Strawberries in July

I find it strange, very peculiar indeed, to find strawberries in July. Beautiful, long-stemmed, crimson red, glossy skinned, plump and most definitely, sweet. You see, I wouldn't have a problem with this phenomenon if I were in any other part of the world. But I am in Australia. IT'S MEANT TO BE WINTER!!!

Well, I guess it was announced that the June just past was the warmest it has been for a long time, averaging 16 degrees celcius. Is that why? It's not a good thing I bet since it's obviously a big smack in the face for us about global warming, or as they like to say it here in Australia... "climate change". Such is a euphemism for something so devastatingly horrid. I promise I will turn off the humidifier when I leave the house next time. =)

But in any case, I did succumb to the $2.50 a punnet strawberries and bought myself 3! And all I wanted was to have them in my big bowl of granola in the morning and of course, a tart. A buttery and sweet tart crust lined with my beautiful strawberries topped with a raspberry jam glaze. No curds, custards or cremes. HAPPYHAPPY!

Seeing that this tart would fit in snugly with Joelen's FRUIT FRENZY theme over at her blog, I will join her in her cooking adventure! Head over to her blog to check out future events and the roundup! =)

Tart Crust adapted from Sharing Sweet Secrets by Pamela Moriarty
8 tbsp white rice flour
2 tbsp almond meal
2 tbsp coconut flour (may replace with rice flour)
1 tbsp tapioca starch
1 tbsp potato starch
1/4 cup cornflour
2 tbsp glutinous rice flour
1 tbsp gf custard powder (optional)
2 tbsp caster sugar
50g coconut oil (it will be hard, straight from the fridge)
30ml grapeseed oil
1 egg

1) Place flours, custard powder and sugar into a food processor and whizz.
2) Add in coconut oil (hardened) and oil and whizz again (10-15 seconds)
3) crack egg into the food processor bowl and pulse until combined. It may look wet but keep whizzing. Add 1 tbsp coconut flour if too wet.
4) Add 1-2 drops of water IF NECESSARY
5) Remove pastry from food processor and press* into prepared tin. (20 or 22 cm tin)
6) Freeze in tin for 10-15 minutes before baking at 190 degrees celcius for 18-22 minutes or until cooked through.
7) Cool before filling with strawberries.
* My pastry was too wet from the oil to be rolled out.

To Assemble:
1-250g punnet of large strawberries
3 tbsp raspberry jam, warmed.

1) Remove stems of berries and halve. Arrange on top of baked tart shell and glaze with raspberry jam. Serve chilled or warm. =)

(Almost) Raw Chocolate Tartlet

I've been been fascinated with the different types of diets people adopt. There's the vegetarian diet, vegan diet and now, the raw diet. It's not something new and it basically revolves around the idea that food heated above 116 degrees Fahrenheit destroys the beneficial enzymes present in our food. The diet is vegan but brought to the next level. I know I'd probably never be able to live on raw food (despite it's yumminess) because I really do love my grandma's cooking, none of which, are raw. But nonetheless, it doesn't stop me from trying recipes from the wondrous pool of raw recipes out there. I was rummaging through Heidi's 101cookbooks and decided to use her raw peaches and cream pie recipe, with a slight change.

I followed the pie crust recipe but had trouble with it turning as wet as I would've liked it to so I added 1.5 tbsp of water just to help reach the desired consistency. I left half of the nuts out of the food processor, while processing the rest with the water, then I added the rest in and just mixed it with a spoon so it wouldn't be too wet and still remain chunky.

For the filling, I decided I really needed a chocolate hit and my peaches weren't in the best condition so I did this:

In a food processor, place 1 cup cashews (soaked in water for 30 mins and drained), 1.5 tbsp honey, pinch of cinnamon, pinch of salt, 2.5 tbsp cocoa powder, juice of 1/4 lemon. Process for 2-3 mins. Add 1 teaspoonful of water and process again, continuing the adding of water until you get a paste like, spreadable consistency. My tartlet is ALMOST raw because I added choc soy milk instead. Use chocolate spread to fill tartlet shell/s.

And because I'm a greedy giant, I placed my tartlet in the freezer for 10 minutes before transferring it to the fridge. It held VERY well, much better than some of my gluten free tarts and was incredibly yummy although I would use a milder tasting honey or maybe maple syrup instead. I halved the recipe and got 2 bountiful tartlets. It serves about 4. =)

Fresh Strawberry Tart

I did it, after whining all week about how I missed baking non-fat-reduced treats and delicious traybakes and whatnots, I decided-I love baking too much to care. Seriously, all this no fat this and less fat that and I will get fat things are sucking the fun out of EVERYTHING! And nothing makes me happier really, except a good shopping spree oh and going home.

On another happyhappy note, I got my birthday present (albeit 2 months late) from the girls! 'Breakfast, Lunch, Tea- Rose Bakery' by Rose Carrarini. The book is a striking green with the title in bold right down the middle. No extra fancy schmancy photo or 'melted chocolate dripping down the side of the jar' shot. Just green and black. =) I love the book so much I hugged it to sleep in lecture (SHHH...the video was boring). I was ever so inclined towards this book because it was all about my three favourite meals-breakfast, lunch and tea! No dinner for me, dinner is my least favourite meal-I have issues with it, don't get me started. =) It just goes along the lines of the fact that I really dislike going to bed with a full stomach, makes me feel...heavy.

Back to the tart, I was inspired by the many blogs I have been drooling over and decided that I should bake one myself. I used to have problems with pastry and what's more, this was gluten-free, which made it alot more daunting. Ariana Bundy's book made it simple though and I felt composed and confident which probably helped. Most things go wrong when you're running around the kitchen for ingredients like a headless chicken.

I adapted the recipe a little and instead of using 1/3 cup of margarine, I used 2 tablespoons of Melrose spread, left in the freezer for 10 minutes to harden a little, and 3 tablespoons of expeller pressed coconut oil (from the fridge so it was hard) and blended all the ingredients in a food processor. The flour mix I used was 1 cup white rice flour, 1/8 cup tapioca starch and 1/8 cup potato starch.


The strawberries I got were from Driscolis and being the end of the strawberry season, the strawberries weren't very strawberry-y or sweet but they were big and so I just added a little more glaze to sweeten it up. The crust was pretty good, obviously lacking that rich buttery taste but I'm sure it can be fixed with a butter flavouring (?). It was flaky which could possibly be due to how I rolled it. I rolled it out then folded it in and re-rolled. It was pretty sturdy and didn't crumble too much. OVERALL I say, I'm glad I changed my mind about baking. Else I would be a sad little person. =) Also, I'll be submitting this to Sweetnick's ARF/ 5-a-day roundup so head there to check it out on Tuesday!