november-december: kerri’s dark chocolate pretzel tart

It took three attempts of different recipes for me to find the one I wanted to post for our salty and sweet challenge. I wasn’t happy with the recipe for the almond thumbprints with dark chocolate and sea salt that I made first. I found the biscuit base too crumbly, and that the sea salt addition didn’t really add much to incorporate a true salty and sweet treat.

Next, I made Nigella’s bacon brownies, which were actually quite yum but I felt was a bit of a copout! They’re great, though, and I’ve frozen some so I can have a sneaky treat when I feel like one :)

So, when I came across this tart recipe, it sounded like it had all the components of a true salty and sweet baking challenge that I wanted.

I had never thought to use pretzels, even though I know many people love chocolate covered ones. And because of this, when I found the recipe, I thought it would work. As you can see, the pretzels make a great base and add an interesting texture to the shell.

The original recipe uses milk chocolate, but I prefer dark… and my guests agreed. No one could stop at just one slice!

april: kerri’s berry mascarpone tart

My creation for this month is a super easy but impressive looking tart! I made these as the dessert to two paid dinners in our home, requested by a guest who came to our last homemade hk dinner. A scary but flattering request, I accepted the challenge! {Challenge not only because these would be my first paid dinner jobs, but also because we were moving out of our home less than a week after!}

On that note, apologies for such a late post. I now I write as an ‘international citizen’ as B likes to call it; or rather a nomad – with no fixed address, travelling abroad looking for jobs and hoping to settle in a permanent place soon. But for now, back in Sydney for a few months!

I decided on mascarpone for this month’s theme, only because I haven’t used it at all since moving to HK due to it’s expense. Seeing as I was being paid for these dinners, I decided to splurge a bit! I love the creamy texture of mascarpone, and I know some people don’t like ‘cheesy’ desserts, so the subtle taste is perfect to cook for people you don’t know. Mixed with brown sugar to give it a caramelised flavour and cream to lighten it up, it made the perfect light-but-decadent filling for the tart.

I roasted strawberries for the first time for another dinner party event recently and discovered how roasting really makes strawberries shine. You can prepare them a couple of days earlier and keep them in the fridge for when you need them, or have them on hand for eating with ice cream, on cakes or in a dessert!

For the tart shell, you can buy pre-made shells or use your own favourite pastry recipe. I wanted thin tart cases so rolled my usual go-to pastry thinner, which turned out to be a disaster! All the cases crumbled and broke! I ended up using another recipe but in the end, would have been happier with my go-to recipe at the usual thickness – it may not have looked as pretty, but I think the flavour would have been better. {I have included this one on the recipe.}

As I said, it’s super easy. Enjoy!

You can find the recipe here.

october: kerri’s darjeeling brulee tart

I love tea. My favourite tea was introduced to me many years ago through a gift from a friend. Inside contained what has become my favourite tea brand and tea variety of all time. Mariage Fréres’ Marco Polo. It also introduced me to the concept of eating tea – it contained a tea conserve and tea sablés. Yum.

A recent trip to London also saw us take a quick overnight trip to Paris. Why? So I could immerse myself in the Mariage Fréres tea experience – not only the amazing stores, but the Thé Salons as well. Here you not only get overwhelmed with the 400+ varieties of tea on offer, you can also eat light meals too, all incorporating tea. The best part? Their tea desserts! So when Lisa announced the theme was tea, I knew where I was going to get my inspiration from!

And so it was. I had the most amazing Darjeeling Tart – it’s hard to describe it in any other word than perfect. With just the right sweetness, the distinguished flavour of darjeeling was on show. I could even say that it topped most chocolate desserts I’ve had – now that’s saying something!

With each bite, I tried to work out how to make it, taking mental notes to experiment with when I got back home. Luckily for me though, I found the recipe in the store!

I decided to use my tried and tested tart base – one that lends itself to both light and rich tart fillings. It’s a great recipe to keep up your sleeve.
I smoothed the filling before chilling, giving me the most options for decorating. I still hadn’t decided!
I wanted to keep the tart simple to showcase the darjeeling. In the end, I decided to brulee the top – to add to the texture and because everyone loves a sugar crust. But I made it quite light so it didn’t add too much sweetness.

