand the fruit in the tart shell so that pears lie as flat as possible (as you can see, I just tossed mine in there!!) and there are some berries showing on top. Scrape any remaining flour over the fruit and sprinkle with the other 1/2 cup of sugar. Take the other piece of dough from the fridge and cut into 8 1-inch wide strips. Arrange 4 strips evenly spaced over the top of the tart. Then on a shart diagonal to the first four, set the other four strips on top so that the overlapping layers make diamond-shaped windows. Trim the ends of the strips and press them into the edges of the tart.
4. Position the rack in bottom of oven, line a heavy rimmed baking sheet with foil and set on the rack. Heat the oven to 350F. Whis the last egg yolk with the 1/4 cup cream. Brush top strips with the egg glaze.
5. Bake on the baking sheet until the pastry is golden brown, 45 minutes to 1 1/4 hours. Let cool on a rack for 1 hour before serving.

This is such a delicious and versatile dessert and the crust really is so different tasting that it is worth giving it a try! You most definitely won't regret it and the people you share it with will be glad you went to the trouble of making it. :)

Happy Baking my Friends! Stay tuned for my Daring Bakers post later today.