More Than Sweet

However much I love sunshine and clear skies, there is something wonderful about sitting inside with a cup of hot chocolate and listening to the rain. I still love wearing wellies and jumping in puddles with my son. Unfortunately he doesn’t think it’s nearly as fun as I do which means I more often than not end up jumping around while my almost 2 year old is staring at me like I’m a crazy person.   

I think it is a love born out of necessity. The weather is pretty much bleak, grey and wet for 6 months a year and complaining doesn’t change that, so might as well make the most of it. The cold weather is excellent for all things chocolate and even better: PIE! 

For the last few years my go to pies were the american classics, apple, mud, pumpkin, pecan, sweet potato, chess…

I wonder who first thought to make a dessert with pumpkin or sweet potato. And then I thought it would be fun incorporation another vegetable sometimes found in desserts; the humble beetroot.  

The beetroot meringue tart is not only pretty in pink, but packs a punch with the added guajillo chili and aniseed; the guajillo combines heat with a sweet tanginess that pairs beautifully with the earthy beetroot and cool liquorice notes from aniseed. The billowing meringue topping is balanced with the addition of lime juice and slightly smoky notes from torching. 
To me at least it ticks all the boxes: Sweet and sour, soft and crispy, smoky and spicy. 

Aniseed and guajillo chili beetroot tarts with toasted lime meringue

Four 12cm tartlets or two 24cm tarts

Pastry

150g softened butter
100g icing sugar
1 large egg, whisked
25g almond flour
250g all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. salt

Beat butter and icing sugar until soft and creamy, add the egg and beat well until incorporated. Mix in flour, almond flour and salt and mix only until the dough comes together.

Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

Either separate the dough in 4 smaller balls or 2 larger. Roll out the pastry and line the ungreased tart shells with the pastry. Cover with aluminum foil or parchment and weigh down with dry beans. Bake the tart shells blind for 15 minutes at 180C/360F. Remove weights and foil and bake for another 5 minutes.  Let cool slightly.

Filling  

450g peeled, roughly diced beetroot
2 tsp. ground aniseed
½-1 tsp. ground guajillo chili, depending on how spicy you like it.
750g whole milk
150g heavy cream
200g granulated sugar
½ tsp. salt
3 large eggs

Combine beetroot, aniseed, chili, sugar, milk and cream in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Turn the heat down to medium-low and maintain a gentle simmer for just under an hour.

Stir frequently, and scrape the sides and bottom of the saucepan to prevent buildup of milk solids during the reduction; similar to the process of making cajeta or dulce de leche from scratch.

Pour the mix into a blender with eggs and salt, and blend until smooth. Strain the mixture through a fine meshed sieve before pouring the filling into the tart shells.

Bake the tarts for 25-30 minutes, or until the filling is set. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Meringue

3 egg whites
175g sugar
Juice of 1 large lime
Pinch of salt

Whisk the egg whites with the salt in a stand mixer until soft peaks form. Add the sugar a little at a time while whisking, until the meringue is stiff and glossy. Gently fold in lime juice and either spoon on top of the tarts or transfer to a piping bag and pipe onto the tarts.

You can either bake the meringue for 3-5 minutes in a 220C/425F warm oven or use a kitchen torch to toast the meringue lightly. Either way, the meringue should be added just before serving because of the added moisture from the lime juice. 

There is something magical about the way almonds and cherries bring out the best in each other. Like they were made for each other. But much as I love these two, I find that combined with tonka bean or even better with mahlab too (dried seeds of St. Lucie’s cherries, it has been used as a spice in the Middle East and Greece for centuries) they get more depth of flavour. The tonka bean brings sour cherry and warming clove and vanilla notes where mahlab adds a sweet rosy floral and bitter almond taste to the dessert. It turns a good cherry tart into a really great one.

If you can’t find either tonka beans or mahlab, you can substitute vanilla for the tonka beans. As for mahlab, there is already an almond frangipane filling in the tart, and you can add a few drops of rosewater to the pastry cream to get that hint of rose in the dessert. 

Cherry tartlets with tonka bean and mahlab

4 tartlets

Mahlab shortcrust pastry

25g almond flour
150g all-purpose flour
40g icing sugar
1 tsp. ground mahlab
75g cold butter, diced
½ egg

Mix almond and all-purpose flour with icing sugar and mahlab in a bowl. Cut in the cold butter either with a fork or a pastry cutter until the texture is crumbly and reminiscent of wet sand. Add the egg and gently, but quickly work together till a ball of dough. Separate the dough into 4 portions and pat the dough balls into flat rounds, then wrap them in clingfilm. Put them in the fridge to chill for at least an hour. 

Roll out the dough balls and line 4 tart rings with the pastry. Chill the lined tart rings for another hour and prepare the frangipane. 

Frangipane

50g almond flour
50 g sugar
30g finely chopped curly parsley
50 g butter, softened
½ egg
100g cherries, pitted and roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 175C/350F. 

