"MY" MASCARPONE TART

My mascarpone tart is arguably the one recipe that makes all the bitches go wild. #ganstafail Well, it’s more the fact that people go gaga for home-made pastry when in reality it is so easy to master. The same cooing is evident when people produce home-made bread, although it is often custom to produce said bread by way of a bread-maker. Anyway, there is no doubt homemade pastry trumps its disgusting yet convenient ready-made counterpart. Combine that with mascarpone and one giant block of chocolate and you have yourself a week’s worth, possibly a lifetime’s worth, of kudos. 

What’s more, while I had the amazing opportunity to reside in Budapest in 2011, I found the most amazing candles. If you enjoy pyrotechnics, you would enjoy these. Surely they are illegal, but oh man, what a party trick. I have seen some of those bad boys at an el cheapo shop on K Road in Auckland. I wholeheartedly recommend them. 

Base:

1 ½ Cups of plain flour, plus extra for dusting
¼ Cup of Icing sugar
125 g cold butter, cut into small cubes
Dash of vanilla (if you are that way inclined)
1 large beaten egg
Splash of milk

Combine all of the dry ingredients. Add the butter cubes and using the tips of your fingers, knead the butter into the flour. The mixture won’t be holding at this point. Combine the egg and mix until you get a ball of mixture. If it is too sticky, add more flour. Similarly, if it fails to combine together, add a dash of milk. Sprinkle flour onto a counter of some sort. Knead the mixture and using a rolling pin, roll out the mixture to fit a tart dish. Blind bake dat pastry yo’ - by using either blind baking marbles or rice. You get the idea. Bake the pastry for about 15 minutes at a 170 degrees celcius oven. Once slightly browned and cooked all the way through, take the pastry out of the oven and leave to cool. 

Filling:

1 tub/packet of (cheap) mascarpone
1 tub of cream cheese
1 block of Whittaker’s milk chocolate
A dash of milk

Melt the chocolate in a microwave or stovetop. Be careful you don’t burn the nom nom choc and may I suggest you add the milk - this helps the process. Once melted, leave to cool (the more milk, the better chance the chocolate won’t immediately set), otherwise, if you add the dairy products too quickly, you will have curdling/lumping on your chocolate-licked hands. Add the ingredients together. Add the filling to the pastry and if you are of the creative disposition, add sliced strawberries or berries for decorative/delicious effect. Sublime.