It has been yet another eventful political week in Australia. We have a new Prime Minister after the last one was dumped by his party. This makes him the fifth Prime Minister since 2013. If you want to count the musical chair then Scott Morrison is our 7th PM in five years. Social media was obviously abuzz and one thing I retain from a quick browsing was this: “A baby born in 2013 would have known five Prime Ministers in his/her entire lifetime.” The lady who made that comment was also prompt to point out that she had to wait 26th years to know her fifth Prime Minister. All this to say that it has been a weird week, one where the focus has been on some egomaniacs politicians instead of us the people that put them there.
Lucky we had my baby’s 2nd birthday and time spent preparing this week’s challenge to get my mind off all these petty infighting. For the first event, I baked a lovely coconut cake and decorated it in pink with an ice-cream cone on top. We took it to Lorelai’s play group on Wednesday where we had a good time celebrating with all the kids there and their parents. Lorelai even got a lovely present from one of her little friend. Exceptionally for her special day, her daddy took the day off work to join us at the play group and play with her. With two birthdays in a week, Lorelai was over the moon and she couldn’t stop talking about how she enjoyed blowing the candles on her cakes and people signing “happy birthday” for her. I am glad she enjoyed it.
As for the 2nd event, this week’s contest, I had planned earlier on to make a raspberry tart. I particularly like the colour of raspberry. As I had some leftovers pistachio I thought the two would make a wonderful combination and would look so good on the pictures. Now, every time I planned on a dish, my immediate second thought is how will I plate it and what colours I want to work with which is both challenging and enticing. I’ve made a fair few tarts in my time cooking, and I always enjoy when the dough is particularly buttery but not too crisp. I like the crumbs falling over on my lap or in the plate whilst biting through the tart. Generally I would opt for a fruity fillings but this time I thought a custard would make a good filling. And to add another level of yumminess I added a first layer of Nutella to the tart crust to add another layer of goodness.
My only issue was time. With the last days of winter in Melbourne, it appears that the weather has decided to play wild. It has been raining a fair bit over the week. And when it is not raining it has been particularly overcast and any idea of using natural lights for pictures was out of line. I was meant to put up a post on the cake I’ve baked for my daughter’s birthday. But the light was so bad that I didn’t manage to get a useable picture. But Saturday was going to be a beautiful Melbourne day. Unfortunately, as I didn’t have time to prepare the dough and custard on Friday and allow them to rest overnight, I had to prepare everything on Saturday. Got to Sunday we were expecting good weather but Melbourne being Melbourne, all morning was overcast. And 197 pictures later I was able to present today’s theme.
I hope you enjoy it too!
Bon appétit!
And good luck to everyone.
INGREDIENTS
Tart Shell
- 1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup powder sugar
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 ¼ cup un-bleached all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsalted shelled and finely ground pistachios
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons of heavy cream
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
Pastry cream
- 2 cups of whole Milk
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ Vanilla Bean paste or Vanilla Bean pods.
- 5 egg yolks
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons of unsalted cold butter cut into small squares.
- Pinch of salt
METHOD
- In a small sauce pan, combine the milk, ¼ cup of sugar , and pinch of salt. Cook until the mixture became to a simmer or small bubbles form around the edge of the pan. Set a side do not let it come to a boil.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, ¼ sugar and cornstarch until well combined. Slowly and while whisking at all times temper the egg yolks by adding about 1/3 cup of the hot milk-mixture, once incorporated continue adding the rest of the hot milk. Once is all incorporated, pour mixture back in the sauce pan and cook on medium heat for about 8-10 more minutes, whisking constantly until starts to thicken. With a cooking thermometer, make sure the pastry cream riches 72 degrees Celcius.
- Transfer to a bowl and keep whisking to cool down the mixture and start adding the cold butter one square at a time. Whisking for about 5- 8 minutes until the pastry cream cools down. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap making sure the plastic touches the pastry cream, this will ensure the formation of a skin. Refrigerate until well chilled at least 2-4 hours. ready to use, just whisk thoroughly by hand to smooth consistency.
- In a large bowl combine the butter and powder sugar until well combined and creamy. Add egg yolks and almond extract mix for about a minute until well incorporated. Start adding the flour 1/3 at the time. Mix gently, add the ground pistachios, salt, and cream. Mix just enough until all the flour is incorporated maybe 1 minute or less. Place all the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, flatten to form a 1 inch tick block the shape of the tart mould. Wrap tight, and refrigerate over night.
- Lightly flour the work surface, roll out the dough to about ¼- inch thickness. And fit it carefully into the pan. Use your fingers to slightly press the dough into the edges and with a paring knife cut the edges. Line the tart dough with a piece of parchment paper and rice to bake. Bake for about 15 minutes. Remove the paper and rice and bake for about 8-10 more minutes or until golden brown.
- Evenly spread the warm Nutella into the bottom of the tart shell. Spoon the pastry cream and spread in an even layer. Top and garnish with fresh raspberries, pistachios and dust with powder sugar. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Serve cold.
