Fig and grape cheese tart
During this transitional season from summer to autumn when colours in nature gradually change to such warm hues of red and yellow, I just can’t get enough of the beauty around me. Autumn colours are beautiful and warm, yet the temperature has started to drop significantly and our days are slowly getting shorter and shorter. The air smells of autumn but the last remnants of summer are still here.
Summer fruits and vegetables are still going strong and, honestly, I feel this is the best time to use them in our cooking, as they seem to smell and taste of summer now more than ever. They might be a bit smaller in size but definitely tastier.
There’s still an abundance of tomatoes, aubergines, peppers of all kinds and colours, salad greens, zucchinis, even watermelons, figs and melons! At the same time, seasonal fruits and veggies, like plums, apples, pears, pumpkins, beans and nuts have made their appearance.. With so much fresh produce, you don’t know where to start! And that’s definitely a very good thing.
I really don’t want to let anything go to waste, so I’ll try to use as many fruits and veggies as possible in my cooking and then store the rest for the winter to come. It’s all about good planning and using all this fresh produce wisely.
I’m still trying to make a realistic plan that will actually allow me the time I need to cook but also share as many pictures with you as possible on the blog and Instagram. I’ve really grown to love this process of taking pictures of my dishes and sharing them with you and it seems it has become an integral part of my daily life.
Should I start with plums and then pumpkins, but what about my grapes? I’m almost out of figs and peppers! I really don’t know where to begin.. Choices, choices, choices! The cooking frenzy has commenced!
Luckily it’s the weekend and that means I have plenty of time to make something special with the few lovely figs I have left and grapes. I chose to make this slightly naughty tart precisely because it’s the weekend and we all need to spoil ourselves every now and then, right? This one is more of a cheese tart than a classic tart. Adding cheese upgrades the dish and makes it a lot more filling and nutritious. Sometimes those extra calories are totally worth it! As you may very well know, figs and grapes pair perfectly with cheese creating such a delicious combination of sweet and savoury!
Ingredients
Tart crust
120g room temperature butter
50g sugar
140g flour
1 egg yolk
¼ tsp salt
Cream cheese filling
250g cream cheese, Philadelphia/ Mascarpone
250g heavy cream
6tbsp confectioner’s sugar
Fruit topping
6 figs
1 bunch of black grapes
1 bunch of white grapes
½ bunch of spearmint or mint
Method
1. Tart crust. In a bowl, use a hand mixer to mix the butter with sugar until combined thoroughly (3-4 minutes). Add flour and salt, lower the speed and beat the dough until all flour is absorbed (around 1 minute). Then add the egg yolk and continue mixing for another 30 seconds. Remove the dough from the bowl and shape the dough into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and push gently to layer it. Put it in the refrigerator for about 1 hour to rest.
2. Cream cheese filling. In your mixer bowl beat the cream cheese with sugar on medium speed until smooth. In another bowl, beat the heavy cream until you have a thick whipped cream. Mix the two mixtures and place in the refrigerator.
3. Preheat the oven to 170C. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and set aside for 5 minutes in room temperature. On a lightly floured piece of parchment or silicone baking paper, use a rolling pin to open the dough shaping it into the shape of your tart pan. Today I’m using a square 33x33cm tart pan. Butter the tart pan and flip the parchment paper on top of it carefully so that the dough doesn’t break and covers the whole tart pan. Pat the dough firmly into the bottom and up the sides and then use the rolling pin to remove any excess of dough from the sides of the tart pan and create an even shape. Put the tart in the oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden. You can use any extra dough to make mini tarts.
4. Wash and dry the fruits. Slice up the figs and leave the grapes whole. After the tart crust has cooled down, place it onto a serving dish and spread a layer of cream cheese on top. Make sure the tart crust has cooled down completely otherwise the cream cheese will melt. Then add a layer of fruit topping in any arrangement you like and scatter a few spearmint leaves for a fresh and fragrant result. You’ve just made a delicious cheesecake tart!
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