I’ve been using Mr P’s camera for the last while to take blog photographs, seeing as how I’m still a poor and starving artist. Wait. Did I just say ‘starving’? Well, hardly, but I’m still holding out for the camera I long for and in the interim I’m a Borrower. On Sunday I did something I’ve never done before, trained as I am with the reflexes of a cat (ahem) and dropped Mr P’s appropriated private possession, destroying the focus and retraction on the lens. Not wanting to beat about the bush for too long I ran out at first light, well 10am when the shops opened doors you must be a stickler for detail, and purchased a replacement model, which is shiny and new, with bells and whistles (the old one just had the bells) and fits in to the hand like it was born to be there. The proof of the pudding, as always in this house, is in the eating, so we’ll have to wait and see the first foodie photo’s it takes before we judge.
In the mean time, perhaps I could interest you in a little something something for that sweet tooth. A little derivative from Sylivie, who somehow always leaves me feeling a little breathless and under qualified in the baking department.
*note: this recipe needs about 6 hours in the fridge, preferably overnight. It’s great for entertaining as you can make the shells and filling the day before and just whip up and decorate the tarts before your guests arrive.
White Chocolate Tarts with Black berries
for the pate sable:
200g butter, softened
pinch salt
⅓ cup icing sugar, sifted
¼ cup almond flour
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 Tbsp + 1½ cup flour
for the filling:
70g white chocolate, chopped
2 Tbsp + 60 ml Cream
1 punnet black berries, washed
make the pastry:
– beat the butter with the almond flour, salt and sugar until creamy.
– add the egg, vanilla and 1 Tbsp of the flour and beat until smooth.
– add the rest of the flour and combine to form a sticky dough. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour
– roll out and line greased and floured tart tins, refrigerate for a few mins
– heat oven to 360˚. Blind bake tarts (using parchment paper and legumes/lentils/etc) for 10 mins
– remove from oven, remove paper and legumes, bake empty tart shells another 7 – 10 mins until pastry is coming away from the sides of the tins and is “singing”.
– cool tart shells to room temperature.
make the filling:
– in a bain mare, melt the chocolate with the 2 Tbsp cream
– when the ganache is smooth, remove from heat to cool a bit. Add the rest of the cream and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
– whip the chocolate cream until it’s stiff. It whips up really quickly.
– fill the baked tart shells and top with black berries.
I am so going to make these the minute we have something besides blinking strawberries on the shelves. They sound fantastic. Almond flour is ground almonds here hey?
Oh MAN that looks good. And I have a whole bunch of frozen wild blackberries left from the summer…. Your photos are really nice, by the way!
[…] these little tarts. It’s simply a version of a typical little fruit tart, not dissimilar to these, or these, using a pate sable and a type of nut custard, like frangipane but with pistachios […]