Baked Yoghurt Tart with Cherries and an Oatmeal Crust (Baking with Julia)

I've never heard of a baked yoghurt tart before but when I read it was similar to a custard tart I got very excited! I love a classic custard tart (as I've made before here) but I'm always looking for healthier options. A tart filling based on natural yoghurt and flavoured with vanilla, fruit and almonds sounded perfect.

Fresh berries are ridiculously expensive here, even in season, so I chose to use frozen cherries instead. I thawed, drained and patted them dry before using and they worked really well. 

I also opted for a different crust. I found someone else's version of this yoghurt tart here and they had used an oatmeal crust which sounded delicious so that's what I used.  I made it fructose-free by using dextrose instead of brown sugar. It was more like a cheesecake base than a tart base and I loved it. In fact it could become by go-to cheesecake base instead of biscuit crumbs!

I'm going to blame my oven but this took more than double the stated time to cook, 1 hr 10 mins as opposed to 35-40 minutes.

The taste test ...

We loved this! Much more similar in texture to a cheesecake than a custard tart. Which makes it even more of a winner in my book because I adore cheesecake! I loved the nuttiness of the base with the almonds and cherries, and the filling was smooth and only slightly tangy. Just delightful.

The recipe is available online (just google Julia Child Baked Yoghurt Tart) but I have included the recipe for the crust here. Click on the link below for the orginal recipe made on brown sugar.

For the Oatmeal Crust
Adapted from Wellsphere

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup dextrose
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
100 grams butter, melted and cooled
1 egg yolk

Lightly grease a 9 inch springform pan and line the base with non-stick paper.

Place all the dry ingredients in a food processor and blitz until the oats are finely chopped. Add the melted butter and egg yolk and process until combined. It should resemble damp sand and stick together when pressed.

Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and press evenly over the base and halfway up the sides. Chill for 30 minutes.

Place the pan on a baking sheet and blind bake at 170 degrees C / 150 C fan-forced for about 20 minutes, then remove the pastry weights and bake uncovered for another 10 minutes. (I put foil around the edges which were starting to get a little dark.

Cool to room temperature before filling.

BWJ - French Apple Tart

I'm not off to a great start with BWJ this year, seeing I completely forgot about the last one (seriously how did the 8th of January come around so quickly?!) and only just scraped in with this one!

I knew there was an apple tart coming up so I bought 2 bags of green apples assuming they would last. When I got ready to bake however, I realised there was just 1 lonely apple left and this recipe would require some major tweakage (that's totally a word).

I think the beauty of this tart lies in the swirled apple slices on top so that's what I save my apple for. Rather than trying to sub another fruit for the filling, I went with a frangipane filling as I happened to have some almond meal. Apple and almonds are a great combination so I knew whatever happened this tart would at least be edible!

The taste test ...

Flaky buttery pastry topped with smooth almondy frangipane and fragrant apples. There really is no way this could be bad. I'm really keen to try the original version with the apple filling but this was a great substitute. Seeing as this tart bears little resemblance to the original I have included my recipe below.

My apologies to Gaye of Laws of the Kitchen for not making the actual tart. It's now on my to-bake list!

Mini Apple Frangipane Tarts
Makes 2 x 4 inch tarts

Pastry
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1 pinch salt
1 ts sugar
120g cold butter, diced
1-2 tbs cold water

Filling
25g almond meal
25g sugar
25g butter, at room temperature
1 egg yolk
1/2 ts vanilla extract

Topping
1 granny smith apple
1 tbs melted butter
1 tbs honey, warmed

To make the pastry - combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingertips, being sure to leave some pea-sized bits. If the butter starts to get too soft, place the bowl in the fridge for a few minutes. Once the butter is rubbed in add 1 tbs of the cold water and start to bring the dough together. If the mixture is too dry add extra water just a few drops at a time. Shape into a ball, wrap in plastic and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough to approx 5mm thick and fit into 2 x 4 inch tart pans (there will be dough left over). Place the pans in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsisus.

To make the filling mash the butter together with the sugar and almond meal then stir in the egg yolk and vanilla. Set aside.

Bake the tart shells for 20 minutes or until dry to the touch and very lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before spooning in the filling and smoothing the tops.

Slice the apple into thin wedges. Lay the slices across the top of each tart and brush with melted butter.

