Chocolate Glazed Tart with Pistachios

A crisp yet crumbly chocolate shortbread crust filled with a layer of rich chocolate glaze and finished off with some chopped lightly salted roasted pistachios---an unbeatable combination for an unforgettable sweet treat!

Shortbread	Topping
120 g Butter, at room temperature 60 g Golden caster sugar Pinch of salt 130 g Plain flour 20 g Cocoa powder	120 g Bittersweet chocolate, chopped 1 tbsp Maple syrup 20 g Butter 100 ml Heavy cream Some lightly salted roasted pistachios, roughly chopped Caramelized walnuts, roughly chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/320F. Put the butter into a large mixing bowl, and beat with a wooden spoon until soft. Beat in the sugar and salt. Sift over the flour and cocoa powder and mix just until a dough forms.
   
2. Divide the shortbread dough into four portions and press each in an even layer onto the bottom of four 12cm/4inch tart pans or one 26cm/10inch. Bake for about 20 minutes, or just until the they are firm to the touch.
   
3. Meanwhile, melt the chopped chocolate, maple syrup, butter and heavy cream in a stainless steel bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Mix until smooth.
   
4. Remove the shortbread from the oven and pour the warm chocolate glaze over the shortbread crusts and evenly spread the surface. Sprinkle the chopped pistachios or caramelized walnuts. They can be stored in container at room temperature for a few days.

Fresh Fruit Tartlets

Those mini fresh fruit tartlets have a sweet pastry crust that is filled with a rich hazelnut cream and topped with fresh fruit. Dust the fruit with powdered sugar before serving or glaze with apricot glaze to give the fruit a bright shiny finish.

Sweet Pastry Crust	Topping
250 g Pastry flour 60 g Caster sugar 1/4 tsp Salt 125 g Butter, cut into small pieces 1 Egg yolk 2-3 tbsp Cold water	85 g Butter, softened 85 g Powdered sugar 1 Egg 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract 85 g Ground hazelnut 8 tbsp Chantilly cream Seedless grapes Strawberries Powdered sugar

1. Heap the flour on a work surface and make a well. Put in butter, salt, sugar, and egg yolk. Using your fingertips, mix all the ingredients together. Add in cold water and work until the dough begins to hold together. Shape each into a ball and wrap with a plastic film and chill for half an hour.
   
2. Cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer in the bowl. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Add the ground hazelnut and beat until it forms a smooth paste. Set aside.
   
3. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease four 12cm tartlet tins with butter and sprinkle them lightly with flour. Remove the pastry from the refrigerator and divide into four equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of pastry into a 16cm circle. Line the tins with pastry and prick several times with a fork.
   
4. Divide the hazelnut mixture into 4 pastry cases and smooth the top. Put the tart tins on the hot baking tray and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown. Lift the tart and base from the tin and leave on a wire rack to cool completely.
   
5. Spread two tablespoons of chantilly cream on top of each tartlet. Arrange the fruit on top. If desired, dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Almond Galette

This is the dessert traditionally served in France for Epiphany, on the 6th day of January, but is welcome at any time of year. It's also known as the "Galette des rois", or "King Cake". One "feve", "bean" in French, or a tiny ceramic figurine is hidden somewhere in the galette as a "prize" and the finder is crowned the king or queen.

	Frangipane Almond Cream
350 g Puff pastry (homemade or frozen) 1 Egg, lightly beaten	85 g Butter, at room temperature 85 g Caster sugar 1 Egg 1/4 tsp Vanilla extract Pinch of salt 100 g Almonds, finely ground

1. Cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer in the bowl. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract and salt until smooth. Add the almond meal and beat until it forms a smooth paste. Set aside.
   
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll the pastry out until it’s about 3mm thick. Cut out two 4-inch rounds and two 6-inch rounds or two 11-inch rounds.
   
3. Place one sheet of pastry on the baking sheet. Spread a circle of filling on the pastry, leaving 1-inch border around the frangipane. Brush the border with some of the beaten egg. Top with the second sheet of pastry over the filling and press the borders firmly to seal it.
   
4. With the back edge of a paring knife, make 6 or 8 of tucks along the border. Make a small hole with a skewer in the center, so the steam can escape during cooking. Glaze the top with beaten egg. Cut a decorative pattern on the top with the tip of a knife.
   
5. Refrigerate for one hour. Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Put in the center of the hot oven for 25-30 minutes until they are nicely brown and crisp. Remove and cool the galette on the wire rack. Slice and serve!

