January 2005 - Coconut Cream Tartlets with Glazed Strawberries

There are times when a dessert is just required and I had decided that at least one of my recipes this month, in fact each month, would have to be a dessert. I do not want to over do it with the desserts as it would be easy to just look through the magazines and pick out the best looking dessert in each. However that wouldn't be all that adventurous and would also result in plenty of extra kilos applied to my already generous frame. So once a month it will have to be, unless something really special comes up...ha ha.

It was quite easy to choose a dessert in this issue, as it would be in most of the December/January issues as there are a lot of lovely Christmas dessert recipes. The problem with most dessert recipes is that they make so much and often it is more difficult to halve or quarter a dessert recipe as frequently they contain an odd number of eggs. I have in the past procured some small eggs which allows me to use one regular egg and one small one in half of a recipe containing 3 eggs but sometimes I just cannot be bothered messing around with it. I ended up choosing Coconut Cream Tartlets with Glazed Strawberries. The picture in the magazine looked great, it was easy to make a smaller quantity and left over ingredients can be used in other things. Unfortunately, while it was very easy to make it wasn't all that good. I didn't have strawberries so substituted blueberries. Perhaps their flavour is a bit to subtle for this. The worst problem was the lemon zest in the filling. It over powered everything. I could not distinguish the coconut cream or the blueberries. All there was a creamy lemon and I didn't even put in as much as the recipe said to. If I were to try this again I think that I would omit the lemon altogether. Lime might be a better option but to be honest I think the mascarpone, coconut cream and berries would be enough flavours. I hope that next month's dessert is more successful.

Coconut cream tartlets with glazed strawberries

Ingredients (serves 8)

• 250g mascarpone cheese
• 50ml coconut cream
• 2 tsp grated lemon rind
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
• 350g small strawberries
• 8 pre-cooked 8cm sweet tart shells (mine were smaller)
  

Method

1. Whisk together the mascarpone, coconut cream, lemon rind and 30g sugar. Refrigerate until needed.
   
2. Place remaining sugar in a saucepan with 1/2 cup (125ml) water and vanilla pod and seeds. Bring to the boil, stirring, then simmer over low heat for 5 minutes until reduced by half. Allow to cool completely, then pour over strawberries.
   
3. To serve, fill the tart shells with the coconut cream mixture, top with a few glazed strawberries and drizzle with a little of the syrup.