Reduce the oven temperature to 170 degrees and bake the tarts for approx 25 minutes or until the pastry and frangipane are golden brown and the apples are tender. Remove from the oven and brush with warmed honey.

Serve just warm.

Meatless Monday - Leek and Cheese Tart with Olive Oil Pastry

I live in a house full of boys and yet this tart still went down a treat! Perhaps it's because I didn't call it a quiche.

While the filling was smooth and creamy and packed with leek and cheese goodness, it was the pastry that was the real revelation. Having run out of butter (gasp!) I trawled the interwebs for a pastry recipe that used oil instead and came across this beauty. It was my favourite part of this tart and could become my go-to recipe for savoury pastry. Absolutely delicious!

Leek and Cheese Tart

4 large leeks, washed and sliced thinly
1 tbs butter

2 cloves garlic, crushed

4 eggs

1 cup (250ml) full cream milk

125g strong cheddar cheese, grated

Olive Oil Pastry

Recipe adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini

125g plain flour

125g wholemeal flour

1 ts salt

60ml olive oil

100-120ml cold water

Lightly grease a 28cm tart dish (mine is pyrex). Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius (180 degrees fan-forced).

To make the pastry, place the flours and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Pour in the oil and stir with a fork. Add the water and continue to stir with a fork until it is just absorbed then start to knead with your hand, until the dough forms a ball and comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll out to fit a 28-30cm tart pan. Transfer the dough to the pan, trim the edges and place in the fridge for 30 minutes (I actually forgot this step and had no problems).

While the pastry is chilling, make your filling. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic and cook, stirring often for about 15 minutes or until the leeks are softened and creamy. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes or so. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs and milk along with salt and pepper to taste.

Blind bake the pastry for 10 minutes (I line the pastry shell with baking paper then fill it with rice that I keep just for this purpose) then remove the rice and paper and bake for a further 10-15 minutes or until the edges are golden and the base is totally dry to the touch. Remove and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

To assemble the tart, fill the pastry shell with the cooked leek mixture, sprinkle over the cheese and then pour over the egg mixture. Bake for approximately 25 minutes. The filling should be just set and the edges of the pastry a deep golden brown. Cool for a few minutes before serving with a green salad.

This post is linked to Veggie Mama's Meatless Mondays:

TWD BWJ - Pizza Rustica

Well I was all set to make pizza only to discover this is not actually a pizza at all! At least not as we know it. Think of it more as a quiche but with pizza-ish fillings.

I stuck to the recipe as written so used prosciutto, pecorino and parsley in the filling. It was really easy to make and I was so looking forward to trying it.

The taste test ...

Unfortunately I didn't love this. Normally I enjoy a sweet-salty combination but the crust here was just too sweet for me and it really detracted from the overall flavour. It looked pretty but the taste just didn't win me over. The kids each had a bite then just picked off the crust and left the rest.

I can definitely see the potential though with less sugar in the crust and some veges in the filling it could be a winner.

Don't let my lukewarm reaction put you off though, hubby loved it and took leftovers for lunch the next day!

For the recipe make sure you visit our hosts - Emily at Capital Region Dining and Raelynn of The Place They Call Home. And to check out what everyone else thought visit the LYL section here.

TWD BWJ - Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

Wow, our second recipe for Baking with Julia and it couldn't be more indulgent! This week we have Chocolate Truffle Tartlets which contain chocolate in almost every form.

First, a chocolate pastry made with cocoa. Next comes a decadent truffle filling made with melted dark chocolate, eggs and sugar. Then it's finished off with a smattering of milk and white chocolate pieces. Can anyone say yum?!

Surprisingly these tartlets aren't over the top in sweetness. A big scoop of creamy vanilla icecream was perfect on top. Still wouldn't want to eat too much though.

I made a full batch of pastry but only used about 2/3 of it to make my 4 tartlets (with a half batch of filling). I rolled the remainder of the pastry out and baked some little biscuits with it. Hubby was a big fan of the tartlets and my 2 littlest taste testers couldn't get enough of the pastry!

Our hosts this week are Steph, Spike, Jaime and Jessica. Thanks for a great pick! You can find the recipe on their blogs under today's date.

