The New Year has begun with a lot of cooking. The posts have been
coming in often and my blog is going to have almost 2000 hits- and I have
finally embarked on the photography, learning nuances along the way. Food has
been crucial to the beginning of the year, and that too, far beyond the blog.
To cut a long story short, along with faraway tips, I decided to
make dessert for the BIL who was travelling to India. The icing on the cake was
that he was not familiar with my cooking- and even this blog. And I just need
an excuse to spend half a day, puttering about in the kitchen, thoroughly
enjoying the experience. The start point was that he would like something with
fruits, and Ak came to the rescue by suggesting mini-tartlets. Tarts are perfect for dessert, as everyone can pick up their own mini-helping and they look pretty and delightful. Also, i personally feel- as someone baking tarts, I would love to serve an assortment with varied fillings. For some reason- they seem healthier too, maybe because of their fruity nature. My quest for the
right tart began as I hunted for a sure-shot recipe that would work. I looked
at 2 of my favorite Bloggers-Tartelette...on the sweet side of life (I love Helen’s
styling and Photography-and am usually oohing- and aahing, when I read her
posts) and Passionate about Baking (My daily ritual-
or at least as often as she posts- Deeba is one of the most inspiring women…I haven’t
met her and have only written to her once- but I love what she has done with
Food Blogging here in India and the idea of making everything as pure as possible. She is
very inspiring and I really hope that someday I can, be half as good as her.)
The dish was decided, I was going to make tartlets with
strawberries and cream. I decided to go back to the Ipad Baking App, which I
totally swear by. I used the tart recipe here, removed the almonds from it, and
added some cinnamon instead. Most often, tarts are made with fresh fruits, and
the mixed berry tarts seen so often are almost impossible to make here- no wild
berries or blackberries available easily and I didn’t want to go down the tinned
variety route. For the filling, I experimented a bit and decided to use a
combination of cream and cheese- next time I may just use cream cheese instead!
I had the wonderful goat’s cheese with cinnamon and berries still lying in the
fridge, and so I decided to use a bit of it and hence, added the cinnamon in
the tart base to compliment the cheese. The results were astonishing. The goat’s
cheese added a wonderful consistency and flavor to the filling, a glimpse of
cranberries and the slightly cheesy sweetness with a hint of cinnamon was quite
wintery. I always thought strawberries and cream was a winner; the discovery of
the addition of cinnamon has been interesting. The audience thought it was
quite professional, and during the delay in actually putting up the post, I
have already made the tarts twice over. That I assume, would be success enough J
Disclaimer; this is the first post- where the photography is entirely
by yours truly, except for the one grand finale, which Ak shot to wrap it up. I
am quite pleased with the results- for which I give credit to the wonderful new
lens.
