Passionfruit Tartlet

Short Bread Crust 
80 gram Flour
50 gram Butter
20 gram Granulated Sugar
2 Tsp Cold Water
Punch Salt

Method   
Cut the Butter into the Flour until you have a rough consistency, add salt and mix thoroughly. Sprinkle in cold water just enough to form dough, wrap dough in plastic and let rest 1 hour. Remove dough and roll out to 1⁄4 “ thickness line a tats shell and blind bake shell & let it cool.

Method
Fill tart shell with sweetened Mascarpone Cheese and top with fresh Passion Fruit pulp, place on plate and garnish with toasted coconut.

Bush Lemon & Thyme Tart

-Fijian Food Safari


Bush lemons grow wild and organically in Fiji. 

Pastry
500 g    Plain flour
175 g    Icing sugar
250 g    Unsalted butter (not margarine!), at room temperature
1          vanilla pod, split open
1          grated zest of 1 bush lemon
1½        Eggs, beaten

Lemon filling
9          Eggs
400g     Caster sugar
grated zest of 2 bush lemons
juice of 5 bush lemons
250 ml Whipping cream
3 sprig  Fresh or dried lemon thyme leaves, chopped fine

Soak the thyme in the lemon juice for an hour, then strain out the leaves

Sift the flour and icing sugar on to a work surface and work in the butter. Make a well in the centre and add the lemon zest and seeds scraped from the vanilla pod. Add the eggs. Knead the mixture with your fingers, working as quickly as you can, until everything is combined to a smooth dough. Wrap in plastic film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C

Grease a flan tin with a removable base that is 20 cm in diameter and 3.75 cm deep. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a disc large enough to line the tin and allowing an overhang of not less than 1 cm. Lay the pastry gently into the tin.

You need to blind bake the shells by weighing down the pastry with rice or lentils. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the rice and greaseproof paper and trim off the overhanging pastry, then return the flan case to the oven to bake for a further 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the lemon filling. Whisk the eggs with the caster sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in the herb lemon juice, then add the cream. Continue to whisk until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Skim any froth from the top.

Reduce the oven temperature 120°C. Pour the cold filling into the hot pastry case (this will insure that the case is sealed). Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool and set for about an hour.

Tart Case

To make 2 * 30cm/12 inch tarts

250g / 9oz butter
200g / 7oz icing sugar
pinch of salt
500g / just over 1 pound flour
4 egg yolks
4 tbs cold milk/water

By hand or in food processor - cream together the butter, sugar and salt and then rub or pulse in the flour and egg yolks. When this looks like coarse breadcrumbs, add the cold milk or water. Pat and gently work together to form a ball of dough. Lightly flour and push, pat and squeeze into shape with the minimum amount of movement.

Roll out the pastry into a lare, short sausage shape, wrap it in cling-wrap and place in the fridge for at least an hour.

Slice off slivers of pastry lengthways around 5mm/1/8 inch thick. Place the slivers in and around the bottom and sides of your tart mould, just fitting them together like a sort of jigsaw, Them push the pieces together, level out, then tidy up the sides by pushing with your thumb. Clean off the excess or leave it hang over. Allow it to rest for at least an hour, preferably in the freezer.

To bake: Bake tart shells for 15 mins at 180C / 350F, coloring it slightly. Once completely cooled it can be filled with uncooked fillings (i.e. chocolate tart).

With baked fillings (i.e. lemon tart) - need to blind bake tart shell first - 180C/350C for 12 mins