Tasty Tuesdays: Berry and Marscarpone Tart

On the weekend there was a fundraiser for Chaplaincy. It was a dessert night, so I made a Berry and Marscarpone tart. It is such a fun dessert to make! I love berries, and it's one of those desserts that seems very impressive, but is actually pretty easy to make. It's not good for you at all, so I only tend to make it for special occasions, because otherwise it is entirely possible that I could eat the whole thing!

Berry and Marscarpone Tart

For the pastry:

I always make the Biscuit Pastry from the Day to Day Cookery Book. It's the cookbook I follow for so much of my basic cooking. You could always make it even easier for yourself and buy a pastry shell but I've never had much trouble making pastry, although I know some people always seem to. My Grandma complained that she could never make a decent pastry. I also prefer making my own so you can make a nice flat-bottomed tart, instead of a pie shape one- but I'm sure it will taste great either way!

60g butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup plain flour
3/4 cup SR Flour
2 tbs cornflour

Beat butter and sugar to a cream, then add the egg and beat well. Then add the flours gradually to make a stiff paste. Knead well on a floured surface. Then wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Roll out and use as required. Bake in moderate oven until golden.

 

For the Marscarpone cream:

250g tub marscarpone

1/3 cup double cream

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grated lemon rind

Combine all ingredients in a bowl with an electric mixer. 

 

 

Then remove the tart from it's tin, place on a serving plate, and spread the cream filling into the tart shell.

 

 

 Then wash and chop your berries, I used a combination of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries.

 

At this point your baby (if you have one) may be doing something like this.

 

Then you get to decorate the tart with the berries.In my opinion the more berries you use, the better!

 

Finally, you can warm some strawberry jam and spread it in your berries with a pastry brush to give the berries a nice glaze if you want to. And voila! A beautiful berry tart that is sure to impress! 

 I must admit that this tart is probably better to be made in the summer months- my berries were quite nice, (especially considering the season) but they were not cheap! And it's the type of recipe that requires fresh berries. It really is a beautiful tart though- I hope you enjoy it!