Day 146: Strawberry and nectarine tart

I am now a huge fan of ready-rolled puff pastry. The only thing is that I have to learn how to bake it properly. Remember the fiasco from the Beef pie the other night?! Well, one of the loyal readers of this blog (The Cookie Jar) suggested baking the pastry lid on a separate sheet and then set it on top of the pie so I’m definitely going to try that tip the next time I make the pie. In the meantime though, I found another recipe in the cookbook which requires puff pastry in the form of Strawberry and nectarine tart.

To begin, I washed, hulled and sliced my Donegal strawberries. I then took 5 small nectarines and washed, stoned and sliced them. Into a large bowl, I set the strawberries and nectarine slices in and gave them a sprinkling of caster sugar along with some fresh lemon juice. I gently stirred the lot and then it was time to get my pastry ready. It was already-rolled puff pastry so I simply had to lay it out on a lightly-floured surface and trim each side with a sharp knife. I then (not too carefully) arranged the fruit on top of the pastry which was on a baking tray and placed it in the oven for almost 25 minutes. I served each slice with freshly whipped cream.

The verdict…

For a dessert recipe which is pretty simple to make, I was rather impressed and gave it 6 marks out of 10. Dear Husband was less so and gave it a mere 5 marks. Ok, so Dear Husband isn’t too fussed on all things fruity but the puff pastry and cream alone should have given it a 6 at least. Then again, it’s difficult to think of any dessert which isn’t nice without a good dollop of cream. I obviously inherited my love of fresh cream from my late granny (on my father’s side) who always drank tea with cream no less and, of course, it always had to be in a china cup. She was a real lady. Thankfully, I also inherited a strand of her DNA which stops cream and butter having any significant effect on my cholesterol levels. I am extremely thankful for that as a lot of people seem to comment on the fact that I take three squares of butter on my scone during break-time at work. Sure there are worse things I could eat. On that note so, I'm off for another slice…