“At home I serve the kind of food I know the story behind.”
Michael Pollan
Banoffee Pie … it was the first ever banoffee I truly loved. Indulgent. Addictive. Impressive. More impressive as the recipe comes from 16 year old Oraya, the youngest baker in the Sood family. She’s firmly booked her spot in the ‘The Sood Family Cookbook‘ and her dessert sang out loud.
It was a winner at the lunch I will talk about in a bit. I had a slice. Then, guilt ridden after a virtual food marathon, I reached out for a second helping. I am not a banana person, but this was different. I got home and HAD to put one together for the family. Unfortunately, things got delayed. A lot.
Went to Mumbai for a cookshow shoot {it’s under wraps at the moment} for 2 days, stayed on for 4. It was a memorable experience. Met up with food blogger friends. Ate every bit of Mumbai street food we could find. Was part of a fantastic team. We eventually shot all night long, a’night duty‘ after a long 19 years as Mr PAB messaged. My years in the airlines came alive again…
Back home and I hit the ground running. The Sood Family Cookbook on my list of things to do {read cook from}. As I flew in, the husband flew out on work emergency. He somewhat managed to fly back just in time to take junior to Hongkong for a short vacation. This was dessert to celebrate!!
Rich, indulgent, addictive and made with simple pantry ingredients, Banoffee Pie comes together easily. I baked the biscuit crust as a matter of habit {read I bake everything; well almost!}, but it’s great sans baking. This is one of the many recipes that makes Aparna’s ‘from the heart‘ cookbook a star.
Condensed milk is the main {read finger licking good} ingredient here. You can make the toffee as in the recipe below. There is an alternative if you have a pressure cooker {which is pretty much standard in Indian kitchens}, and aren’t terrified of the thing exploding as I used to be at one time. It works well.
Place the tin {I do 2-3 together to save time and energy} in a pressure cooker, cover with water and place on heat until the steam comes out. Put the weight on once the steam builds up. After whistle number 1, reduce heat to minimum and allow to cook for 30 minutes. {or 40 like me if you want it really thick}. Turn off heat, allow tin to cool. Use as required.
About the book now. A family cookbook is a celebration in itself, a concept as comforting as it is interesting. The value a community adds to a cookbook is huge; a family adds even more! The Sood Family Cookbook offers an absorbing mix {of recipes and food memories}, a potpourri as varied as the mind can envisage. I LOVE the design and layout.
Aparna writes it well, a connect runs through the book. Stories come alive as you read through it. It’s interesting how her life criss crosses with that of the audience in different situations. We’ve all been through the nostalgia, the missing ‘taste of home’, the calling family at odd hours for a recipe, the childhood taste that lingers forever …
With a post grad degree in hospitality, Aparna has literally had a finger in every pie. From Silicon Valley, to Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping, to the now somewhat clouded Tehelka, she has an intriguing background. Vibrant, warm and passionate, she played the perfect host!
It was a delicious experience to be part of the launch that beautiful Sunday morning. The warmth and connect embraced you as you entered. With the whole family rallying behind the cookbook, it was difficult not to notice how food excites them.
Everyone had a food story to share, each one brimming with nostalgia about the journey of the book, proud to be part of the book. Recipes were discussed, ingredients shared, pahaadi khaana accorded its deserved status …
Lunch offered dishes straight out of the book cooked by the Sood family. The food was finger licking good food. Each recipe as different and special as the book promises is testimony to how good a cookbook it is. Some of my favourites … crispy bhindi, ghee roast, pahadi mutton {a winner}, pahaadi madra, pahaadi mani, pahaadi hara namak, shrimp biryani. And of course Oraya’s Banoffee Pie!
[print_this]Recipe:Banoffee Pie
Summary: Rich, indulgent, addictive, this simple Banoffee Pie {banana + toffee} will win your heart over.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes {plus toffee making time} Ingredients:
1 tin condensed milk {sweetened} 400g
15 digestive biscuits {or Marie}
6 tbsp butter, soft
2 bananas, chopped
1/2 tbsp salt
1 cup cream {for whipping} or canned whipping cream
Method:
In a large pan that has a tight lid, place the tin of condensed milk, and cover it with water. Ensure that the water covers it. Heat for 1 1/2 hours. {Refer David Lebovitz’s post}
In the interim, crush the biscuits with the butter. Mix well.
In an 8″ non stick pie pan, push the butter and digestive mixture down to the base of the pan to form a crust.
