nigella's chocolate-raspberry tarts

Kevin's birthday is a few days after Christmas and New Year's. After chowing sugar for a few weeks straight, he opts for the less-sweet desserts at his birthday. This year's pick, Chocolate-Raspberry Tarts from my How to be a Domestic Goddess cookbook by Nigella Lawson. It was a new recipe for me too. I haven't really tried anything new lately so it was refreshing to have a new taste around here.

I've always loved mascarpone filling. This Italian cheese is so creamy but not really sweet. Paired with the white chocolate, I knew this would be a wonderful dessert. Fairly light too (not in calories, sorry folks).

The recipe talked about how difficult the dough was to work with but I found no difficulty, so don't let that deter you from trying this out. It was easy to get six tarts from the dough.

Ingredients for tarts:
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons cake flour (I even used regular flour)
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ¼ teaspoons salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon ice water

Ingredients for filling:
- 2 ounces white chocolate
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons mascarpone
- ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- approximately 2 pints raspberries

Instructions:
- Your best bet is to make the pastry in a food processor, so put the flour, cocoa, sugar and salt into the bowl and pulse to blend. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and pulse with the flour mixture until it looks crumbly. Beat the yolk and iced water together and add, down the funnel, to bind the pastry. When it starts to clump together, turn it out of the processor and work it together with your hands into two discs. Wrap them in plastic wrap and rest the pastry in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- Roll out one of the dough discs; it will be quite a dry pastry because of the cocoa, so don't be too heavy-handed with the flour on your rolling surface. Then, using a tart pan as a guide, cut at least 3 rough squares or circles slightly bigger than the pan. Ease the pastry squares into the tins - don't worry if they break, just patch them as best you can - and cut off the excess pastry. Do this with all 6 pans, and then freeze them for about 30 minutes or until they feel frozen. While the pastry's in the freezer, turn on the oven to 350°F (180°C), and slip in a baking sheet to heat up at the same time.
- Put the tartlets straight into the oven on the baking sheet, and cook for 10-15 minutes or until the pastry feels cooked and dry. The freezing plus the fact that the individual area is small means that they shouldn't puff up, which in turn means we're doing without the beans and all that blind-baking palaver. While the pastry's cooking, you might melt the chocolate for the filling, either in the microwave or in a double boiler.

So, Happy 32nd Birthday to my Hubby. Maybe 2012 be a great year for you!