Whisk together almond flour, sugar, parsley, butter and egg with a hand mixer until the mixture is light and creamy. Be careful not to overwork the frangipane paste as this will cause it to separate when baking. 

Spoon the frangipane onto the pastry, divide the chopped cherries in the four shells and press down lightly. Bake the tarts for 20-25 minutes, remove from the oven and allow the tartlets to cool completely in the tins before turning them out. 

Tonka bean pastry cream

250ml whole milk or half and half
½ small or ¼ large tonka bean, grated
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
60g sugar
1 large egg
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Place a fine meshed sieve over a clean bowl and set aside.

Whisk together the sugar, grated tonka bean, cornstarch and egg until smooth.

Pour the milk or half and half into a saucepan. Bring to just under a boil while stirring continuously so the milk doesn’t burn.

Pour 1/3 of the milk over the egg mixture while whisking thoroughly. Pour the new mixture back into the saucepan and whisk together over medium heat. Cook while stirring until the mixture just starting to boil and the pastry cream is thickened. Immediately remove from the heat and strain through the sieve into the bowl.

Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes. When the pastry cream has cooled slightly whisk in the butter 1 Tbsp. at a time. Whisk thoroughly until the pastry cream is smooth; place a piece of cling film directly on the surface of the cream to avoid a skin forming. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.

Once the cream is cold, do not whisk or stir it. It will break down the starches in the cream and make it thin and runny. 

Assembly

About 200-250g fresh cherries, pitted and quartered
A few wood sorrel leaves

Spoon the pastry cream over the cool tart shells. Arrange the cherries over the pastry cream and garnish with wood sorrel. Keep in the fridge until serving. 

Since I met Christian, my husband, almost 11 years ago he has never really cared much for dessert. He will eat the occasional slice of birthday cake, sometimes order sorbet when we are dining out, but it is not something he looks forward to the way I do. More often than not he will politely decline and go for a cup of coffee or a brandy to finish a meal. 

But there is one exception to this rule. A treat he has loved since he was a kid and still do as an adult. It is as simple as it is delicious and has the whimsical name “Monkey food with vanilla cream”. Basically it is just fruit salad topped with a vanilla cream made of whipped cream folded into egg yolks whisked fluffy and creamy with sugar and vanilla seeds. I don’t think you will find a Dane who hasn’t had this growing up, or still light up when presented with a big bowl of fruit topped with billowy vanilla cream. 

And so I thought I would jazz it up a bit as a surprise dessert for Christian. It should be recognisable as the dessert he loves so much, playful but at the same time a little more refined. A cream pie seemed like the obvious solution and the result was glorious. 

Flaky tart shell, bittersweet dark chocolate, salty/peanutty caramel, lemony vanilla pastry cream, fresh fruit and billowy soft whipped cream topped with shavings of more dark chocolate. It hit all the right spots and then some. My husband made me promise him I would make this for his birthday. In May! And the year after and the year after and the year.. Well, you see where this is going. 

The inspiration for the different layers are based on Tartine Bakery’s banana cream pie, I love their addition of chocolate on the tart shells. It keeps them from going soggy and gives a lovely bittersweet note that balances everything nicely. 

Monkey Food Cream Pies

 Tart shells

225g flour
40g sugar
125g cold butter, diced
1 egg
Pinch of salt

Combine flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to mix together. Add the butter and pulse until the size of peas. Finally add the egg and process until the dough just begins to come together.

Gather the dough into a ball, divide in 4 and press each into a disc. Wrap in cling film and chill the dough for at least an hour. Roll out and line four 10cm/4 inch greased pie tinswith the dough.

Blind bake the shells, lined with foil and filled with dried beans, for 20 minute at 175C/350F. Remove beans and foil and bake for another 10 minutes, or until the shells are golden. Cool completely on a wire rack before turning the shells out.

Salted peanut butter caramel

200g brown sugar
2 Tbsp. sugar
4 Tbsp. peanut butter
150ml heavy cream
100g butter
¼ tsp. salt

Add peanut butter and heavy cream to a small saucepan and brung the mixture to just under a boil over medium-high heat. Turn the heat down low.

Melt the brown and white sugar in a different pan over medium heat. When there are no more sugar granules pour the cream over the sugar. Be careful, it will boil furiously at first. Stir to combine, and when the caramel is smooth remove from heat. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then whisk in the butter and salt. Whisk thoroughly to ensure a smooth caramel. Stir occasionally while the caramel is cooling.

Lemon + vanilla pastry cream

250ml whole milk or half and half
½ vanilla bean
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
60g sugar
1 large egg
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 Tbsp. lemon zest

Place a fine meshed sieve over a clean bowl and set aside.

Whisk together the sugar, cornstarch and egg until smooth.

Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds from the bean. Transfer seeds and bean to a saucepan, add the lemon zest and pour in the milk or half and half. Bring to just under a boil while stirring continuously so the milk doesn’t burn.

Pour 1/3 of the milk over the egg mixture while whisking thoroughly. Pour the new mixture back into the saucepan and whisk together over medium heat. Cook while stirring until the mixture just starting to boil and the pastry cream is thickened. Immediately remove from the heat and strain through the sieve into the bowl.

Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes. When the pastry cream has cooled slightly whisk in the butter 1 Tbsp. at a time. Whisk thoroughly until the pastry cream is smooth, place a piece of cling film directly on the surface of the cream to avoid a skin forming. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.

Once the cream is cold, do not whisk or stir it. It will break down the starches in the cream and make it thin and runny. 

Fruit salad

1 banana
1 apple
1 pear
1 large handful seedless grapes
1 tsp. lemon juice

Peel the banana and wash the apple, pear and grapes. Cut the fruit in roughly ½cm/¼ inch dice, mix with the lemon juice and set aside.

Assembly  

70g chopped bittersweet dark chocolate. I used Valrhona Manjari.
70g bittersweet chocolate bar, for making shavings. Again, I used Valrhona Manjari.
250ml very cold heavy cream

Melt the chopped chocolate over a water bath until just melted. Spoon the chocolate over the tart shells and spread the melted chocolate over the base of the shells. Place in the fridge to cool for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make the chocolate shavings by running a vegetable peeler or a chef’s knife over the chocolate bar.

Remove the shells from the fridge and pour the caramel over the set chocolate in an even 1cm/ just under ½ inch layer. Spoon over the chilled pastry cream, and cover the pastry cream with the fresh fruit salad. Whip the heavy cream until it holds medium peaks and is lusciously soft. Top the fruit salad with the whipped cream and finish with a sprinkling of chocolate curls.

Chill the tartlets for a few hours after assembly and serve cool. 

I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked.
-Sylvia Plath, from ‘The Bell Jar’

Fresh figs to me evoke childhood memories of southern France, where figs are so integral a part of their culture that they celebrate them with festivals (not to mention the most mouthwatering preserves). 
Luxurious on their own, all soft and sweet and luscious. And as a jam on toast on a cold morning they are a mouthful of sunshine and summer much needed during the long Scandinavian winter. But most of all I love fresh figs on top of a tart. 

Here I have paired the figs with lavender and cilantro mascarpone whipped cream to bring out the floral sweetness in the figs and balance with a tart lime curd. 

Mini Fig Tarts with Lime Curd and Lavender Cilantro Cream

4 tarts

Sweet shortcrust pastry

250g cold all-purpose flour
150g cold butter, cut into small cubes
1 large egg
3 tbsp. icing sugar
1/8 tsp. salt 

Sieve the flour and icing sugar together and work the butter into the flour, either by rubbing your thumbs against your fingers or by mixing it into the flour with a pastry blender, until the texture is similar to breadcrumbs. Whisk the egg together and add it to the mixture. Gently work it together until you have a ball of dough. Be careful not to overwork the mixture and activate the gluten as this will make the pastry elastic rather than crumbly.

Flatten the dough ball and wrap in clingfilm before chilling in the fridge for at least an hour. 
Roll out the dough and butter 4 8cm tart rings. Cut out disks of pastry slightly larger than the tart rings and line the rings with the pastry. Prick the pastry with a fork several times to allow any air bubbles to escape during baking. Freeze the tart shells for 15 minutes before baking for 15-20 minutes at 180C. Keep an eye on the tart shells, they should be a light brown color when you remove them from the oven. 

Leave them in the ring for 5 minutes before removing and cooling completely on a cooling tray.

Meanwhile make the lime curd.

Lime Curd  

1dl lime juice, app. 3-4 limes. 
Lime zest
40g butter
100g sugar
1 egg

Whisk the eggs together with the lime juice in a small casserole. Add in the rest of the ingredients and slowly bring to a boil while stirring the mixture. Let it simmer for 10-12 minutes over medium low heat while whisking. The curd should be quite thick, but still pourable. Strain and let the lime curd cool in the fridge until assembly.

Lavender Cilantro Mascarpone Whipped Cream

60g mascarpone  
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. ground lavender
1 tbsp. finely chopped cilantro

Chill a mixing bowl in the fridge. Combine mascarpone and sugar in the cold bowl and whisk on high speed until sugar is dissolved. On a low setting add the cream to the mixture, then increase the speed and whip on high speed until soft peaks form. 

Fold in lavender and cilantro, season with both to taste, and store in the fridge until assembly. 

Assembly

4 cool tart shells
Lime curd
Lavender cilantro mascarpone whipped cream
6-8 ripe figs, sliced

Fill the tart shells with the lime curd, top with mascarpone whipped cream and arrange the figs on top. Once assembled the tarts should be served immediately or refrigerated until ready to serve.  

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