Now cut the bananas into slices and layer the base completely with them.
Once the condensed milk is ready, open the tin carefully after cooling. It should have turned into a beautiful caramelized toffee-coloured semi-solid mix called Dulce de Leche.
Mix the salt in and spread over the bananas to form the topmost layer.
“You begin with the possibilities of the material.”
Robert Rauschenberg
My love for food props is understated. I am avid lover and collector of any prop related to food, from a spoon to a cauldron! It’s no secret that I haunt the streets of Old Delhi looking for vintage finds, that I browse Etsy just to drool, that Pinterest is another favourite hang out. That’s probably the tip of the iceberg as food photography props are an obsession! élan is a refreshing discovery!
I rarely veer towards bright colourful props, maybe something to do with my inherent bend of mind towards pristine neutral whites and dull un-shiny metallics! No longer though!I was recently sent this BRIGHT POP ART styled cake stand with server, and 3 tier stand. Gingerly taken out of ‘the well packed box‘, they bowled me over!!
This was where the very talented NY art school graduate Vidushi Gupta, the creative brain behind ‘Living with elan‘ comes in. She describes herself as “passionate about the tactile, the messy, and the raw – designs and colors that transcend the mundane and bring joy to your everyday life.“
élan is a treasure-trove of fascinating lifestyle products waiting for you to organise, garden, entertain, gift, and even entice. Buckets, boxes, caddies, gardening tools, blackboard markers, suspended hearts-birds-mini homes, lanterns, stools, trays, napkin rings and more! Enjoy basic geometrics, vivid colors, patterns, and raw textures. Each piece is handmade.
I was instantly drawn to the bright, cheerful colours, the interesting and refreshing designs, and the powder coated finish. I love metallic bric-a-brac, and élan fills my heart with joy. That they used the rather underrated and unexplored world of galvanized sheet metal {read unbreakable , long lasting and sturdy} is a HUGE plus for me.
The filigree lacework on the cake stand and matching server, the very neat powder finish of the tier stand all scream quality. And this quality available in the very heart of the NCR is even better! The lady was sweet enough to offer me the rani pink cake stand {though she did ask me if I’d rather have another colour}. PINK fitted in beautifully with Pinktober and my breast cancer awareness drive. How wonderful that the tiered stand also had a nice touch of PINK {and the server can be used with it too}… sweet!
The products are not painted – they are powder coated in an industrial oven to ensure maximum quality and life. All their powder coating is lead-free and safe for foods, so you can eat from any of them. There was plenty in Entertaining with élan for me, yet curiosity drove me to explore further! Plenty of ♥-tuggers I have to say…
Mini bird homes, bucket caddies, chantilly gift boxes, an amphora pitcher of l♥ve {♥♥♥}, everything organiser, a fabled accessory bucket, mughal flower bucket, a mughal pie in the sky storage box {♥♥♥}, the dabbawala box {♥♥♥} … I was running out of words! These are just a few of the products they have on offer. The vivid colours, thoughtful designs and versatile range makes sure there is something for everyone.
Better still, they offer ‘tailor made‘ options! How cool is that? They can customise any product for you , match it with a theme or occasion, or both. Their existing line can be custom coloured to match party theme or brand colours. You can even ask for a brand logo to be added! Immense possibilities to create refreshing, happy moments!
Of course I had a field day. I made a Wholegrain Coffee Chocolate Chip Cake that morning. Almost similar to the one above, but for a teeny bit of buckwheat flour. Also sneaked some Chocolate Almond Olive Oil & Whole Wheat Biscotti from a batch baked for Mr PAB who was leaving for HKG. He likes to carry a ‘taste of home‘ with him when he travels!
Being a kinda free day, I made tiny little GF apple pies with buckwheat just because …
I scribbled the recipe on a scrap of paper and can’t find it of course. It was basically chopped apples, brown sugar, cinnamon powder, chopped walnuts & raisins, a few tbsps of buckwheat flour all tossed together. I patted them together into cupcake liners {thank you Finla}, dotted them with butter and baked them for about 20 minutes. The daughter loves anything apple, and loved these cold!
Summary:Light, moist flavourful crumb. A deeply flavoured coffee cake with bittersweet dark chocolate melting into the crumb. It’s a great tea time option, and is wonderful served warm. Whole Grain makes is a good choice to include on the menu. Top with crumbled demerara sugar cubes if desired!
