Its late and I'm buggered. It's been a long long happy happy amazing day. I love birthdays yes for the obvious reason PRESENTS! but as cheezy as it sounds i love realizing how lucky you really are and i do every year. I got severely spoilt!
I started the day off with a breaky in Balwyn (Snow Pony) I'm never disappointed with the food i consume there.
The rest of the day was spent roaming the shops with my mum trying to tick things off our list, this list is a never ending '21st garden tea party list'. We spent WAY too long searching for little things that should be easy to find. By the time we came home we had just over an hour until the family was coming for dinner. We popped the pork in the oven and i got started on dessert 'Chocky tart'.
I started on the pastry and i learnt one very good lesson....
WHEN BLIND BAKING A TART ALWAYS PUT BAKING PAPER INTOP OF THE TART BEFORE PUTTING THE RICE IN THE TART. IT WILL SINK INTO THE PASTRY. OF COURSE.
This tart is so rich but it is heaven. Such an easy recipe and i really liked the sweet tangyness of the raspberry's with the bitter dark chocolate. I want to try it adding a little more of the cointreau and maybe going with caramelized oranges to serve.
Basic short crust pastry.
in a food processor put 200g plain flour and 100grams of chilled unsalted butter (cut into cubes). Add a pinch of salt and process for one minute. Add 2 tablespoons of chilled water and process until the mixture comes together. wrap the dough and chill for 30mins.
Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin on a floured surface and line your (bakingpaper lined/greased tart tin.)
prick the base with fork and line the top with baking paper. Fill with rice or baking weights. Bake for 10-15 mins.
(I made 2 of these batched just so i had more than enough for my tin.)
For the Inside you'll need....
150g unsalted butter
200g dark chocolate
3 egg yolks
2 eggs
3 tablespoons of caster sugar
2 tablespoons of tia maria
1tablespoon of cointreau
1teaspoon arrowroot
Coulis
2 cups raspberry's
3 tablespoons of sugar
Grated dark chocolate to serve.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a saucepan on very low heat.
Beat eggyolks, egg and sugar until they are light and fluffy.
Pour melted chocolate, tia maria, cointreau and arrowroot into the egg mixture and continue to beat for 1min. pour the mixture into the tart case and cook for 5 mins in an oven of 180degrees.
allow to sit for 1 hour.
To make Raspberry coulis...
In saucepan heat a 2 cups of fresh or frozen raspberry's (I used frozen and it was so delicious!) with 3 tablespoons of caster sugar, keep stirring until the raspberry's cook down.
Pour through a strainer and use the liquid as your coulis.
I have to say i am still so over full and satisfied. With our roast pork (which had the most amazing crackling) we had some delicious mashed potato and green beans topped of with thyme butter. YUM YUM YUM
The 'Real Food companion' Matthew Evans was a present i am snuggling up to bed with right now, hopefully I'll be boasting about how great the homely meals I'm cooking from it are this week.
night xx
