Sunday, September 9, 2012

Passion fruit curd, lime, meringue & raspberry tart

So there I was with two jars of passion fruit curd in the fridge, both of them literally screaming into my gluttonous belly "eat me, eat me"! I had to do something with them to prevent me tucking in with a spoon so I decided to make a few little tarts. People are always a little bit nervous when it comes to pastry but honestly the key is to handle it as little as possible and to make sure everything is chilled. These ingredients make enough for four mini tart cases but feel free to double the quantities as this pastry will happily sit in your freezer and await it's baking adventure turn.

For the pastry cases;

125g plain flour
60g butter
50g icing sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1tbsp milk

Cream the butter, icing sugar and salt together.
Rub in the flour and egg yolk until it looks like breadcrumbs. I always use a fork at this stage.
Add in the milk gradually to form a dough.
Place dough onto a piece of clingfilm and roll into a sausage shape. Allow it to rest in the fridge for at least a hour.

For the meringue;

I always use Nigella's meringue recipe as it has yet to fail me. Meringue is possibly one of my favourite things to both make and eat and this one is foolproof!

2 egg whites
150g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar

Whisk the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl until soft peaks form.
Add in the sugar a spoonful at a time and whisk till glossy.
Add in the cornflour and vinegar and give it one final whisk.
Spoon into piping bag.

Remove pastry from the fridge and cut into thin slivers. Place these into the tart cases and press down gently to join the edges, similar to a jigsaw puzzle. So much easier to do this than to roll it out. Bake blind in a 180 degree preheated oven for fifteen minutes or until golden at the edges.
Allow to cool.

Once the cases are cooled fill them up with passion fruit curd, use as little or as much as you like.
Pipe little noisettes of the meringue mixture onto half of the tart and place under grill until lightly browned. Keep a close eye as they can burn very quickly.
Take some fresh raspberries and add to one of the tart quarters and with the remaining section add some grated lime zest.
So there you have it, a very impressive looking tart that is super simple to achieve. The tang of the passion fruit curd, the sweetness of the meringue, the sharpness of the raspberries and the citrus flavour of the lime combine to make this a great taste sensation. I need to cook a dessert for Chef Derry Clarke in my upcoming Tesco Fresh Factor competition, do you think he would be impressed by this?

9 comments:

  1. Hi Paula, where did you get your passion fruit curd?

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    1. I made it Niamh! Recipe is the previous blog post. :-)

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  2. Looks fantastic bound to impress - I expect to see you popping up on my tv screen any day now. The photography side of things will be fierce handy for the book - you can put me down on the waiting list :) Rosemarie

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    1. Ah Rosemarie, that put a big smile on my face! Hope it's not crime watch I am appearing on! :-)

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  3. I'm one of those nervous people, even use store bought sometimes, but these look so impressive. Having large amount of family visiting in Nov. if I made these they would be very impressed. Especially if I made filling too, I've never thought to flavor meringue(my favorite part). Thanks for a recipe I cant wait to try.

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    1. This pastry couldn't be easier, especially as you don't have to roll it! The curd is gorgeous as its so tangy. Hope you like them, thanks for lovely comment!

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  4. If it tastes as good as it looks, you're onto a winner there Paula! Speaking of gorgeous curd, have you ever come across Irish coffee curd, picked up a jar at the Tullamore show, although I'm sure you could make your own. Apparently makes a delicious cheesecake, my jar didn't survive long enough for that unfortunately :) http://www.crossoguepreserves.com/index.php?contentid=recipes

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    1. Sandra that's so funny, I tried that very coffee curd last summer with the intentions of making a cheesecake and I ate the entire jar with a spoon!!! They also make a red onion marmalade which is fabulous, tried to recreate it myself but it wasn't a patch on it! We will have to arrange a coffee date soon. :-)

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  5. haha, good to know I am not the only one - I have been known to eat cooking chocolate in times of need! Coffee would be great, must catch up with all you Clara women sometime!

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