Prep Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 1 hour Ingredients:
175g whole wheat flour
50g buckwheat flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
100g unsalted butter, room temperature
200g vanilla or plain sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp coffee powder steeped in 2 tbsps warm milk
150ml buttermilk
1 tsp pure coffee extract
100g dark chocolate, chopped {I used 85% bittersweet}
Method:
Preheat the oven to 170C. Line the sides and base of a 7″ round tin.
Sift both flours with baking powder, baking soda and salt. Reserve.
Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by the coffee extract & steeped coffee.
With beater on low add the flour and buttermilk alternately in three lots. Stir in chopped dark chocolate. {you could use chopped walnuts instead}.
Bake for 50-60 minutes till golden brown on top, and the tester comes out clean. Leave in tin for about 20 minutes.
Overturn the cake out gently on rack, and remove the lining. Turn it back on another rack. Let it cool for about 30 minutes.
“A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch. ” James Bear
Cherry Yogurt Tart. This was a tart that swept me off my feet. It’s adapted from a recipe that keeps popping up on and off on blogs. With the flood of recipes to try, one tends to get lost and lose priority. Is it just me? Well this tart or pie {not sure which category it fell into} had been kept waiting too long. This turned out to be a tart, not a pie as most blogs call it. The Kitchn has a neat piece on Pie vs Tart…
A pie is a sweet or savory dish with a crust and a filling. The sides of a pie dish or pan are sloped. It can have a just a bottom, just a top, or both a bottom and a top crust. Pies are served straight from the dish in which they were baked.
A tart is a sweet or savory dish with shallow sides and only a bottom crust. The goal is a firm, crumbly crust. Tarts are baked in a pan with a removable bottom, or in pastry ring on top of a baking sheet so that it can be unmolded before serving.
There are several references to the recipe across the net. The origins are quite blurred. Most folk talk about the recipe being handed down from a great aunt and having got it from a friend. The ingredients are the same. Strangely enough all it takes to make it is a pie crust or tart bottom, yogurt and condensed milk. {It’s vegetarian too. No eggs, no gelatin}
I had some yogurt draining in the fridge to make fro yo. It’s the season for frozen goodies but I had a really full freezer that day. So I thought cheesecake with summer fruit. A friend had recently reached out to me for a baked eggless cheesecake recipe. That was still playing in my head. {Hiral, this cherry yogurt tart is very close to a baked eggless cheesecake. We loved it!! I thought of you throughout.}
With muddled thoughts I figured images might inspire me, so I began googling for images … and BINGO! There it was. Just the perfect tart or pie with ingredients that I had on hand, well almost. What ‘clinched’ the deal was that I had a loose bottomed rectangular tart pan that Sous Chef had used. She really turned out a stunner.
Strange tart this. It’s a little unbelievable that you can turn out a set tart with just two basic ingredients with 10 minutes of baking. Defies logic. Yet, my recent tryst with the Simplest & Best Dark Chocolate Mousse that used two ingredients convinced me otherwise. I thought, “If that was sensational, this might well surprise too. ”
And surprise it certainly did! Within 10 minutes of baking, it was a little firm to touch. I gently pulled it out of the oven to cool it on the rack and was scared to spill the filling. It hung on in there. ’twas a long overnight wait and once the kids were on the bus, I RACED to demold it. Looked on in amazement as it was firm.
My only concern is the biscuit base which didn’t remain very crisp. Most recipes refer to ‘tennis biscuits‘ which were new for me. Some more googling pointed towards South Africa where these biscuits are firm favourites. I think graham crackersmight work a little better than the ginger nut cookies I used. So with a tart tin from Sydney {one of my favourite buys to date}, a recipe with two basic ingredients, some balsamic roasted cherries in the fridge, I put together this tart. With my sis visiting from the US, being the 4th today, I thought I’d give the yogurt tart some blue and red too. Frozen blueberries which I bought to try locally {very disappointing} and white sprinkles did the trick!!
The verdict was ‘high fives’ all around. The texture and taste of the Cherry Yogurt Tart is very close to a cheesecake, and leaves you wanting for more. {Very satisfying in Mr PABs words}.
