Chocolate truffle tart

This is nothing fancy. Just something simple, quick, but delicious. If you're struggling to find time to bake, then this may be the perfect recipe for you. On top of the ingredients, you will also require a 9 inch tart tin and baking beans as well. You can make it even faster by buying the shortcrust pastry instead of making it.

Ingredients

• 150g plain flour
• 20g icing sugar
• 70g + 25g unsalted butter
• Flour, icing sugar and 70g unsalted butter may be omitted if you are using shop bought shortcrust pastry
• 1 whole egg
• 2 eggs, yolk and white separated 
• 180g double cream
• 120g milk (full fat or semi skim)
• 220g dark chocolate (70% coco), or if you prefer something sweeter replace 40g of dark chocolate with milk chocolate
• small pinch of salt

If you are using shop bought pastry, just roll it out until the desired thickness (about 2-4mm normally). If you are making the pastry yourself, then start with the following:

1. Mix flour, icing sugar together and combine with a metal spoon
2. Cut 70g butter into small cubes and put them into the flour, icing sugar mixture
3. Rub the butter into the flour with your finger tip until the butter has been incorporated into the mixture and that the final product resembles breadcrumb in texture
4. Beat 1 whole egg and add half of the egg into the mixture and combine, if it is not incorporating completely, add a little bit more egg until the pastry is smooth and no longer sticks to your hand (try not to overwork the pastry though). At this stage, if the pastry is very soft and messy, put it into the fridge and chill for 20-30 minutes. If not, continue
5. Lightly dust work surface with plain flour 
6. Roll out the pastry to about 2-4mm thick 
7. Put the pastry into the tart tin, if you accidentally ripped the pastry, don't worry, you can patch it up with leftover pastry
8. Prick the base of pastry with a fork multiple times to allow air to escape from the pastry when it is baked and prevent it from rising
9. Chill pastry in tart tin in the fridge for 30 minutes, pre-heat oven now to 200 degrees C (175 fan)
10. Lay a large piece of parchment paper on the pastry and fill with baking beans
11. Bake with baking beans on top for 10-15 minutes, or until the base is relatively dry
12. Take off baking beans and parchment paper
13. Lightly brush the pastry with bean egg white, you don't need all the egg white, so you will have quite a lot of leftovers
14. Put pastry back in the oven and bake for another 5-7 minutes, it should turn golden quite quickly
15. Take tart base out of oven
16. Reduce oven temperature to 170 degrees C (150 fan)
17. Break chocolate into small pieces in a large bowl
18. Prepare filling by heating cream and milk together until it just starts to bubble, take it off the heat and let it cool down for one minute
19. Pour hot cream onto chocolate and stir until the chocolate has completely melted
20. Add the egg yolk, butter and pinch of salt to the chocolate and whisk until everything has been incorporated and is smooth
21. Pour the chocolate into the tart base and return the whole tart to the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes (oven dependent)
22. The side of the filling should be set and middle will wobble a little bit (if the middle doesn't  wobble, then it is over baked and the sides will likely shrink away from the edges of the tart when it is cooled)

Lime and mint chiffon cake

So it's getting a bit hot in the UK (and I've got quite a few limes filling up the fridge that I had to use up), so I've decided to get put this together.

Ingredients

• 150g self raising flour
• 200g caster sugar
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 50g mint (stalk and leaves)
• 80ml vegetable oil
• 5 limes
• 50ml water
• 400ml double cream
• 80g icing sugar
• Blueberries and raspberries for decoration

1. Pre-heat oven to 170degrees C (150 fan)
2. Mix flour and 100g caster sugar together 
3. Boil mint stalks in 50ml water for 15-20 minutes over low heat
4. Remove stalks from water and let the water cool down to room temperature
5. Add vegetable oil, zest and juice from 3 limes, water and 4 egg yolks to the dry ingredients and mix well
6. Whisk egg white until foamy and gradually add 100g caster sugar to the egg white one tablespoon at a time until all the sugar has been added and the egg white forms stiff peaks
7. Add 1/3 of egg white to the cake batter and mix it in
8. Add the remaining egg white to the cake batter and very gently fold it in
9. Gently pour cake mix to an 18cm round cake tin
10. Bake for 50-70 minutes, the cake should rise well. Test with skewer and it should come out completely clean if the cake is cooked
11. Cool the cake upside down for 1 hour
12. Prepare filling by mixing cream with zest and juice from 1 lime and whisk until the cream is thick
13. Slice cake horizontally into 3 equal layers
14. Spread the cream between each layer and on the exterior of the cake
15. Decorate with the remaining lime, berries and leftover mint leaves