I think my guests loved it as much as I did in Paris! It was a perfect end to the meal – and as comforting as a hot cup of tea. Ah.
You can find the recipe here.

may: kerri’s apple crumble ice cream tart

I chose this month’s theme purely on this recipe! I found it a few months ago while I was scrolling through the Australian Gourmet Traveller website. I love apple crumble – it evokes comfort and warm memories of my childhood, eating it hot, straight out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. I’ve had many over the years, but my mum’s is still the best!

I’ve always only had apple crumble in the traditional way – apple on the bottom, crumble browned on top, and mostly in winter. So the idea of having it in ice cream form not only sounded delicious, but also meant it could be a dessert to be enjoyed no matter what the weather.

I decided to make one change in the recipe for the sake of added interest and presentation. Instead of mixing the crumble into the ice cream, I made a ‘crumble’ tart base instead, substituting brown sugar in place of caster sugar in the pastry.

It was a hit with my guests who all agreed that my apple crumble ice cream tart actually tasted like apple crumble! Yay. And yum.

Recipes:
My version
Original recipe

may: jasmine’s cherry brownie tarts

My favorite classic sweet treat is the good ole brownie. The brownie was a staple when I was growing up. It was a common item at birthday parties when I was a child, my friends and I made it at sleepovers, and it was a must-have at neighbourhood bbqs, potlucks and house warmings. In fact, I think brownies were my first venture into the world of baking. Though…back then, my brownie recipes included cocoa powder instead of chocolate blocks :)

My favorite part of the brownie is the edge, so to ensure that each portion of brownie tart had an even proportion of edge and soft chocolate-y centre, I decided to bake the brownies in a muffin tin. A friand tin or a mini loaf tin would work just as well.

I added layers of cherries and cream cheese bits to the brownie tarts. I love the cherry-chocolate combination! I also added one of my favorite classic ingredients to the recipe – sour cream. Sour cream keeps the brownies moist and I think it balances the sweetness of the chocolate and sugar.

I brought the brownie tarts to a monthly home-made high tea I have with my girlfriends and the treats were really well received. I served them fresh from the oven sprinkled with a bit of icing sugar. Luckily, the friend who was hosting lives in the same apartment building as I do – so the brownies were still warm in the centre when they were served….which added to the complements and brownie points I received :p 

march: kerri’s citrus tasting plate

I was excited when Anna announced her theme for march was citrus. I’ve not experimented much with citrus over the years, so I was excited for the challenge of finding new recipes and adapting them for my own.

I was having a bunch of friends over for dinner last Friday night so decided to do my march challenge then. I started searching and couldn’t pick just one. So I decided on a tasting plate of smaller portions so I could do them all… greedy as I am. And of course, I had to include some chocolate into the mix. Just because I love it so much.

I thought I’d stick with the norms (orange, lemon, lime, mandarin) since they were all new recipes and I didn’t have time to test them out first. Plus I was trying these fruits with different textures / combinations to what I had before, so thought they’d be interesting enough. I would have loved to try something with blood orange or pink grapefruit but I couldn’t find any while shopping, tho they must sell them here somewhere…

So here it is, the finished plate.

From bottom right, clockwise: chocolate & lemon tart, caramelised lime pudding, mandarin custard, finishing off with a dark chocolate & orange truffle.

And a few more pics:

chocolate & lemon tarts: chocolate pastry cases filled with chocolate ganache and lemon curd, topped with chocolate ganache and lemon zest to serve.

mandarin custards: baked in egg cups, topped with mandarin slices to serve.

my ‘in-the-making’ photos of these weren’t too pretty so here they are again, finished – the dark chocolate & orange truffle (top) and the caramelised lime pudding.

Yum. My guests all said they really enjoyed their dessert plates (tho people always say that, don’t they?) but my lovely B gave the thumbs up so I’m happy. He loves his desserts too so he will benefit much. My favourite was the mandarin custard. It was fresh, light and creamy. I wasn’t too sure how it would taste but yum, it was good. Too bad I only made enough for that night. I also really liked the caramelised lime pudding, which was originally lemon but I had to change it since I’d already used lemon in the tart. The pudding was extremely light, with the slight self saucing on top giving it a simple decadence. And the caramelisation of the limes gave an extra dimension to the flavour. Yum.

Oh, and of course I loved the chocolate ones too. But I don’t really need to say that, do I?

k.