[print_this]Recipe: Cherry Yogurt Tart
Summary: As simple as a tart can get, this Cherry Yogurt Tart is one of the fastest and sweetest ways to a quick dessert. A make ahead tart that sets amazingly, is eggless and uses two basic ingredients for the filling, is quite magical. Adapted from Sous Chef
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 25 minutes plus chilling Ingredients:
200g ginger nut cookies, crushed
100g melted butter
350g hung yogurt, thick
150g regular yogurt
1 tin condensed milk
2 tsp Kirsch {optional}
Method:
Mix the melted butter and the crushed biscuits. Turn into the bottom of the prapared tin and press to form base. Chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a rectangular 4″ X 14″loose bottomed tart tin {or a 9″ round loose bottomed tart tin}
Place both yogurts and condensed milk with Kirsch if using in a large bowl and whisk until smooth.
Pour over the chilled biscuit base and place in the oven for 10 minutes only.
Take out of the oven, allow to cool. Then chill in the fridge for a couple of hours, or overnight.
Top with fresh fruit, balsamic cherries, or just serve as is.
“What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?”
Logan Pearsall Smith
Some days are good while others not so. Generally days which begin with successfullyseeing the kids off to school in the morning are good ones {meaning no nonsensical arguments at the crack of dawn, uniforms located in time, and the bus boarded on the stop and not being chased by a car of ‘see we missed the bus again’ teens}! On one such good day I made it this Plum Tart with Walnut Frangipane!Fruit in season must be the biggest thrill of my life. I am a locavore to the core. Fresh produce makes my heart sing. This has been a good summer, a season flooded with stone fruit. {Did I tell you that I’ve switched over to raw sugar in my baking? If you live in India, do see if you can get bhura or khand at your local grocer.}I love baking with plums because they turn into a beautiful deep red once baked. One thing I HAD to do this season was to bake with plums.I’ve done loads of cherries and peaches this year, but no stand alone plum bake! I still have a few recipes bookmarked yet something different played in my mind when I entered the kitchen that day…
…the result was this tart! I love substituting plain flour with a little bit of something more healthy, maybe a nut meal or cornmeal, maybe buckwheat flour … then wait with fingers crossed hoping that it doesn’t fall to bits! Whichever way it goes, I know that the family will sit and enjoy the bits even if it fails, scooping the crumbs up etc! That alone keeps me ticking!Somethings happened to my time management. There’s never enough in a day so the tart happened over two days. Baked the shell and made the frangipane on day one’ Happily enough, the next morning was a breeze. Dropped the kids off to the bus, raced back home and within 20 minutes I had a tart baking in the oven! I love baking with frangipane. Do you?
Frangipane, sometimes spelled frangipani, is similar to a pastry cream, and some may refer to it as specifically an almond pastry cream. Actually, frangipane can be any cream or custard-like substance with nuts. What makes it different from the average pastry cream is that it is often used as a filling in pies and is baked. This results in a very different crusty exterior to pies or tarts, and is a quite rich and delicious alternative to standard fruit pies.
Have baked loads with it, both free form and in a tart tin – pears, figs, fig and buckwheat,strawberries, plum, even a plum frangipane clafoutis, but the frangipane has always been an almond based one. This time around I went the walnut way just because I had a stash of walnuts from my last trip to Old Delhi. I added some walnuts to the base too, hence the dark colour.The shell wasn’t a very ‘crisp to bite’ one and thankfully it wasn’t very crumbly which was my biggest concern. It’s a rich shortcrust like base, and compliments the frangipane well. The plums were tart as Indian plums usually are so the extra sugar on top. Use firm ripe plums so that they hold shape. Paint them with slightly warm honey or apricot jam and they glisten.Don’t be tempted to cut the tart while very warm as it might crumble. Give it some time to firm up, an hour maybe if the weather is warm. We like our pies and tarts cold in summer, so ours was popped into the fridge for a couple of hours. Best enjoyed with a drizzle of unsweetened low fat cream IMHO, though great without too as the teens declared {both quite diet conscious now}.
[print_this]Recipe: Plum Tart with Walnut Frangipane
Summary: A delicious summer tart with plums and walnuts. Walnuts add colour to the base and frangipane too. It’s a make ahead one, and you can even make the shell and frangipane a day ahead!
Prep Time: 30 minutes Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes plus cooling time Ingredients:
Walnut Tart Shell
150g plain flour
40g cornmeal {makki ka aata}
50g walnuts
15g raw sugar
100g unsalted butter, cubed, chilled
1 egg yolk
1-2 tbsp chilled water {if required}
Walnut Frangipane
100g walnuts
50g raw sugar or brown sugar
70g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
15g flour
Topping
500g plums {about 10-12} pitted, quartered
2tbsp Turbinado or raw sugar for sprinkling on top
2-3tbsp honey for glaze, melted
Method:
Tart shell {can be baked a day before}
Place the plain flour, walnuts, cornmeal and sugar in bowl of processor and grind in short pulses to fine meal.
