Pear, chocolate and almond tart

A few years ago I lived in an area in Dublin with fabulous gourmet food shops. Unfortunately they tend to be quite expensive so for daily grocery shopping they're not ideal, but for the occasional treat they do fill their purpose. One of these shops is a vegetable and fruit shop that also stocks farm fresh eggs, hand made cheeses, pasta, jars of all sorts of condiments, grains and pulses...The list is nearly endless and I always seem to find things in there that I might have been looking for in several other shops without any luck.
The other day I did not really need anything from there, I just cycled by and decided to have a look and there they were; these amazingly pretty pears, they were red, green and shiny. To pretty not to buy so I got two of them not even knowing what to do with them. But then an idea took place in my head after finding both ground almonds and dark chocolate in my cup board. Think chocolate frangipan in a cocoa flavoured pie crust, on top of that these juicy pears baked until slightly caramelized. Success.

Pastry

25 grams caster sugar

50 grams butter,at room temperature

65 grams plain flour

10 grams cocoa powder
1 egg yolk

Almond filling

75 grams butter,at room temperature

50 grams caster sugar

50 grams dark chocolate, finely chopped or grated
75 grams ground almonds

1tbsp plain flour

1 egg+1egg yolk

1 pear

Mix flour, cocoa powder and sugar, rub in the butter until it forms crumbles. Add the egg yolk and quickly mix into a dough. Roll out between cling film and line the baking tin. Put in the fridge while making the almond filling.

Beat butter and sugar pale and fluffy. Add egg and egg yolk and continue to beat until smooth and well combined. Fold in almonds, flour and chocolate. Spread out in the pie crust. Peel the pear and cut into very thin slices. Arrange the pear slices on top of the almond filling and bake for 30-40min on 160C. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Rhubarb crumble

The last few days has been very mild and sunny here in Dublin, spring is in the air for sure. I was delighted when given a bag of the first rhubarb of the year last week and made a crumble. We have an awful lot of rhubarb growing in the country house garden in Sweden, and when spending the summers out there we used to make crumbles all the time. I was even put off baking or eating crumbles for a few years until I recently realised what a wonderful way this is to cook with fresh fruit and berries in season. Rhubarb has such a lovely flavour; tangy, sour almost bitter, but with the right amount of sugar it just goes all yummy and sweet. I like to put oat flakes in my crumble, makes it crunchier and tastier. Cardamom and rhubarb is a great combination, it lifts the whole dessert to a new level. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

500 grams rhubarb, chopped in small pieces
1tbsp cornflour
4tbsp caster sugar
1tsp ground cardamom

125 grams butter
60 grams oat flakes
65 grams plain flour
40 grams brown sugar

Combine rhubarb, caster sugar, corn flour and cardamon. Spread out in a baking tin or pie dish. Mix brown sugar, oats and flour. Rub butter in to the mix until crumbly. Spread the crumbles on top of the rhubarb and bake for 20-25min on 220C.

Lemon semifreddo

Last week I had home made Lemon curd in the fridge and a bottle of Limoncello brought to us as a gift straight from Italy. It would have been a crime not to combine these to delicious things so I made Lemon semifreddo. Martin who was quick to grab the plate I used for the photo, a couple of minutes later I came in to the room and the dessert was gone. That kind of thing makes me smirk a little and feel very pleased with myself. The day after I served the dessert after a lovely meal and oh what a joy, the fresh tangy lemon cuts through the creamy, soft semifreddo and just melts in your mouth. The addition of limocello will not only make this dessert taste even better but also stop it from freezing too hard and leaves it kind of soft frozen. Served with fresh blueberries and mint it was a top class dessert.

4-6 portions

2 eggs, separated
200ml cream
60 grams caster sugar
50ml lemon curd
40ml limoncello

Whisk egg yolks and half of the sugar until fluffy and pale. In a separate bowl whisk the cream until soft peaks appear. In a third bowl whisk egg whites until fluffy, start adding sugar little by little while whisking. Continue whisking into a firm meringue.
Carefully combine whipped cream, egg yolks, limoncello and lemon curd. Last fold in the meringue and pour into a dish. Freeze for at least 3 hours. Leave in room temperature for 10min before serving.

Lemon curd

This classic, English spread goes just as well with your afternoon tea scone as in desserts and cakes. I came across Lemon curd a few years ago and was not that impressed to be honest, little did I know then all the wonderful things it can be used for. These days I make Lemon curd myself, I prefer not to eat in on toast or scones, I use it more as an ingredient while baking or making desserts. The other day I had some really juicy lemons in the fridge and decided to cook a small batch of Lemon curd, later in the week I used it for a lovely lemon semi freddo. The recipe comes from the "cooking bible" La Rousse, a personal favourite cook book that never lets me down with its many recipes.

2 lemons, juice and zest
100 grams butter
225 grams caster sugar
3 eggs, lighlty beaten

Melt butter in a pan on a low heat. Stir sugar, eggs , juice and zest of the lemons together until well combined. Add the lemon mix to the butter slowly while whisking. Stir until it starts to thicken, be careful not to let the eggs coagulate. Take off the heat and strain through a fine sieve. Keep in an air tight container in the fridge.