back in business (chocolate lime pie)

having made it through the madness that is final year and secured myself employment, it is with a tentative excitement that i return to my much missed outlet of blogging. now i can only hope that you haven't all completely given up on me!

the unfortunately minimal baking that has been occurring recently has led to a back log of baking books that i have purchased but never used! (other than to drool over of course) so i thought this would be a good place to start - and where better than with my beloved john whaite? his second offering is John Whaite Bakes At Home and follows a similar style to the first book, very matte and minimal.

i was lucky enough to meet john when he came to a book signing at exeter. my poor friend april was somewhat embarrassed to be in the shop with me as i promptly freaked out! but i managed to pull myself together and we had a lovely little chat about the perils of final year and the bad luck to have a birthday around exam time. (i was celebrating my fake birthday that day due to my actual birthday falling in the easter holidays, aka dissertation/exam lock down time)

i one day aspire to have such beautiful writing!

so, fan girling aside, i settled on the chocolate and lime pie as a simple recipe which looked perfect to ease myself back in. so many recipes now take up two pages or more, and i mostly far too lazy to deal with that! 

the recipe begins with a buttery biscuit base...

sorry, it just has to be done

 

the recipe says to use a food processor, but bashing biscuits with a rolling pin is infinitely more satifying! 

 

 

 

once the base has chilled, it's on to making the filling which is also super simple - just how i like it!

 

i find mini graters (i think i got mine from a hot chocolate gift set) ideal for grating citrus fruits, especially smaller limes, as you have more control and i feel there is less wastage 

perhaps not the most visually appealing mix? 

for baking the pie, i found the instructions were not quite right for my oven. the recipe suggests 20-25 minutes at 180° until the pie trembles, however i found that mine was quite rapidly bubbling away! so i turned the oven right down and left it in for a further ten minutes. at this point it seemed much more solid.

a great test of patience then occurs as the pie has to completely cool and then set in the fridge (never something you want to read in a recipe!)

 

 so it turns out getting this pie out of the tin is not the easiest thing ever! the biscuit base is very crumbly and delicate, hence the crumb explosion all over the work top

 low marks for presentation - the delicate nature of the base meant getting the bottom of the tin from under the pie was not going to happen

definitely not a thing of beauty but rustic chic is very in...

taste wise i'm a bit on the fence with this bake - the lime taste is very strong and overpowers the chocolate (especially as this is almost 'diluted' coming through a biscuit) so maybe i would include one less lime? the crust was definitely the best part, because of the better balance between filling and base. but definitely not a write off and an interesting experiment with different ingredients! the filling is very similar in texture to a cheesecake, which - as with a cheesecake - works well contrasted against the biscuit base.

well there we go, i'm back in business and hoping to get a weekly bake going to distract from the tedium of 9-5!

love,

nen

x

procrastibaking take two: passion fruit tart

so the second of the procrastibaking extravaganzas was the passion fruit tart from john whaite bakes which is an absolutely gorgeous book and one I would thoroughly recommend to anyone.

this recipe jumped out as another simple one in terms of ingredients (especially as Tesco has a deal on passion fruit at the time) and was another summery recipe to chase away the revision blues.

the pastry recipe was pretty much the same as the previous one, although this was a little more difficult to handle. getting it into the tin is always a bit of a challenge!

the best part of this recipe was getting to try passion fruit for the first time. I couldn't believe I hadn't had them before as they are so scrummy! it was hard to restrict myself to the one spare and not gobble up the whole lot!

such an interesting fruit

the fruit are scooped and sieved so that the juice remains.



the fillings were also very similar and this was also best put into the tart case when it was already on the oven shelf.

the results of this tart were absolutely stunning, it's amazing to get such a vibrant yellow colour from all natural products! and the taste certainly lived up to the visual promise.

the tart is finished with the pulp of the two remaining fruit (which was useful for hiding the crack!)

this was a really tasty tart which I hope to make again over the summer as it is the perfect accompaniment for an afternoon tea or as something sweet to finish off a BBQ.

and I hope this shows how easy and satisfying it is to make your own pastry and turn it into a scrumptious tart!

love,
nen
x

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procrastibaking take one: lemon tart

it is a truth universally acknowledged that a student undergoing exam season must be in need of baked goods...

and so it was that during this exam season several hours were set aside for some baking therapy! this included the night before an exam where I really needed to switch off and so whipped up a batch of fairy cakes - a classic bake that involves so little thought and produces a sweet pre exam treat.

however this was only the warm up for a serious procrastibaking season that featured two tarts! this post will track our first attempt, a delicious lemon tart. this is easily one of my favourite desserts, it hits the spot after a good dinner while not being too sickly like chocolate. making one yourself also involves relatively few ingredients so this was a perfect choice for mine and april's first attempt.

we used a mary berry recipe, as she is the queen of home baking, and it included some really useful hints about rolling out the pastry which is the tricky part. we decided to be good (and waste some more time) by making our own pastry - which went surprisingly well! and it makes the tart taste all the better (even if pride is the only addition!)

all the ingredients ready to go

so the first step is to cube the butter and then cut it into the flour. now I didn't know what this meant at first, but a quick google search revealed it's when you use two knives (or a special tool, but who has one of them?!) to break down the butter into the flour. I found this video quite useful for a visual prompt:

the next stage is to add the egg yolk and water to bring the mixture into a pastry dough. there is quite a bit of pastry resting in this recipe, once before being placed into the tin and then again when the tin is ready.

kneading the pastry together

prepping the tin

rolling out the pastry - remember to well flour your rolling pin and surface

getting a bit cheeky with the rolling pin!

once the pastry is in the tin and has been rested it is ready for its first trip to the oven. it is blind baked at first, we used baking beans but you can also use uncooked rice. once it had started to cook we trimmed the excess pastry from the crust, which started to catch so we used tin foil to protect it from burning.

while this is baking we prepared the filling which consisted of a lot of zesting and juicing!



lemons galore!

once the filling is prepared place it into the blink baked pastry case - it is easier to do this while the case is in the oven (with the shelf pulled out) as you don't have to carry it and there is less likely to be any spillages!

the tart then bakes, filling the house with the most delicious smell ever, which meant - as has become expected - we didn't really wait long enough for it to cool before digging in...!

a dusting of icing sugar finishes this off perfectly, and a couple of raspberries would not go amiss

I am pleased to say this tart continued my love for lemon tarts, the pastry was gorgeous and flaky and the filling was the perfect mixture of sharp and sweet. it was delicious both warm and cold, not that it lasted long in our fridge!

I hope the plethora of photographs and the addition of a video makes up for the delay in posting!

love,
nen
x

end of exams!

as of 4:15 yesterday afternoon i had officially completed my first year at university - scary stuff! one of my first thoughts as i put my pen down after two hours of writing about medieval marriage and beliefs about death was that i could now dedicate more time to writing this blog - as well as having a summer of baking ahead of me! the sun is still shining and we're off to the pub for a celebratory drink. this weather puts me in the mood for a gorgeous peach and raspberry tart (a hummingbird bakery recipe). i've made it once before and it is so refreshing and yummy! (apologies for the low picture quality, these were taken on my ipod)

i remember being so chuffed that it turned out looking so much like the original picture (normally a rare occurence!)

after the pub i am off home for a day (job registration) and hopefully i will have time to whip up some brownies - if so photos should follow!

love,

nen

x