Add chilled butter anf process briefly until a breadcrumb like micture is achieved. Add the egg yolk and process until it just starts clumping together. When pinched with the finger tips, it must hold together. If it doesn’t, then ad 1/2 tbsp of water at a time.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface, and pat together firmly into a dough ball. Do not knead or over handle else the pastry will become hard.
Roll out on lightly floured surface or parchment paper to line tart tin. Gently lift on rolling pin and place in tin. Don’t worry if it breaks slightly. Just patch it up, push into place and chill while you preheat the oven.
Preheat the oven to 190C
Bake the tart shell in the middle shelf for 15-20 minutes until lightly coloured. Check towards the end so it doesn’t get too brown as it will bake again with the filling. {I didn’t bake blind as I didn’t have the time, but it worked out fine}
Remove to cooling rack, leave in tin.
Walnut Frangipane {can be made a day ahead, or while the oven is preheating}
Place walnuts, sugar, flour and vanilla bean in bowl of processor and pulse until you get a fine meal.
Add the butter and egg and blend together until smooth. Reserve in a bowl. {Refrigerate if making ahead}
Assemble
Preheat the oven to 180C
Spread the frangipane uniformly over the cooled base.
Place plum quarters covering the frangipane, pressing down gently in place.
Sprinkle over the raw sugar {or Turbinado}, and a few slivers of pistachio if you like.
Bake for about 40-45 minutes, until the frangipane is puffed, golden brown, and firm to the touch. Immediately paint over the fruit with the warm honey, and sprinkle more pistachio slivers if you like.
Cool the tart on a wire rack for at least 30-45 minutes {firm to touch} before slicing.
“I think that you’ve got to make something that pleases you and hope that other people feel the same way.”
Thomas Keller
Ah summer! With fruit and colour in equal abundance, what more can one ask for! Yet with the Indian summer comes stuff I don’t need! Power cuts, high temperatures and no time to bake! Then 2 days ago, the monsoons appeared, schools reopened, and I got a tiny breather. The first thing I did was to roll out a Rustic Peach ‘n Plum Summer Galette.Whats not to love about a season that offers crumbles, crisps, sorbets, fro yos, cheesecakes, mousse, ice creams, panna cottas, coolers, sangrias, chutneys, preserves, … and so much more! HAPPINESS! And then there are galettes, moorish in every way, full of rustic appeal! A simple free form pastry filled with fresh seasonal fruit has got to be one of my favourite summer desserts {among a slew of others!} There is SO MUCH you can do with stone fruit, it’s amazing! This year the quality has been exceptionally good. I looked at the peaches and wondered if they were ripe enough to peel; I really wanted to see if I could slip ‘them off‘. The fruit was perfect and for the first time in years I looked at a bowl of perfectly peeled peaches. Plums next and success again! I have a friend, an old lady, who spoils me silly constantly sending me stuff from chocolates to tangerines, and everything in between. Her grandson is quite fond of my baking so I try and bake him a little something when he visits from Moscow where he works. He’s visiting these days and this was for him!Made one for him, and then had some fruit left, so made one for us too! Got me high fives from the family. The peach monster said it was ‘really really nice‘, and so did the dieting diva. “Pie, pie, pie“, she screamed, “I want more!“The pastry was nice and crisp despite all the fresh fruit it held. The cornmeal added a touch of texture and crispness. It’s a good tart to make. Serve it warm if you like, though we loved it cold!
Place the fruit in a bowl, add in the remaining ingredients {except flour} and leave to macerate for about 30 minutes in the fridge.
Drain out the juices and reserve the fruit in a large bowl. Place juice in a non reactive pan over low heat and reduce it till it becomes thick and syrupy. Add back to fruit in bowl with the flour and mix well. Chill until required.
Pastry
Combine flour, cornmeal and sugar in the bowl of your processor and pulse 2-3 times. Add chilled butter and pulse 4-5 times, or until mixture resembles coarse meal. With the processor running, slowing pour the chilled water through the chute, processing until the dough begins to clump up. {It should stay together when pinched with the fingertips}
Turn onto a lightly floured surface, and quickly pull together to form a ball, flatten, wrap in film and chill for about 30 minutes or more if the weather is warm.
