When I made the case/shell, it was right at the start of the month. I did this as I knew we were going away for (probably) most of August. I had every intention of finishing it and serving it as a grown up dessert at Small's birthday party... However as I was still buying food in the supermarket when the party should have started I didn't think there was much chance that it would be served that day. Unless of course I wanted our guests to stay until midnight - not a good idea for a toddler's party. The shell remained empty!Okay so first the shell... (I posted the following on the DB website on 03 August).
'I halved the mixture and it's in the oven to bake blind but when I just took a look it had all risen and puffed up. (I did prick the base before putting in the oven). I've squashed it all back down and put back in the oven - ANY IDEAS where I've GONE WRONG? I think I know where I've possibly messed up - Is CAKE FLOUR, self raising flour ?'Dharm and Helen very kindly responded to my cry for help. By then it was too late and even though I had thoughts of making another dough I think it would have sent me under ground!
So you see I didn't start brilliantly. The empty shell sat in the fridge while I packed for our mammoth road trip. I did think that I'd get it done before we went away, but I didn't, so it was carefully wrapped and placed in the bottom of the freezer for our return. We got back a couple of days ago and I realised I had to finish the tart by today.... I left it to the very last minute, making it TODAY. Actually it was great, my best friend arrived after I'd started and we chatted while our children played. My upper arms have had a terrific work out. The tart making is a fat buster, even if the tart eating negates any of the upper arm workout you've done!! It was put back in the fridge to set while D and I played with molten sugar. We now have burnt fingers as we were trying to be all James Martin about it (he's BIG and GOOD with spun sugar in the UK) and when ours wasn't working out we decided to just start pulling at it with our fingers.
The tart was a HIT, it was partially devoured by 4 hungry boys and 2 greedy (sorry D) ladies. There is a quarter of it left in the fridge which Hubby can sample this evening.My conclusions. Great tart but possibly too sweet for me (never thought I'd say that!). I don't think I'd make it again but only because there are so many other things I'd like to try making too. I'd have no problems eating it again, even though it is very sweet!
Also my caramel layer looks a lot darker than most of the others I've seen so far.
A very big thank you to Veronica and Patricia for hosting this month. It was fun and delicious!
EDIT: I just had a piece with coffee this morning and I love it today as do the little foodies! The caramel decorations had started to melt (why this happened in the fridge I have no clue??!) so left a squigly caramel goo on the top with hard cruncy bits - DELICIOUS! Also I used Green & Blacks Organic Milk Chocolate for the mousse which has quite a strong cocoa flavour. I think it would definitely have been way tooooo sweet with anything less cocoa like! ANYWAY it's ALL GONE!
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