A rich chocolate tahini tartlet bejeweled with raspberries. # 224: Chocolate Tahini Tart with Raspberries

I felt like I was the intro to the Great British Bake Off with these raspberry-studded beauties! If you’re one of those humans who skips the little intro when watching shows on Netflix, move on to the next picture. For all the cool kids who automatically started humming the theme music, I love you.

Oo a missed opportunity: mixing edible glitter into my powdered sugar topping!

Love being able to blend my need for chocolate with all the fresh summer berries. Plus, chocolate and raspberries are so good together – sweet and tart, followed by luscious and slightly bitter.

Some of my bakes are planned out and carefully considered, but most of them are like this one: has a craving for something, bops around the kitchen seeing what ingredients I have on hand and how I can work them together into something yummy.

Separating the ingredients by stages helps my scattered brain not mix things up. The milk and vanilla hang out together first, then cornstarch, sugar and egg get whisked away and finally the butter, chocolate and tahini stir up some trouble.

I got lucky this time! There were some leftover chocolate cookie crumbles from a past dessert making eyes at me from my baking cupboard. I mixed in some melted butter and some cocoa powder for good measure (you know it) and baked them them at 350F for 15 minutes or so. That way it stays crispy and firm no matter how much dairy I pile on top of it.

Evaporated milk to the rescue as well! No matter how hard I try, it’s so hard to keep more than one type of dairy on hand at all times. I usually either have Greek yogurt, or milk or heavy cream. I went a lil crazy and bought mascarpone at the store yesterday with no recipe or agenda. Excited to see what it turns into!

If you want a fun flavored pastry cream, start with a vanilla base and add in your fun stuff after it’s been cooked. I didn’t use an official recipe but got inspired by Cloudy Kitchen’s brioche doughnut recipe. Doesn’t it sound amazing??

The pastry cream is still so warm even after sieving it into a cold bowl that it melts the chocolate and butter gently without needing a second heating.

Yummm.

Glowing rubies.

The pastry cream holds its shape after chilling, but I’m not gonna lie, I still held my breath when I took off the sides of the springform pans.

Boom! (My phone just autocorrected that to “Book!” – tryna say something about my hobbies, phone?)

Snowcapped jewels.

Yes I can get closer, thanks for asking.

Happy munching!