Tarts, tarts, tarts

For our monthly Don't Call Me Chef column which is published in Star2 today, we decided to derive inspiration from nursery rhymes. My nursery rhyme of choice was The Queen Of Hearts rhyme made popular by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. 

The Queen of Tarts she made some tarts

All on a summer day

The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts

And took them quite away

I like this rhyme but more than that, I love tarts. It's my go-to party dish at the moment. For dinner, tea or breakfast/brunch, I'm surely gonna make you a tart should you come by my way.

For the column, I made a Dark Chocolate Rum Tart inspired by master baker Dan Lepard's Pecan Crust Bourbon Chocolate Tart which you can view in his post in The Guardian some time back. 

Let me tell you: it was delicious! Decadent! You won't be able to stop at one. You may not want to share it with your guests! 

I made a few minor adjustments: he uses bourbon, I used rum; he uses cane sugar I used palm sugar and I also added some sea salt into the chocolate. I also made a chocolate-walnut crust (adding more cocoa than Lepard uses) instead of a pecan crust. 

You can check out the recipe for the Chocolate tart I made here.

Yesterday I made another tart: a Lemon Mascarpone Tart with a Rosemary crust and sour cream topping. 

Like most lemon tarts/slices, this one is tangy and very lemony. It's also creamy because of the mascarpone. The sour cream topping helps soften the tartness of the lemon filing - especially if you're not a huge fan of lemons. 

The filling is not cooked and thickened to form a curd. Though slightly runny, the cheese helps it set quite quickly. 

The recipe was inspired by one I saw in the food section of The Telegraph's site. I added the rosemary (because at the moment, rosemary and lemon is my favourite couple) and the sour cream.

The tart is best eaten chilled.

Lemon Mascarpone Tart with Rosemary Crust

For the pastry

100g plain flour

50g icing sugar

70g ice cold butter, cubed

1 sprig rosemary, chopped fine

pinch of salt 

4-6 tbsp ice cold water/milk

Filling

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

juice and zest of 2 lemons

125g mascarpone cheese

100g castor sugar

3 tbsp sour cream

First the pastry. Whisk the flour, salt and rosemary together. Add the cold butter and with your fingers or a mixer, rub the butter into the flour until you end up with a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs. Add the cold water a little at a time and work quickly to form a dough. Shape into a disc, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 mins.

Once chilled, roll the pastry on a floured surface until about 2mm thick. Lift the pastry carefully and fit into tart tin (I used an 8-inch tin). Prick the bottom and sides of pastry with a fork and blind bake in a 180C oven for about 12-15 mins or until the base has hardened slightly. 

Remove. 

For the filling, beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture gets pale and creamy. Add the mascarpone and the lemon juice and zest and mix to incorporate all ingredients together.

Pour the filling into the half-baked crust and put it back in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the filling is set.

Remove from oven and let cool. Once cool. spread a thin layer of sour cream on top.

Homemade Jam and Tarts

As a child, I loved, loved, loved jam tarts. Mum didn't make them but once in a while, she'd buy a dozen or so from English Hotbreads, our go-to bakery for birthday cakes and tea time snacks. They sold the most delicious pineapple jam tarts I'd ever tasted and I could wolf down three or four jumbo tarts at one go. Yeah! I'd finish them so quick m mum had to ration the tarts: four each for the three of us kids. Sometimes, I'd steal one (or two) of my sister's share: she wasn't as greedy as me and more generous.

I still love tarts. The combination of tasty, crispy pastry against a sweet, gooey, jam filling is just soooo good. Though I love the pineapple tarts Malaysians have become quite renowned for (I've come to think our Nyonya tarts are among the best in the world), I also like other fruit-jam tarts too. Strawberry, lemon-curd, apple ... comfort food, for sure.

So when I read Dan Lepard's recent post on jam tarts in the Guardian, I was inspired to make some of my own. Lepard uses leftover jam for his tarts but as I don't usually store much jam at home, I had to make my own jam instead. My two favourite jam flavours are apple and strawberry and wouldn't you know it, I had both fruits at home. What luck!

Making jam is really quite simple; definitely easier than it sounds. You dice your fruit and cook it in a little water and some sugar (depending on how sweet your fruit is and how sweet you want your jam) and just let it cook until the fruit softens and the mixture thickens. You can add some corn flour (or pectin) to help thicken the mixture too.

That's a basic recipe/method for jam but you can also add to your flavours by combining ingredients (strawberry and raspberry, apple and citrus...) in a jam compound or you could spice up your jam with ... well, spice. I added some roughly crushed pink peppercorns into my strawberry jam and cinnamon into my apple jam.

I used Lepard's recipe for the crust which I must say produced the best tart crust I have ever made or maybe even tasted. I had to adjust the measurements a little -- a little less water and a little more flour. The pastry was soft but sturdy enough not to crumble en route to your mouth. It has a small measure of icing sugar in it but it's not at all sweet; there is a great balance between the sweetness of the sugar and the saltiness of the butter and the added salt. It was the perfect casing for my mini tarts so, "Thank you, Mr Lepard".

Strawberry and Apple Tarts

For the pastry recipe, refer to Dan Lepard's post in the Guardian.Here's the link.

Strawberry Jam 

24 strawberries, hulled and diced 

1/4 cup sugar (adjust according to taste)

1/2 cup water 

1-2 tsp pink peppercorns, roughly crushed

1 tsp cornflour, diluted in 1 tbsp water 

Put the strawberries, sugar, water and peppercorns in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring occasionally. As the mixture begins to boil, cover and leave to simmer, continue to stir from time to time, until the strawberries get really soft and mushy. Using a wooden spoon or a potato masher, roughly mash the softened fruit (you may want to leave some chunky pieces in for texture). Taste for sweetness (add more sugar if you want) and then, just before you're ready to take it off the heat, add the cornflour and stir until the jam thickens. 

Remove and allow to cool.

Apple Jam

2 large apples, skinned, cored and diced

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar (approximate, to taste)

1/2 cup water

Add all the ingredients in a heavy-bottomed pan and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally. Cover and cook until the apples soften and can be mashed. Keep stirring until the jam thickens.