TWD - A Tourtely Apple Tart

This week Jeanette of The Whimsical Cupcake chose Dorie's Tourtely Apple Tart. I took a few shortcuts with the recipe so not surprisingly I didn't end up with the slim and elegant tart Dorie describes in the book!

Basically the filling for this tart is apples cooked down with brown sugar, nutmeg and apple cider with a little browned butter thrown in for good measure. I didn't have enough apples on hand so I threw in a couple of pears as well. I used apple juice instead of apple cider, a sour cream pastry rather than Dorie's always awesome sweet tart dough and left out both the raisins and almonds.

The verdict? Fabulous. While I'm sure the original is even better this was delicious. But then again I love apple pie of any variety. With a scoop of icecream on top it was the perfect comfort food on a cool and wet day. My apologies for the awful photo. It was late and dark and this was the best of a truly terrible bunch.

Thanks to Jeanette for a great pick this week. Make sure you check out her blog for the recipe and the TWD blogroll to see how everyone else did.

On another note, my big boy is turning 2 tomorrow! Watch this space for some birthday pics including what I hope will be an awesome birthday cake!

TWD Catchup

Hello? Is anyone still out there?? I'm embarrassed to say it's been over 6 weeks since I last blogged. That's not to say I haven't been baking along at home but life has well and truly gotten in the way of blogging recently. So it's time for another catchup post and another promise to do better this month!

For the 15th of March Lauryn of Bella Baker chose Citrus Currant Sunshine Muffins. Love citrus, love currants, love muffins and love Lauryn! These were really tasty and I have a little stash of them in the freezer.


For the 22nd of March Suzy of Suzy Homemaker chose Honey Nut Brownies. I really wasn't sure about these. I like honey on crumpets and in stir fries but that's about it. Still, my MIL gave me a bottle of roasted hazelnut honey which was perfect for this recipe. These had the texture of a chewy gingerbread rather than a brownie but they were pretty tasty and even better on the second day.



On the 5th of April Jessica of Domestic Deep Thought of the Day chose Coffee Ice Cream Tart. Sold! We weren't huge fans of the crust which set rock solid in the freezer but it tasted great. Next time I would just use a crumb crust and go crazy with different filling combinations. Yum!


For the 12th of April Sarah of Teapots and Cakestands chose Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp. I've never actually tried rhubarb and strawberries together before but have been intrigued after seeing it around. The verdict? Delicious! I should have just made a half batch but we ate it for breakfast and dessert over about 3 days and loved it. Definitely a keeper!

So that's it! At this stage I intend to post my Tourtely Apple Tart on Tuesday (gasp!) but as I haven't made it yet we'll just have to wait and see.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart

This week's TWD pick was chosen by Rachel of Sweet Tarte. This recipe was actually on my shortlist when it was my turn to pick back in June but I decided against it because I couldn't get fresh peaches. Unfortunately it is still winter here so no fresh peaches!

This is essentially a sweet pastry base topped with custard, sliced peaches and a streusel topping. Just as the name says it is a 'Crunchy and Custardy Peach tart'!

This was a breeze to make and as always I am grateful to have discovered Dorie's Sweet Tart Dough recipe. It has forever cured me of my aversion to making pastry.

I did stray from the recipe slightly. I used the original tart dough, no almond essence (blech!) and pecans instead of almonds in the streusel. All of which could account for ...

The taste test ...

It was - nice. There was pastry, custard, peaches and streusel. All tasty. But there was definitely something missing and I think it was juicy, flavour packed fresh peaches. My canned peaches tasted quite peachy on their own but they were totally lost in this tart making the whole thing a little too sweet and a little bland. So disappointing!

Thanks to Rachel for a great pick. Sorry I couldn't do justice to it! You will find the recipe on Sweet Tarte or check out what the other TWDers got up to here.

Tuesdays with Dorie: (Not) Tarte Noire

No your eyes don't deceive you, that is definitely not a chocolate tart! This week's pick was an epic fail for me, resulting in a bowl of black sludge oozing fat. Yech. I have made ganache many times without any problems so I can only think the fat content of my cream was too high. Whatever it was it was totally unusable and ended up in the bin.

Having now run out of both cream and chocolate (soooo glad Lindt was 50% off this week so I only wasted $6 on chocolate instead of $12) I had to come up with another use for my tart shell.

