Recipe No.27 - Strawberry and Pistachio Tart

Strawberry and Pistachio Tart, requested by work!
This requires very little actual baking but is very time consuming.

First the pastry is made including ground pistachio's to give it a lovely nutty flavour, after 30 minutes chilling it is rolled into a circle and pricked all over with a fork. In the book it suggested pinching around the edges to give a fluted look which I attempted. Before baking it looked nice but during the baking the edges blurred slightly.

After the pastry base was cooked and cooled I hulled the strawberries and heated the raspberry jam, these are then placed on the base and the glaze brushed on, finally topping with chopped pistachios.

I didnt really enjoy making this for some reason, I think it was because it didn't involve doing very much and I kept having to stop and start waiting for it to chill, cook, cool etc.

However it did taste really nice and was good to have some fresh fruit to make me feel less guilty about eating it!

Recipe No. 26 - Simnel Cake

Happy Easter Everyone!

I've been a bit busy this week so am finally getting around to typing up about the Simnel cake I made on Monday.
Prior to actually making this cake I've never tried Simnel Cake but this blog - and the up and coming Easter weekend has given me that little push in the right direction. I don't know why I've never actually tried it as I love both fruit cake and marzipan but anyway...

Ok so this starts out as a relatively simple fruit cake, however whilst you are filling the tin with the mixture when it reaches halfway a layer of rolled out marzipan is placed on top and then the remaining mixture added. This is baked for 30 minutes at a higher temperature and then at a lower for an hour although I think in future 50 minutes would suffice for my oven.

The cake is then left to cool for about 2-3 hours. Once cool heated apricot jam is spread on top and a layer of marzipan is added along with marzipan balls to represent the disciples. This depends on your opinions of Judas whether you add 11 or 12 balls. I went with 12 but only because it was easier to space the balls evenly. Diagonal lines are scored across the top and the cake is placed under the grill to brown the marzipan.

 Diagonal lines are scored across the top and the cake is placed under the grill to brown the marzipan.

Finished!

This cake was lovely, not too heavy and the layer of marzipan keeps the centre of the cake nice and moist.

Recipe No. 25 - Double Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

I....LOVE...CHEESECAKE.


Whenever I go out for dinner I can never resist a cheesecake, I can be so stuffed the thought of food makes me sick but as soon as that waiter offers me a Dessert Menu and I see a cheesecake (Lemon in particular - but i'm not fussy!) I HAVE to have it.

I especially love a baked cheesecake with a nice buttery, crumbly biscuit base. This cheesecake had 2 types of chocolate, both milk and white. First of all the digestives need to be bashed into crumbs unless you have very little stress in your life in which you can do it in a food processor. This is mixed with melted butter and pressed into the base of a spring form tin then placed in the fridge while the filling is made.

The cream cheese, sour cream and sugar are beaten together then the sugar, vanilla and eggs added and the whole gloopy mess is poured over the base and baked for approximately an hour. After that the oven is switched off and the cheesecake left inside to cool to reduce the chances of cracking across the top.

This went down really well, It wasn't exceptionally sweet although some people may find that the dark chocolate chunks are a bit too bitter in which case a chocolate with a lower cocoa content could be used. I used a 74% bar. Other than that its lovely with a nice helping of cream or creme fraiche.