Hello Foodies and Hivers around the world! Hope everyone is doing good!
Today we´ve had an unbelievably 30°C/86°F with cloudless blue sky..I always say cloudless even when a cluster of small white clouds are present in the sky. White clouds means blue sky and no rain. Who would ever think that we´ll have a golden September, no rain and not humid and with plenty of sunshine!
Fig Season
It is the season for figs and the market is loaded with these fruits. In the beginning of September, the price had been expensive at 0.75 Euro each/0.90 USD. A week later the packed ones in containers arrived. Fruits mostly come from Spain, it´s where Europe gets fresh produce. They have those plastic tents they call Sea of Plastics in Almeria and the supply of fruits and veggies is year-round.
I had an errand yesterday and passed-by the supermarket nearby and saw the figs. I was craving for a fig tart when I saw the fruit display, the price had been reasonable at 1.50 per pack of about 6-7 figs. Since I haven´t baked in a while, I made a Fig Tart today topped with cranberries.
Fruit Tea...
For the afternoon snack, I also made a fruit tea added with plenty of ice cubes, frozen strawberries that I got from my strawberry picking a couple of months ago and some lemon slices for the aroma and taste.
Without further ado, below is the easy-peasy recipe .....
Fig Cranberry Tart
Ingredients
2 packs puff pastry (available in Supermarkets)
5 fresh Figs, sliced sligthly less than 1 cm each [about 4 inches ]
2 tablespoons dried cranberries
150 grams Ricotta cheese [2/3 cups]
1 egg
3 teaspoons sugar or sugar substitute [like stevia powder]
honey
Preparations:
Preheat the oven at 175°C
1... Roll out and spread the 1st pastry including the baking sheet onto the oven tray. Fold the sides as in making the edges of a pizza.
Cut the 2nd pastry pack into strips [as in the below photo], carefully remove the paper and add this pastry strip to each of the edges so that the edges are elevated when baked. When done with the additional strips for the edges, prick the pastry all over with a fork.
2... Place the Ricotta cheese in a container, add 1 egg and the sugar , mix well until all three ingredients are well blended. Spread the Ricotta mixture onto the pastry evenly.
3... In the meantime, top each fig slice with honey and arrange each slice on the pastry pressing it to sink it a bit in the ricotta batter. Add the dried cranberries arranging it all over the tart.
4... Bake the tart in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the ricotta cheese becomes firm. Then, cover the tart with an aluminum foil to prevent the top from getting too dark.
5...Bake the tart for 20 minutes more until the crust gets crispy. If you want a more golden crust, either brush the edges with honey or butter... You can also brush it with an egg wash wherein you beat the egg yolk added with water and milk.
We had a nice afternoon snack with a scrumptious tart and the fruit tea had been refreshing. I hope you will try baking this as it is very easy to make. It can also be frozen in a tight container and can be thawed quickly which is good when you have surprise visitors.
HAPPY BAKING!
Original text ...All images are owned by me, @mers
