Sweet Honey and Mixed Nut Tart

This was originally meant to be a sweet honey and macadamia tart.  However, macadamias are ridiculously expensive and I could not bring myself to spend $30 on a bag of macadamias!  Don't get me wrong, I don't normally mind spending money on ridiculously expensive ingredients when I know that they will be consumed, but in this case, I knew that no one was going to be around to enjoy it!  Particularly as C, as testament to being my number one supporter and who has spent the past few weeks devouring my caramelised pear tart, spiced apple and ginger puddings, several servings of panna cotta, in a completely unrelated incident has just had some teeth removed (wisdom that is).  So for C, it's been a liquid diet or it should have been, but any excuse to eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner eh...! Anyway, I digress.  With no one around to enjoy this dessert, I couldn't justify spending $30 on macadamias when I knew the majority of it was going to end up in the waste.  And yes, it did cross my mind to make miniature tarts, although I always make miniature tarts and I really wanted to make a proper full blown normal sized tart for a change!

So instead of macadamias, I decided to use an assortment of nuts.  I'm in two minds as to whether this works.  On the one hand, the assortment of nuts provided slightly different flavours to the sweet honey and the shortcrust pastry, but by the same token, it detracted from the sweet honey and the shortcrust pastry! I think I would need to have the same tart with the macadamias side by side to make a proper assessment.

Making a tart reminded me exactly how much I love this sweet shortcrust pastry recipe.  I always use Guillaume Brahimi's recipe for sweet shortcrust and it never fails me.  In fact, I think it's what I love most about this tart, particularly as when the tart was baking, the honey caramel started to ooze out all over the sides of the shell, making the pastry even more yummo!

So, it's been a little under a week now since I've baked this tart and as expected, I still have over half sitting in the fridge.  As much as I enjoy eating it, I am trying to restrict the amount of sugary goodness I consume in preparation of our beach holiday and it's been a serious battle of the wills every time I open the fridge!  Seeing half the tart sitting in the fridge reminds me how much I've really consumed, so for that reason, I think its time to say good bye to this sweet honey and mixed nut tart!

Panna Cotta

I was really nervous this panna cotta wouldn't work out.  Actually, the nerves only set in after I had made it and it was in the fridge setting.  Because during that time, I decided to google "troubleshooting panna cotta" and it was then I realised all the things that could possibly go wrong with it. You'd think I would have researched this before I set out on making it!

As it turns out, I had nothing to be worried about *phew*!  The panna cotta didn't split *happy dance*, it didn't fall away as I de-moulded it *another happy dance* and best of all, it had that beautiful wobble while still retaining its shape.  In fact, according to a friend who learnt how to make panna cotta in Italy, a good panna cotta will move elegantly with the plate while you shake the plate about, kind of like moving clay on a spinning pottery wheel.  So when I jiggled the plate about and the panna cotta wobbled with it and didn't break apart, I knew I was onto a winner!

 

I followed (predominantly) David Lebovitz's recipe for "perfect panna cotta".  With a title like that, I naturally expected it to turn out exactly how it sounds, which is why troubleshooting panna cotta didn't even cross my mind.  I am very pleased to say that there is nothing misleading or deceptive about David Lebovitz's title recipe.  These turned out perfectly! 

My only (slight) criticism is that I would like my panna cotta to taste a little bit more silky.  The best panna cotta I had was by our cafe chef, which was really light, delicate and silky (*mental note - I really must ask him for his recipe!).  David's recipe wasn't as light as I would have liked it to be, but that could be because I used 45% fat cream rather than 35%.   I think the next time I make these, I might also reduce the gelatin ever so slightly (beware as not enough gelatin will leave the panna cotta a goopy mess). 

I love how panna cotta is almost like a blank canvass.  The classic version uses vanilla, however, you could really play around with the flavours.  Our household always has an abundance of pomegranates (little girl's favourite fruit at the moment) so I topped the panna cotta with fresh pomegranates and crushed pistachios which gave it a really nice texture.  I also really like how these don't take long to make, setting, yes, but making it took only half an hour (and that's with me faffing about in the kitchen).