Strawberry Sunday tartelettes with almond pastry

Summer Sunday is definitely the day for sweet tarts or tartelettes. This time I tried also a new pastry where half of the flour is ground almond. The end results was lighter (not less butter though...) and literally melted in the mouth. Definitely to be done again.

These little pastrycups are also a perfect standby treat. Just keep them in an airtight box for a week or so, and take out whenever you feel like indulging...  This time we filled them with rhubard curd (no surprise there I suppose), whipped cream strawberries, blueberries and some grated chocolate.

Almond pastry for tartelettes

150g cold butter
150g ground almonds
2,5dl icing sugar
0,5tsp salt
1tsp vanilla sugar
4dl flour
2 eggs
2tbsp almond liqueur

Rub the other ingredients than eggs together to form a sandy mixture. Add eggs and liqueur and form the pastry. Put into a plastic (bag) and into the fridge until the next day.

Use silicon pastrycases (or butter the metal ones). Cut slices from the dough (2 mm thick) and cover with them the cases. Push with fingers to form an even coating.

Bake in 200 (celsius) degrees oven for 10-12min. Let cool.

Fill with rhubarb curd, cream and berries. Grate chocolate on top. Enjoy.

Red wine onion jam put in a tart... can you think of anything better for an April lunch ?

 Well, add the gorgonzola type blue cheese and a lot of thyme...

Cooking is 1/3 creativity, 1/3 luck and 1/3 innovative stealing. It is not easy to come up with something totally new in the kitchen nowadays. Seems like most of the ideas have already been presented by someoe else. At least in our house, cooking is mostly a patchwork of ideas picked up in different places and put together to create something that is more than the sum of its parts.

This tart definitely adds up to the level of eternal favourites "chez nous".  The main idea comes from Delicious-magazine (my favourite), the onion jam is slightly modified from the one from Rachel Allen and the pastry is the old Finnish favourite for pigs in a blanket. In the pastry I use the Finnish "rahka" which is a kind of quark but in a completely unsweetened form. If you can't find similar, you can try with Greek yoghurt or just buy ordinary readymade puff pastry.

Salty-sweet red onion pie

Make the jam and the pastry the day before - less time and work required during the morning before lunch.

Jam :
25g butter
6 red onions
150g caster sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 dl balsamic vinegar
1,5 dl red wine (something quite sturdy)
a splash of Marsala (or sherry or something similar)
2 tbsp blackcurrant jam 

Slice the onions and cook them at a low heat with butter and sugar for about 30min. Add the rest of the ingredients and let it cook for 45min more. The jam is quite liquid still in the end but don't worry, it'll set once cold.
Put in to a jar and into the fridge to wait.

Pastry (or readymade puff pastry)  :
250g  rahka (quark)
250g soft butter
4 dl flour

Mix quickly to form a dough. Wrap with clingfilm and put to fridge until the next day (or at least for 30 minutes before using)

The next day

Roll the dough and put it to a pastry tin (diameter appr. 24 to 26 cm) Don't roll it too thin but leave at least to 5 mm. 

Spread the onion jam to the bottom. Cut pieces from the blue cheese and drop them evenly on the onion jam. Chop a lot of thyme and add on the top.

Mix 2 eggs, 4 egg yolks, 2 dl cream and 2 tbsp Dijon mustard and pour the mixture into the tin.

Scatter crushed hazelnuts on the top.

Bake in the oven (200 degrees celsius) for about 30min. Let it cool to room temperature and serve with green salad.

This is what I wanted for my birthday this year

Traditionally it should have been a cake with cream and candles (more than I care to count), but this year I opted for a lemon meringue tart. And not just any lemon tart. Over the years I've tried numerous recipes but have always returned to this one. My favourite, by far...

I hope you'll like it too :-)

As you can see, my birthday was close to Easter this year - thus the chocolate eggs in the decoration. I tested tempering the chocolate myself, but the conclusion was simply that more practice will be needed on that front. I'll probably come back to it at some later date.

Minna's favourite lemon tart

Base :
250g flour
40g (icing)sugar
175g cold butter in cubes
1 egg yolk
2-4 tbsp cold water

Filling :
3 dl water
1 dl sugar
zest and juice of 2 lemons
4 tbsp Maizena
3-4 egg yolks
20g butter

Meringues : all the spare eggwhites + 2 dl sugar

Rub the flour, sugar and butter into a sandy texture. Add the egg yolk and enough water to quickly form a pastry. Cover in clingfilm and put to the fridge for 15min.

Roll the pastry, fill the tart case (24cm diameter) and put back to fridge for 15min more. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Put the tart case into the oven for 10-15 minutes until it is slightly browned. Leave to cool.

Make the filling. Mix water, sugar, lemon and Maizena into a casserole. Put on a medium heat and stir all the time with a wooden spoon. Once the mixture thickens, let it still cook for a couple of minutes. Take off the heat and quickly whisk in the egg yolks one by one then the butter in cubes. Leave to cool.

Increase the heat of the oven to 250. Spread the filling on the cooled tart base. Whisk the egg whites with the sugar until they form stiff peaks.  Use the piping bag or two spoons to spread the meringue on the tart. Put it to the oven and keep an eye on it for a few minutes, until the meringue is nicely browned.

Decorate the cooled lemon meringue tart as you wish and enjoy.