Monday, October 3, 2011

raspberry tartlettes.





tangy
sweet
'n'
sour
even sharp at times
biting away at my taste buds.

in france,
i ate some of the best fruit of my life.
tarte aux framboise, fraise, citron.
they all had in common that the taste was pure.
it truly tasted of the fruit it was mirroring.

a combination, a creation, of not overdoing a mélange.

keeping it simple is always the best.

take a bite of the tarte.
close your eyes.
feel the crispness, the crumbling, and later the buttery melting of the crust giving away.
the hint of nuts,
in the foreground the raspberries,
the smooth jam and the soft fruit,
 fusing together as one again.
a tiny pang of hot,
tickling for only a second on your tongue.
you would not guess it is ginger.
only because i told you so.

there it is.
a perfect mélange.


raspberry tartelettes

makes about 6 tartes

pâte brisée:

80g butter
45g powdered sugar
10g eggs
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
 pinch of salt
150g all-purpose flour
 pâte d'amande:

50g butter
50g sugar
50g eggs
50g finely ground almonds
50g vanilla creme
a dash of good quality rum

raspberry jam:

150g raspberries 
23g sugar
3g apple pectin + 35g sugar
20g glucose syrup, or light corn syrup
2g lemon juice
20g candied ginger

 make pâte brisée.
 cream butter and sugar.
add eggs, mix well.
add salt and flour, blend until smooth.
chill for at least a half an hour before rolling out.

preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.

roll out dough at about 3-4mm and cut out round forms to fit mini tarte forms.
press into your forms.

make your pâte d'amande, creaming butter sugar and eggs.
add the almonds, vanilla creme and rum, beating until smooth.

fill into your tarte forms.

bake for around 15 minutes, or until the edges of your pâte brisée are browned and the inside is golden brown.

meanwhile, start in with the raspberry jam.
in a food processor, puree raspberries with sugar.
scrape into pan, leaving 1-2 tbsp of the puree in the mixer.
chop your candied ginger roughly and process with the 1-2 tbsp of puree until smooth.
set aside.
now heat your raspberry puree with the glucose syrup.
when it boils, add the pectin and the rest of sugar (it should be mixed up, so it does not clump!), and boil, stirring constantly, for 1 additional minute.
add the lemon juice and candied ginger and remove from heat.

your tartes should be out of the oven and cooled slightly before you fill them with the raspberry jam.
(i used a miniature funnel to fill the tartes more precisely.)
fill the tartes, leaving a border.

to decorate:
i used melted white chocolate, filled into a tiny self-made pastry bag, to garnish lines on one side.
in circular form, i placed fresh raspberries on the tartelettes.
 voilà.


thanks to my colleague laura, i was presented with raspberries from her garden.
once you started to pop them in your mouth it was hard to stop.
but i was looking forward to making this recipe,
so i trained myself in self-discipline.