Zwiebelkuchen German Onion Tart

Zwiebelkuchen, which literally means "onion cake" in the German language, is actually a savoury tart (a quiche?) prepared with onions and sour cream on a leavened or yeast dough, that is very popular in the German wine-growing regions. Serve them warm with a glass of chilled half dry German Risling or fruity Corbières if you prefer red.

Quark Dough adapted from Grundrezept Quark-Öl-Teig

Topping Recipe adapted from Tobiaskocht

Topping	Quark Dough
4 Yellow onions 3 stalk Spring onions 2 tbsp Olive oil 200 g Herb crème fraîche Salt and pepper to taste 1 tsp Cumin seeds	350 g All purpose flour 15 g Baking powder 1/3 tsp Salt 50 g Sugar 1 Egg, small 220 g Quark, lean (Magerquark) ©angiesrecipes 80 g Olive oil 80 g Milk

1. Cut the ends off the onions and slice them into thick rings. Slice the spring onions into rings too. Heat a skillet with olive oil over medium flame. Add in onions and stir-fry until lightly golden. Stir in chopped spring onions. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat and set aside.
   
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add in egg, Quark, olive oil and milk. Stir until the dough forms a ball. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line a baking tray, about 30x40 cm, with parchment paper. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle and fit into prepared baking tray.
   
3. Top the dough with the herb cream evenly. Spread the caramelized onion all over the cream. Sprinkle the top with salt, pepper and cumin. Bake for 25-30 minutes until beautifully browned.

Spelt Croissants

Who doesn't love buttery and flaky croissants? They are rich, decadent and irresistible! According to Jeffrey Hamelman, when you know it's a good croissant after you take a bite and look at your shirt: if it’s covered with flakes of golden pastry that shatter from each bite, then it's a good one.
It took me two days to make 16 croissants, and my husband finished 4 at one go in 20 minutes. So I strongly suggest you double the recipe!

• 250 ml Whole milk
  
• 30 g Fresh yeast
  
• 40 g Brown sugar
  
• 300 g Spelt #630 flour
  
• 100 g Whole spelt flour
  
• 2 tsp Salt
  
• 300 g Cold and unsalted butter
  
• 1 Egg, lightly beaten
  

1. Stir together warm milk, brown sugar, and fresh yeast in bowl of standing mixer and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add spelt flours, and salt and mix with dough hook at low speed until dough is smooth and soft, about 5 minutes.
   
2. Transfer the dough to a work surface and knead by hand 2 minutes, adding more flour as necessary, a little at a time, to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. Wrap the dough with a cling film and chill for 1 hour.
   
   
3. Place butter between two sheets of cling film and roll with a rolling pin to form 8x5 inch/20x12 cm rectangle. Chill until firm. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured surface into a 16x10 inch/40x25 cm rectangle.
   
4. Arrange dough with a short side nearest you. Put butter in center of dough so that long sides of butter are parallel to short sides of dough. Fold the bottom up over the butter, brushing off any excess flour, and then fold the top down over the butter to seal the butter.
   
   
5. With a heavy rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle, approximately 15x10 inch/38x25 cm. Fold the length of dough into thirds, as for a letter. Turn so that the open ends are at twelve and six o'clock. The first simple “fold” is completed. Wrap well in plastic and chill overnight.
   
   
6. Repeat the simple fold one more time. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and chill 1 hour. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on the floured work surface. Unwrap and roll out to a rectangle, about 15x10 inch/38x25 cm. This time fold the top and bottom in so that they meet in the middle of the dough, then fold the dough in half again so that there are four layers of dough. Chill the dough, wrapped with plastic, in the fridge for 2 hours. Repeat the double fold once more. This is the final fold before rolled out and cut into croissants.
   
   
7. To shape the croissants, roll the dough into a 25x15 inch/64x38 cm rectangle on a lightly floured work surface. It should be about 1/4 inch/6mm thick. From the long side, fold the dough into half and using a yardstick as a guide mark the folded strip into 8 triangles and the scrapings of dough at each end. Cut each double triangle into two. So you’ll have 16 triangles.
   
8. Make a small slit in the base of each triangle, place a piece of dough trimming at the base. Starting at the base of the triangle, roll the dough up into a log. Tuck the tip the triangle under the body of the croissant. Bend in two corners to form the crescent shape.
   
9. Place the croissants on a baking sheet and allow them to rise for 1 to 2 hours until almost doubled in size. Half an hour before finishing the proofing, brush the croissants with the lightly beaten egg. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F with a shallow dish filled with water at the bottom of oven. Bake the croissants for 20-25 minutes. Allow them to cool on a rack before serving.