A Cuban Tart

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There are fewer things in life that bring more colour and satisfaction than a cocktail. A refreshing Mijito in the summer, a warming Whiskey Sour in the winter, and even the good old classic Martini can bring a little boost into an otherwise dreary day.

Somewhere between thinking about how much sleep I'd would get if I'd fallen asleep then and thinking about the following day's To Do list I got to thinking about ways to improve a cocktail (possibly induced by the temptation to give sleep a helping hand with a nightcap!). I landed on the only thing that's natural: Edible cocktails. 

When experimenting you start with what you know, so I started with Mijito! Armed with the basics of my favourite cocktail and a freshly bought mint plant my revelation was realised and the Cuban Tart was born. 

If only it was that easy. Turns out infusing cream, buying limes, working with chocolate pastry and setting lime juice jelly are all incredibly stressful things on their own. Combined they result in cataclysmic kitchen meltdowns. 

Once the cream had sufficiently infused, the limes had been bought (no limes in Asda or Tesco, thank citrus for Aldi!), the chocolate pastry had been blind baked for a second time following a slight incident with the first batch of unset jelly - which I don’t want to talk about - , and once the second batch of jelly had set, things seemed to get a bit easier.

Ultimately, this bake is super easy once all the individual elements are sorted. The creation of these was like the scene out of Lion King when baby Simba collapses in the desert after running away from Pride Rock. The assembly, thankfully, is more like the Haukuna Matata bit.

The outcome was worth the teething pains though because these tarts are amazing! The cool mint infused cream balances with the sharpness of the lime jelly wonderfully, and the chocolate pastry adds a wealth of depth. If you fancy making it a real cocktail tart add a bit of rum to your jelly, but just up the gelatine content because it was hard enough to set without the alcohol…with it I can only predict the nightmare!

For the Base: 

175g plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

50g cocoa powder

50g icing sugar

140g butter

3 egg yolks

Sift flour baking powder cocoa powder and icing sugar together. Rub in butter until crumbly. Add the eggs. Mix until combined. Chill in fridge for 30mins. Roll it out put in tins and chill for 15mind. Blind bake in oven for 15mins at 175c. Take out beads out and bake for another 5mins. 

For the Creamy Topping: 

320g soft cheese

250g icing sugar (add mint leaves 24 hours prior to infuse if you want)

250ml whipping cream 

Handful of mint leaves.

Add mint leave to cream and heat on low to infuse the flavour. Do this for 10mins. If nervous infuse overnight in fridge. Mix together sugar and soft cheese. Whip cream. Combine. 

For the Jelly: 

4 limes, juice and zest

75g Caster Sugar

200ml water

1 gelatine leaf

Heat lime, sugar and water until sugar has disolved and it is boiling. Remove from heat. Stir in gelatine until its dissolved. Lay on flat baking sheet with sides to set overnight. 

To assemble cut the lime jelly to the size of your tarts, place on your pastry base, top with mint cream and serve!