Berries and Chocolate Tart

So I know berries are supposed to be summer fruit, but my favourite tart for fall has to have berries...
This is a simple recipe that goes great with coffee on a Sunday, or as a desert after a  meat-dinner.

It takes about half an hour to prepare,  fifteen minutes for the base to bake in the oven and another hour for it to chill in the fridge!


You 'll need:

For the pastry:                                                            For the filling:

• 175 g butter                                                      100 g dark chocolate
• 50 g caster sugar                                               500 g full fat  crème fraîche
• 1 egg yolk                                           
• 250 g plain flour                                      

 For the topping:

• 750 g summer berries (mixed or not)
• 2-3 tbsp orange liqueur (you can skip this, but, man, it adds flavour!)
• 2 tbsp powdered  sugar
• zest of a small orange (smell and flavour)

 And...

• 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin

 In your mixing bowl, take the butter and sugar and beat together until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. Then add in the egg yolk and continue until it's mixture is smooth! Now add the flour and again bring the mixture together. Afterwards wrap it the bowl with plastic wrap and let the mixture rest in the fridge for 25 minutes.
 Preheat the oven to 200C.
 and line the base and sides of the tin. Then put it back in the fridge for another 10-15 minutes.
Again take the pastry out of the fridge let it sit for a minute and put to the oven to bake for 10-15 minutes, until it's golden and crisp.

While that's in the oven, that's your chance to melt the chocolate. Put it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes or use a  bain marie. ( put the chocolate in a tin over a pot of almost bowling water to melt it)

Once you take the pastry out of the oven let it cool down for a couple of minutes and then apply  the chocolate on top evenly in a thick coat. Don't forget the sides as well! Then put it in the fridge for another 10 minutes!


Now beat the crème fraîche until it becomes fluffy and then put it on top of the chocolate!  

1. Let it in the fridge for another 10 minutes before topping off with the berries so that they don't sink in. Sprinkle the berries with the liqueur and decorate with the orange zest! Keep it in the fridge until serve!


                                                                         -OR-


2. Add some berries and top off with another layer of  crème fraîche, or chocolate, or both repeating the process we did above! And then add some berries to decor the top, sprinkle with the liqueur and the zest and again keep in the fridge until serve!
For this one you will need some more chocolate, I' m guessing another 70 g and some more crème, I'd say another 250g. For this one you need to make your layers thinner to fit into the tin or use a bigger tin! 
x,
Maria

FRUIT COBBLER

The most exciting recipe I 've made so far!

 (LARGELY INSPIRED BY JAMIE OLIVER!)

 

 

OK, so basicaly this is gonna be a very lazy fruit pie for anyone who loves baking but has neither the time nor the skills to do so!

To begin with preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C/gas 5). So what you re gonna need is one killo of fruits! Any fruits so that it all sums up to one killo! Initially you put 5 tablespoons of sugar into a very large pan but don't turn the heat on! For the sole purpose of making this recipe more exciting I took peaches and nectarines and rasberries and strawberries and blueberries and blackberries (preferrably organic) and bananas(sliced into big chuncks) and after I washed and dried them I put them into the pan with the sugar! Then you want to turn the heat on and quickly pour some balsamic vinegar which will help in boiling the fruit and the sugar together!

Don't be very large with the vinegar as it will give a bad sauer taste! Remember this is in fact a fruit pie! Once the vinegar and the sugar become one, the heat from the pan will cause the fruit to give away much of their juice creating a wonderful and tasty mixture! 

Meanwhile you want to start working on the topping! You will need 4 ounces of chilled butter(114 grams), 8 ounces of self raising flour (225 grams) and 2 1/2 ounces of sugar(70 grams). Mix the butter and the flour with your hands or if you prefer in a mixer and rub it together so that it starts to look like bread  crumbs! Add the sugar ad a pinch of salt! You need to use the salt in order to put some flavour into the flour which itself is pretty much tasteless! Mix tegether and then put the mixture into some kind of bowl in order to add buttermilk! You need4 1/2 fluid ounces of buttermilk for this (130 ml). Should you want to make the recipe lighter you could always add yoghurt (not the low fat)! You stir the mixture till it becomes soft but firm! You might need to add some more flour!  

NOTE: This whole thing should not take more than 6 min! And that's approximately how long the pan must stay on the stove!

Then put the fruit mix into a bawl (that can go in the oven) and the take the dough, roll it into balls and place randomly on top of the fruit! Remember you don't want to place them very close to each other since we used self raising flour! Sprinkle with some sugar on top and bake in the oven for thirty minutes. The sugar will help create a golden brown coating!

 

And... You 're ready! You can serve with ice cream to add some extra flavour!