Assemble
Place the pastry on a large sheet of parchment paper. Starting at the center of the dough, roll out, forming a 14-15-inch wide circle.
Brush about an 8-9″ circle in the centre with the marmalade .{This will prevent the pastry from going soggy with the fruit juices}
Turn the prepared fruit filling over the marmalade keeping it within the inner circle, leaving a 2-inch border.
Gently fold the border over the filling, overlapping where necessary and pressing gently to adhere the folds, using a touch of water if necessary. Place tray in freezer until the oven preheats.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Before popping the galette into the oven, brush the overlapping sides of the pastry with cold milk and sprinkle turbinado sugar over it.
Bake for about 30-35 minutes till the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbly. {Tent the top if the pastry browns too fast}
Remove to cooling rack, and brush the visible fruit portion with honey, and top with slivered pistachios, almonds etc.
Cool for at least 30 minutes to allow the pastry to firm up before serving. {Cutting it too quickly will cause the dough to crack}. We had it cold with a drizzle of single cream.
“Chemically speaking, chocolate really is the world’s perfect food.”
Michael Levine
Sublime, sweet, seductive … words that can win over the most of us. Bittersweet chocolate paired with sweet scents of orange zest, topped with strawberries in a Digestive biscuit crust – eggless too. I think this might well be a dessert than can please one and all, chocolate lovers that is and tempt the non-lovers too! A Rich Bittersweet Chocolate Orange Strawberry Tart – festive and indulgent for the holiday season!! I made this special tart for Macy’s mBlog Recipe Showcase for which I was invited to share a favourite holiday recipe, with a story alongside. I have an old ‘Digestive biscuit connect’ which I shall share in a bit, though too late for the showcase. Life got the better of me, it’s been busier than usual, and I missed the deadline. Just back from a short ‘happy’ vacation to Tokyo, courtesy Mr PAB who was going there on work and gladly took me along! ’twas like a dream … a bit of which I shall attempt to share soon. In the meantime, this tart is served up here for you dear readers!! It was DELICIOUS and indulgent good! Digestive biscuis have been on my list of favourite biscuits forever, and my first choice always for biscuit bases for tarts and cheesecakes.There was a time, many moons ago, when working with an airline meant regular trips to London. That in turn meant bags full of delicious goodies including Digestives and Chocolate Digestives. The regular ones were my Mums favourite, though at the time I was quite partial to Walkers Shortbread too. Flight crew who flew overhead New Delhi from London to HKG would often radio in to chat while we manned station ops in the wee hours of the night, and would ask for ‘biscuit wishlists’ as they would stopover in Delhi on the way back. One particular flight crew, who I nicknamed Capt HobNob, made sure he always left a big parcel of HobNobs for me! Those were delicious days, post BOAC ones!!A few years later, shortbread ‘butter alarms‘, carbon footprints and locavore choices came along; an inherent consciousness crept in! Age does that to you I guess! I got ‘food educated‘ and sadly learnt that shortbread was delicious but oh-so-butter laden. My first choice then on were digestive biscuit. IMHO, they make me the perfect pie/tart crust as I don’t have the time to make graham crackers from scratch! I have used Digestives in Chocolate Quark Mousse Tartlets, Strawberry Chocolate Yogurt Mousse, No Bake Strawberry Quark Cheesecake, Apple Brown Sugar Meringue Pies, No Bake Upside Down Mango Quark Cheese PieWhat can I say about this beautiful tart … it was just too good to be true {if I may say so myself}. I have kept it eggless as a lot of local readers, being vegetarian, ask me for eggless desserts and bakes. Keeping them in mind, with the holiday season here, time for entertaining, guests, food & fun, I put this tart together. I also kept in mind easily available and mostly ‘there in the pantry‘ ingredients!I love the pairing of chocolate, orange and strawberry. Use a deep, rich, good quality chocolate here. Of course I was rather unsure when I cut it as I didn’t know if it would set well. Luckily for me, the proportions were good and the balance of the filling and tart shell just right. The taste?Délicieux!!
[zrdn-recipe id=”21″]
This recipe is on its way to IndiBloggers food contest …
As I go I wanted to share a little something; two places where PAB has recently been featured. One was in the November issue of Harper’s BazaarIndia {was thrilled to see lovely Meeta, Pamela and Mallika there too}, the article on food bloggers called “The Web Culinaries“,and the other a press feature at Lx World, ‘Cakes to Bake‘.
Don’t miss a post Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India
