Berry Mascarpone Almond Tart

March 20, 2012 ~ Lynn ~ 25 Comments

I’ll Have What She’s Having turns two years old this week. To be honest, I never really thought I would still be blogging at this point. I’m one of those people who moves from obsession to obsession, leaving past ones behind without much thought or regret. I think what keeps food blogging interesting for me is that it continually challenges me to learn new things. In these two years I’ve learned more about photography than I ever would have without this blog, and there is still so much to learn.
In the coming year I want to challenge myself to expand my culinary skills as well as my photography skills. I want to try new cooking techniques, attempt dishes that are “scary” (chocolate soufflé, I’m looking at you), and experiment with flavours that I normally wouldn’t use. A friend of mine recently told me that she enjoys my “style” of desserts because I tend to make things she wouldn’t normally make. I want to take that even further.

The biggest thing that keeps me going is the responses I get from readers. Your comments encourage me, inspire me, and push me to make What She’s Having better and better. Thank you.
On the topic of comments, WordPress recently made some changes to their commenting platform. Those of you who try to comment using an email address that is linked to a WordPress or Gravatar account will have to log into your accounts before leaving a comment. This change was in response to some cases of Gravatars being hijacked for trolling. Although I understand that something needed to be done, the response was kind of like using a sledgehammer to fix a splinter. I’ve removed the requirement to leave an email address when commenting so that those of you who do not want to log don’t have to. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I won’t end up with too much spam.

To celebrate my blogaversary, I made this Berry Mascarpone Almond Tart. It’s similar to this one I made last summer except that this time the recipe came together without any drama. The crust has a nice crunch to it from the almonds, and it’s easy to cut through. The filling is similar to a no bake cheesecake filling, creamy and rich. The amaretto flavours works really well with the berries.

Berry Mascarpone Almond Tart
Adapted from Desserts for Breakfast

Pastry Crust

1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup almond flour
½ tsp. salt
½ cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
1 egg yolk
2-4 tbsp. ice water

Mascarpone Filling

400 grams mascarpone at room temperature
2 tbsp. icing sugar
2 tbsp. amaretto
½ cup whipping cream

Berry Topping

2 cups mixed berries, cleaned
2 tbsp. seedless raspberry jam

1. Make the pastry crust: In a large bowl mix the flour, almond flour and salt together. Add the butter. Using your finger tips or a pastry cutter, rub the butter into the flour until it forms pea sized pieces of butter and holds together when squeezed. Mix in the egg yolk, and just enough water to bring the dough together. Form the dough into a disk, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Once chilled, roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick and place in a 9 inch tart pan; dock the crust (poke holes with a fork). Refrigerate the crust for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 400F. Place a sheet of parchment paper on the crust and cover with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 13-15 minutes, remove the pie weights and parchment and bake for an additional 3-5 minutes. Let cool completely.
2. Make the filling: In a medium bowl, beat the mascarpone and a tablespoon of the cream together using a hand held mixer until the mascarpone is softened. Beat in the sugar and amaretto. In a separate bowl whip the cream. Fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone. Pour into the chilled tart crust.
3. Make the berry topping: In a microwave safe bowl heat the jelly until it liquefies (about 30 seconds). Toss the berries with the jelly. Pour over the mascarpone filling. Chill the tart for at least 1 hour before serving.
Enjoy!

Citrus Salad

March 14, 2012 ~ Lynn ~ 10 Comments

I’ve fallen out of the blogging beat lately. As I mentioned in my last post, long hours at the office have left me feeling drained. And uninspired. I kept trying to come up with a spectacular dish or dessert to share, but I was too tired to even think of anything. It eventually dawned on me that at times like this what I need to do is focus on simplicity.

And so I made myself this simple citrus salad. It’s perfect because 1) it’s really, really easy to make 2) it’s delicious and 3) the vitamin C will give me the boost I need to tackle more complex projects, like a sandwich.

Citrus Salad

2 large oranges, sliced
2 pink grapefruits, segmented (for a tutorial on segmenting check out this post at A Thought for Food
2 tbsp orange juice
2 tbsp wildflower honey
a handful of pistachios

Mix the orange juice and honey together. Toss the orange slices and grapefruit segments with the pistachios and dress with the honey mixture.

Enjoy!

Felix & Norton Cakes (Review)

March 11, 2012 ~ Lynn ~ 3 Comments

Have you ever been so busy at work that you become completely non functional at home? That’s what’s happened to me in the last few weeks; 10 to 12 hour work days (not including my long commute) have left me completely drained. So when Monsieur Felix and Mr. Norton showed up at my door with a new product for me to review I was more than happy to dig in.

Felix and Norton is a Montreal based company that has been enticing Canadians with decadent cookies since 1985. They pride themselves on using high quality ingredients and providing customers with products that lead to what can only be described as pure joy. I’m sure you know that I usually make my own desserts, but there are times when even the most avid baker needs a little help. And in those times, it’s good to know that there are options out there at a reasonable price that are made with high quality ingredients. Felix and Norton cookies have long been a favourite treat, so I was very excited to try their new cakes. Made with 100%, pure Belgian Chocolates and no preservatives the cakes are actually layers of Monsieur Felix and Mr Norton cookies filled with buttercream or whipped cream and chocolate chunks.

These decadent cakes come in two flavours: Ebony & Ivory and Ménage-a-Trois (shown above). Ebony & Ivory is made of three layers of chocolate cookie with layers of white chocolate butter cream and whipped cream. The Ménage-a-Trois is made of three layers of chocolate chunk cookies, and layers of milk and dark chocolate butterceam. I found the first bite of the Ebony & Ivory to be a little too sweet for my taste, but my palette must have adapted because soon I was gobbling the whole thing up. My clear favourite was the Ménage-a-Trois, the combination of the dark and milk chocolate creams with chunks of white, milk and dark chocolate is just heavenly.

The cakes cost 14.99$ and serve 6. They are available at IGA’s across Quebec in the bakery section, along with Felix and Norton’s line of “bake your own” cookies.

Disclosure: I was provided with these cakes in exchange for writing this post. All opinions are my own.