Winter Berry Tart

As I walked through the supermarket the other day, I couldn't resist picking up some punnets of strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. There are so many berries available in the UK at this time of year, I thought I should make a dessert to put them to good use....rather than eat them all myself! I decided to prepare a quick tart which serves 6 people. You could use any type of berries or fruit as the topping - whatever takes your fancy! I have previously made it with cranberries and dark cherries which was delicious. Here's how to make a mixed berry version:

Ingredients

• 3 cups fresh berries
• Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
• 125g golden caster sugar
• ½ tbsp arrowroot
• 250g mascarpone
• 200ml fresh vanilla custard (you can either make this yourself ahead of time or use a store-bought variety if you are in a hurry)
• Cooked shortcrust pastry case (8 inches - again you can either make this yourself or buy a pre-made case)

Method

Tip the berries (or other fruit) into a pan with the orange zest, orange juice and sugar, and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 5 minutes until the berries are just softened and the syrup has reduced slightly. Note, if you are using blueberries, add them a few minutes after the strawberries, or other larger berries as they soften faster.

Using a slotted spoon, strain off the berries and set them aside in a bowl, leaving the syrup in the pan.

Next, mix the arrowroot with 1 tablespoon of cold water, then add it to the pan and cook for about 1 minute while continuously stirring until the syrup has thickened. Pour over the berries and leave to cool.

To prepare the tart filling, put mascarpone and vanilla custard into a bowl and whisk with electric beaters until smooth. Spoon the mixture into the pastry case (note: a shop bought pastry case can save you time!).

Lastly top the tart with the berry mixture. Yum!!!

I made a bit too much syrup so you can see it running down the edges a bit - it still tasted really good though! Make sure you store the tart in the fridge until you are ready to serve it.

Happy baking!

Winner!

The winner of the National Cookie Network Baking Challenge for September has just been posted and I am so thrilled to announce that my mascarpone cookies filled with strawberry ganache won. There were so many amazing entries this month for the 'strawberry' theme. The other bakers have all shared their recipes so I'm going to have lots of fun trying them out over the next few weeks.



Stay tuned for my entry for the October cookie challenge. I'll be posting it on the 1st of November!

National Cookie Challenge - September Entry

Today I entered the National Cookie Network Baking Challenge, an online international cookie competition, where each month, competitors have to make a cookie based on a "secret ingredient", then post their recipe and a photo of their entry onto the national cookie network forum for judging. This month, the secret ingredient was "Strawberry". I had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for cookies, but settled on the following recipe as my entry:

Mascarpone Cookies Filled With Strawberry Ganache

Cookies
115g butter (softened)
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. baking soda
Dash salt
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese (room temp)
1 egg
2 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling
1 cup fresh strawberries
2 tsp. caster sugar
120g white chocolate

Preheat oven to 175C. Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 1 min in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add caster sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, baking soda and a salt. Continue beating the mixture until it is combined, scraping the side of bowl occasionally. Mix in mascarpone cheese, vanilla and almond extracts, and egg. Then beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Once it is too thick to use the beaters, use a wooden spoon to stir in any remaining flour. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour or until dough is easy to handle.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough and use cookie cutters (I used 3-inch fluted circles) to cut out the dough. Use a smaller cutter (I used a small heart) to cut out the centre of half of the cookies. Place cookies on a line baking tray and bake until edges start to brown (5-7mins depending on oven). Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Puree the strawberries and mix in the caster sugar. Strain the puree through a sieve to remove seeds. Melt chocolate in a bowl over a pot of simmering water, stirring continuously to prevent the chocolate from burning. Remove the chocolate from the heat and stir in the strawberry puree. Cover with plastic wrap and cool to room temperature.

To assemble the cookies, spread the flat side of each whole cookie with a teaspoon of the ganache. Top with a cutout cookie, and dust with icing sugar if desired. Cookies store well in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Happy Baking x