La vie est belle

I decided to do an easy 8 km run this morning after my friend postponed our weekly long run to tomorrow evening. My legs felt great even after the recent overnight cycling.

Tonight we had guests over and I prepared chicken pie for dinner. Puff pastry was used for the topping instead of mashed potato like the previous two times.

The white sauce and chicken mixture can be made well in advance. That’s what I did. The original recipe (adapted from Nigella Feast) called for double cream but I used thickened cream instead. There’s not much difference in terms of texture. However I find that it’s tastier with double cream. Of course the fat content is higher too :)

I also made some small chicken pot pies in the cute ramekins that I bought last week :) The topping was a mixture of shortcrust and puff pastry – the leftovers that is. They were enough for just 3 small ramekins.

Desert was mini Cream Cheese Fruit Tarts – first time baking these and they turned out great. One cream cheese tub down, two more to go before they expire later this year!

Not that “mini” after all! They are the same size as my hand! I made two cream cheese peach tarts and two cream cheese mango tarts.

More yummylicious photos below followed by the recipe for a Cream Cheese Fruit Tart

Recipe for 4 hand size Cream Cheese Fruit Tarts

Ingredients

• 250 g shortcrust pastry (I used half a 5oog block of “JustRoll” shortcrust pastry)
• 1 package (8-ounces) cream cheese, softened (I used Philadelphia full fat cream cheese)
• 1/4 cup granulated (caster) sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 teasoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

For the Fruit Topping

• A few tablespoon of jam (I used raspberry jam)
• 1 ripe mango diced into cubes
• About 5 slices of peaches (I used those canned ones)

Method

Press the chilled dough into a hand size tart pan with fluted sides and removable bottom, starting with the sides first. Return to refrigerator for another 20 minutes. Meanwhile , preheat oven to 350° F (177° C). With a fork, prick some holes in the bottom of the chilled crust. Cover with foil, pressing lightly into the bottom and sides. Fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 7 minutes, or until golden. (If using dried beans, cool and store for future pie crusts. Do not try to cook for beans.)

Meanwhile, make the filling. In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla with an electric hand mixer until smooth. Add the flour and mix until blended. Set aside until needed. Remove the golden crust from the oven and add the cream cheese mixture. Return to the oven and bake until the custard is set, about 30 minutes. Check with a table knife. It should come out dry when inserted in the center. Remove to rack and let cool completely.

When pie is cool, top up with a very thin layer of jam followed by the diced mangoes or peaches.

Tags: at home, baking, pies, tarts

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at 11:50 pm and is filed under Food, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.