Orange mascarpone and pistachio tarts

The inspiration for these little tarts come from a German food blog called What should I eat for breakfast today?  The original recipe was for an indulgent Christmas breakfast and the tarts have a seedy pastry base with pumpkin and sunflower seeds and coconut and potato flour - which sounds delicious but as I’ve never used coconut or potato flour before and as this blog is supposed to have cheap(ish) and easy to find ingredients I’ve used a dark chocolate pastry instead - because chocolate and oranges were just made for each other.  It’s still quite a Christmassy recipe but maybe more suitable for lunch or dinner or tea than breakfast.

I used my favourite Careme dark chocolate shortcrust pastry for the bases, which has no preservatives or additives and uses real butter.  If you can’t find a similar one you can make your own, or use any good quality shortcrust pastry made with real butter.  I think they’d also be nice with a chocolate biscuit cheesecake type base (see the cheesecake recipes).

You could leave out the saffron (as it’s rather expensive) but it gives the tarts a lovely orange colour and gives a little edge to the favour, so put it in if you can.

Orange mascarpone and pistachio tarts

Butter some small tart tins and cut out the pastry to fit.  Bake in a medium (180C) oven for about 15 minutes or until cooked.  Leave to cool completely.

For the filling :

250g mascarpone
1 orange - juice and zest
a pinch of saffron
1 tsp honey

pistachios for serving
orange zest for serving
candied oranges for serving (optional)

Mix the mascarpone with the orange zest and juice, the saffron and the honey.  Fill the tarts with a tablespoon of the mascarpone mix and decorate with the pistachios, orange zest and a small wedge of candied orange.  Serve immediately.

summer berry pie

This is a recipe I found on pinterest from a blog called vikalinka.com.  I’ve adapted it a little as the original was a bit too sweet for my taste.  It’s really simple to make, and if you can find a really good quality all butter pre-made pie shell you can forget about making the pastry yourself and use that instead.  Just make sure you use really fresh ripe berries. 

Summer Berry Pie

Ingredients

600g fresh mixed seasonal berries (eg raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, mulberries etc)

4 meringue nests (broken into pieces)

1 cup double cream

1/2 cup creme fraiche

seeds from 1 vanilla bean (or 1/2 tsp vanilla essence)

1 tbsp rum (optional)

For the pie

250g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)

50g icing sugar

125g unsalted butter (cut into small cubes)

I large egg

a splash of milk

butter for greasing the pie tin

Mix the flour and icing sugar in a large bowl, add the (cold) cubed butter and work it in the mixture until it resembles coarse bread crumbs.  Add the beaten egg and a bit of milk just to bring the dough together and form it into a ball.  Wrap it in a plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Sprinkle your work surface and the rolling pin with some flour, take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out big enough to fit a 9″ loose bottomed pie tin. Grease your tart tin with some butter, and lay the pastry over making sure it comes up the sides.  Trim off the extra bits and prick it all over with a fork.  Cover it with cling wrap and put it back in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Pre-heat your oven to 180C. Take the pie dough out of the fridge (or use your pre-made one) and line it with baking paper, fill with baking weights or uncooked rice and bake it “blind” for 10 minutes, then remove the baking weights and baking paper and bake for 10 minutes longer until golden.  Allow to cool completely (very important!).

Whip the cream and creme fraiche with the vanilla bean seeds and rum until soft peaks form. Mix in the broken meringue and put the mixture in the pie shell. Top with the mixed berries and sprinkle with a little icing sugar.