Charlie and I aren’t really that into Valentine’s Day. We’ve never done the whole gift-giving thing or gone out for a fancy meal. Honestly, the idea of sitting in a crowded restaurant surrounded by millions of other couples just doesn’t appeal to me at all! However, if we’ve not had to work late on whichever day Valentine’s Day falls on, we sometimes make a fancy meal at home. Our go-to meal for such occasions usually consists of red wine, tomato and basil bruschetta and spaghetti bolognese followed by some Booja Booja truffles for dessert. Not super adventurous, I know, but somehow it’s become a bit of a tradition in our house. And since we’ve only just finished our Booja Booja truffles we got for Christmas, we thought this year we would try something new for our Valentine’s Day dessert.
When we make desserts from scratch, we like them to be as quick and simple as possible. So when coming up with this recipe, that was our main priority! We think we’ve managed to combine delicious ingredients with a super easy method to give you a dessert that looks like it took you hours to make! There’s very minimal baking involved in this recipe, as we suggest buying some ready-made pastry. Unless you’re a pastry god, and then, by all means, go ahead and make your own! However, there’s absolutely no shame in buying a few components which have been premade, it saves you valuable time so you can spend more time enjoying your Valentine’s Day meal. Even Mary Berry has confessed to using ready-made pastry at home a lot of the time. If Mary does it, then so can you!
The pastry itself only takes 10 minutes to cook, and the vegan mascarpone can be made whilst the pastry is in the oven. Then all you need to do is assemble everything together. The whole dessert takes less than 30 minutes to make. It tastes light and fresh, but also sweet and luxurious. The perfect dish to round off any meal.
This dessert isn’t just for Valentine’s Day though! These little tarts would be great to serve at a dinner party, or just to enjoy with a cup of tea. You can make the vegan mascarpone up in advance and store it in the fridge, so on the day all you need to do is cook your pastry and prepare your fruit for the toppings. It really couldn’t be any simpler!
Vegan Mascarpone And Red Berry Tart
Ingredients
- 1 sheet Jus Rol puff pastry
- 1 tbsp almond milk, for glazing the pastry
- 10 tbsp Oatly creme fraiche
- 4 tbsp single soya cream
- 5 tbsp icing sugar, sieved
- fresh raspberries
- fresh strawberries
- toasted almond flakes
- dark chocolate shards
- mint
- icing sugar for dusting
Method
- Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celsius.
- Roll out your pastry sheet, and using a circular cookie cutter or a glass, cut circles into your pastry. You should have 6 circles of pastry. Put your circles to one side and roll out the remaining pastry. You should be able to lake two more circles, having 8 in total.
- Line a baking sheet with baking paper, and place your circles onto the sheet. Using a knife, score a line 1cm from the edge to create an inner circle. This will create a line for you to cut through the puff pastry once it has cooked, so you can push the inner circle down and fill with your toppings. Brush the circles with some almond milk, then place in the oven and cook for about 10 minutes until the pastry is golden and crispy.
- Whilst your pastry is cooking, make the vegan mascarpone. In a bowl mix together the Oatly creme fraiche and the single soya cream. Then sift in the icing sugar and whisk it all together.
- After 10 minutes, once your pastry has cooked, remove it from the oven and leave to cool down. Once they are cool, using a knife, cut along the line you created earlier in your pastry. Once you have cut around in a full circle you should be able to push the centre of the pastry down into the middle slightly. Spoon some of the vegan mascarpone into the middle of the tarts, then top with raspberries, strawberries, dark chocolate shards, toasted flaked almonds, mint, and a dusting of icing sugar.
Notes
If you gave this a go, we’d love to know how you got on! Write a comment, like, or share this recipe with your friends.
1 comment
[…] Dessert […]