Inspired by the Mystery Box challenges on MasterChef I searched the fridge/pantry and came up with condensed milk, sour cream, eggs, vanilla and lemon. Voila! The baked lemon custard tart was born!

As my tart shell was already fully baked I was a little worried it would get too dark upon baking again but I kept a close eye and had no problems.

Baked Lemon Custard Tart
(makes enough filling for 2 tarts)

400ml sour cream
1 tin of condensed milk
2 eggs
1ts vanilla paste
juice and rind of 1 lemon
2 tbs strawberry jam
Fresh strawberries and icing sugar to serve

Preheat your oven to 180/350 degrees. Place your prebaked tart shell on a baking tray. Brush the base with strawberry jam and set to one side. Combine all other ingredients in the food processor and blitz until very smooth. Pour the filling into the tart shell and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until set (firm but with a slight wobble in the middle). Tent with foil during baking if the crust is becoming too dark.

Remove the tart from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature then refrigerate for a couple of hours.

To serve, carefully remove the tart from the pan and place on a serving plate. Cover the top with sliced strawberries and a dusting of icing sugar.

The taste test ...

An absolute winner! The filling tastes almost exactly like a lemon cheesecake but a lot lighter (obviously without all the cream cheese). The lemon and strawberries complimented each other perfectly and the sweet tart crust was delish as always. Hubby was really looking forward to chocolate tart but even he wasn't too disappointed to get this instead!

My apologies to Dharmagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life for completely stuffing up her pick this week! To see how it should have been done visit the other TWD bakers here.

** Blogger seems to be eating my comments for some reason. I'm not sure who you are, but if you were one of the 7 or so people who commented this afternoon and your comment isn't here, that's why! Anyone had this happen before??**

Tuesdays with Dorie: Quick Berry Tart

What's quicker than a Quick Classic Berry Tart? These even quicker Itty-Bitty-Puff-Berry-Tartlets! As much as I love Dorie's sweet tart dough I wasn't in the mood for making pastry this week, especially since I only wanted to make minis.

Why? We're still working our way through the fabulous Banoffee Tart my lovely hubby made for dinner on Mothers' Day, along with this delicious rack of lamb with roast veges.

So for this week's TWD I chose the cheat's option and grabbed a sheet of puff pastry from the freezer and cut out little circles. The pastry cream takes only minutes to make and I topped each one with 3 perfect blueberries (frozen ones because they are always in season).

I will definitely make the original Classic Berry Tart sometime as I adore fruit tarts. My apologies to Cristine of Cooking with Cristine for not making the exact recipe which you can find on her blog. But I hope you enjoy my version!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart

If I'm 100% honest, my reaction to discovering Beryl of Cinemon Girl had picked the Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart was a groan. I'm not the hugest fan of coconut but really I was picturing hubby's reaction to learning his weekly TWD dessert contained two of his least favourite things, being coconut and rum!

After careful consideration of the recipe (and in light of our newly upheld participation requirements) I decided I would make the smallest possible version, just 1/6th of the recipe. My plans went astray though when I made the full batch of sweet tart dough and automatically pressed it into a 9 inch pan. I figured the universe had spoken so went ahead and made the full recipe hoping I wouldn't have to eat it all myself or worse, throw 90% of it away.

Well, this recipe has been one of the biggest surprises of TWD so far. I actually liked it. To the point of eating spoonful after spoonful of the coconut custard from the fridge while it was supposed to be cooling.

Sweetened shredded coconut is pretty hard to find in Australia. There is one brand that I know of but it contains all kinds of nasties so I went with good-old dessicated coconut which you can find in every supermarket here. This may have changed the texture of the custard quite a bit because after cooling in the fridge it had the consistency of cold porridge. Blech. But still tasty!

I used just 1 tablespoon of rum in the custard and that was plenty. I also left the rum out of the whipped cream topping and sprinkled the top with fresh lime zest.

The taste test ...

Fabulous! I did find it very sweet though the lime zest on top really lifted it. The coconut and rum flavours weren't overpowering and of course the sweet tart pastry was brilliant as always. I think next time I would add even more lime by making a lime and coconut custard. The fact I'm already thinking about next time is amazing! I was able to give a lot of it away and it got a positive reaction from everyone. Guess that makes it a winner!

A big thank you to Beryl for picking this tart, because I would never have made it on my own! You can find the recipe on Cinemon Girl.