Delicious raspberries, sweet and sour all at once, brighten up any summer dining table. Do be careful to pick them at the right time, however, to be sure they taste as good as possible. This easy-to-make tart is a great summer pudding and the dollop of lemon-curd mascarpone sets off the flavours perfectly.
Apricot-and-raspberry tart with lemon-curd mascarpone (serves 4)
Ingredients 1 sheet puff pastry 150g butter 150g sugar 2 eggs 150g ground almonds 6 apricots 100g raspberries 200g mascarpone 50g lemon curd Mint leaves Icing sugar
Method Preheat the oven to 180 ̊C/350 ̊F/gas mark 4, butter an 8in tart tin and set it aside. Then, cut a circle out of a pre-rolled sheet of puff pastry and place it in the tin, ensuring the pastry is pushed right into the edges.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy, before adding the eggs. Beat everything together, pour in the ground almonds and combine fully. Pour the mixture onto the puff pastry and arrange the halved apricots and raspberries over the top, then put the tart on a rack in your oven—so the heat can fully surround the tin—and bake for 25–30 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix together the mascarpone with the lemon curd and, when the tart is cooked, allow it to cool in the tin before removing to serve. Decorate with a dollop of the lemon-curd mascarpone in the centre of the tart and scatter raspberries on the top—I also added a few leaves of mint for a little more colour—before dusting with icing sugar and serving.
More ways with raspberries
Raw-cacao, raspberry and pistachio freezer bars (left)
Mix 100ml coconut oil (at room temperature), 100ml maple syrup, 75g coconut butter, 150g chopped pistachios, 150g raspberries, 150g chopped almonds, 75g raw cacao powder and 75g desiccated coconut in a bowl. Line a loaf tin with baking parchment and pour in the mixture. Use the back of a spoon to press it down to an even level, then freeze for several hours before chopping into bars and serving immediately.
Raspberry-and-chocolate crême brûlée Heat 200ml double cream to simmering point in a saucepan with 50g sugar, a teaspoon vanilla and 50g dark chocolate. In a separate bowl, beat 5 egg yolks with a spoonful of sugar, then pour in the hot cream, whisking continuously. Reheat the custard mixture in the same saucepan until it thickens, pour into ramekins, drop in some fresh raspberries and refrigerate. Sprinkle with sugar before serving, burn with a kitchen torch and decorate with a few raspberries on top.
Raspberry granita Make a sugar syrup by heating 300ml water and 150g sugar, then add 800g raspberries. Partially mash the raspberries in the syrup, then pour the mixture into a bowl and freeze for half an hour. Remove from the freezer and mix with a fork, put it back and repeat a couple of times. Before serving, remove from the freezer for 10 minutes to soften, then spoon into glasses and top with mint before serving as a summer cooler.
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