Raspberry Tart

I am not afraid to say it....I backed out. I backed fully out of the Caramel Parfait Glace with Salted Peanut Caramel and Milk Chocolate Mousse I promised I'd do this weekend. As soon as I looked the recipe over last night, and read the words 'sugar thermometer', I knew it wasn't going to happen for me. This blogger is much too lazy inexperienced to be fiddling around with the likes of a sugar thermometer!

Accordingly, Solo Girl and I settled on a back-up recipe; one that we salivated over from the moment we saw it. The Raspberry Tart they made in a Masterchef Masterclass few weeks ago

The Raspberry Tart was surprisingly easy to make and assemble, although every time a new appliance had to be pulled out and dirtied, I found myself grumbling a little under my breath. ( I am a one-pot cook at heart)

Vanilla Bean Paste was a revelation. So THAT is how fancy schmancy icecream gets the black fleck through it.

We didn't have a loose-based pie dish. I was chuffed to pick one up this morning for $12. 95 at Whisk Kitchenware....is that good?

I changed 2 things in the recipe.

1. The pastry dough still wasn't pliable after the refridgeration, so we chucked it back into the food processor with another 1/4 cup of unsalted butter. I felt it was bland and needed salt, so I added some.

2. I also used a full 600ml of cream and then just tipped 2 tsp of the vanilla bean paste into the mix instead of 1 1/2 tsp.

So here is the Masterchef Masterclass Recipe without the changes I made above:

Raspberry Tart (made by primarily by Solo Girl)
Ingredients
450ml thickened cream

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

¼ cup icing sugar, plus extra, to serve

3-4 punnets fresh raspberries
Sweet shortcrust pastry

2¼ cups plain flour

1/4 cup icing sugar

125g unsalted butter, softened

2 x 59g eggs

Serves 8

Method
1. For sweet shortcrust pastry, combine flour and icing sugar in food processor, process to combine. Add butter and process to fine crumbly texture. Add eggs and process until pastry comes together. Knead lightly on floured surface until base is smooth, pat the top to flatten slightly then wrap in baking paper and refrigerate 20 minutes or until firm enough to roll out.

2. Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan forced).

3. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface, use pastry to line base and side of 3cm deep, 24cm loose-based tart tin. Trim off any excess pastry, prick the base all over with a fork, then refrigerate for 10 minutes.

4. Place sheet of baking paper over the pastry and three-quarters fill with raw rice or beans. Bake blind for 15 minutes or until edges are light golden. Remove paper and rice and bake further 10 minutes or until base is dry and pastry golden. Set aside to cool in tin. Transfer pastry case to serving plate.

Whip the cream, vanilla and icing sugar together until thick.

Spoon whipped cream into pastry case, then spread evenly. Scatter with raspberries and sprinkle with icing sugar.

It is to die! Probably totally wrong for the season (the cost of four punnets of the raspberries could have supplied a large African village with a year's food) but I don't care. Frozen (fully defrosted) raspberries probably would have done just as nicely, in hindsight.