Limes!

One of the things I like the most about Sydney is that you can still find a place away from it all. I was talking about this the other day iwth friends and we are all so amazed that on the harbour, 15 mins away from the centre of the city, you can find yourself on a seclude beach, surrounded by bushland, with barely anyone else around! Having found a few of these places myself in my area, one of my favourite things to do on the weekend is to take the papers or a good book and go and hang out on my own in the peace and quiet. I love the fact that I don't have to fight for space or worry about children running around flicking sand everywhere.

So, after a long hard afternoon at one of my favourite harbour beaches, I was super relaxed and came home to make a late afternoon snack. I didn't want to go out and battle the local supermarket (pretty much the complete opposite to the "away from it all" theme...), so I had to make do with what I had at home.

Limes. And I mean alot of limes! Both me and my flatmate had bought a bagfull each this week. I love using limes in salad dressings and asian dishes, but I rarely use it when baking. During the week, I had been reading some old posts of one of my favourite blogs ,and noticed a recipe for a really simple lemon cake . Of course, faced with a bowl full of limes and the basics of a cake in front of me, there was no question!

The only citrus cakes I have made before generally required a syrup to make them moist and flavoursome. This cake is great because the texture is really soft and moist and the flavour of the limes just shone through, with no fiddling about whatsover with any syrups. With a glass of soda and ... you guessed... lime! I had a nice refreshing treat on my hands!

Lime Loaf Cake

2 cups plain flour
2 cups sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
2 eggs
2 limes, zest and juice
½ cup milk

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Beat in lime zest and juice. Fold in flour and baking powder. Stir in milk until well combined. Fill a loaf pan with mixture and cook for 45 minutes.

Chocolate and Vanilla Tarts with Cherries

It was so hard to think of something to make for my first post. I had a few rules I wanted to follow. I wanted something with cherries, I wanted something from my repetoire of recipes that I use all the time, and I wanted something a little special.
When I was in France, I used to bake every day. One of the first things I learnt to make was pastry - both a savoury (pâte brisée) and sweet version (pâte sucrée). I have to say that this is what opened up the world of baking to me, because once you can make pastry you can make quiches, pies and tarts of course.

Which brings me to my next discovery, crème pâtissière, to which I have Damien Pignolet's wonderful book French to thank! He advocates adding lightly whipped cream to the cooled custard, which lightens both the texture and flavour of the crème pâtissière.

With pâte sucrée and crème pâtissière, you can make any fruit tart. Here I have added cocoa to the pastry to make the tart slightly richer and to offset the sweetness of the crème and the cherries, and of course how could I make a custard with out vanilla? But you could add melted chocolate, fruit puree or lemon zest if you wanted.

Slightly altering the flavourings of both the flavouring and the custard to complement the flavours of the fruit is the key to an interesting fruit tart!


Chocolate and Vanilla Tarts with Cherries

20 cherries, pitted and halved

Pâte sucrée au chocolat

150g butter
1 cup plain flour
¼ cup cocoa
¼ cup icing sugar
1 egg, beaten

Iced water

Crème pâtissière

3 egg yolks
225mL milk
3 1/2T caster sugar
1T plain flour
1tsp vanilla bean paste

150mL thickened cream

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
In a food processor, combine flour, cocoa, icing sugar and butter until mixture resembles crumbs. Add egg. Process. Add a little water until dough just comes together in a ball. Divide dough in two, form each half into a ball and cover in cling wrap.
Refrigerate for 30 mins, remove and roll out until approximately 3mm thick and line 4 loose bottomed10cm tart tins. Prick the base of each tart lightly.
Cook for 10 minutes, and leave to cool

Heat milk in saucepan over low heat, slowly bringing the milk to boil. At the same time beat sugar and egg yolks until light and fluffy. Incorporate flour until well combined.
Add hot milk, and whisk mixture over low heat until mixture thickens. The consistency should be thick enough to leave a ribbon of custard.
Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla. Leave to cool.
Whisk cream until soft peaks form. Fold into cooled custard.

To assemble tarts, spoon crème pâtissière into tart cases and arrange cherry halves in a circular pattern. Enjoy!