This raspberry-ganache tart is a lot simpler to make than it looks and you can’t beat the combination of rich chocolate and fresh raspberries. I love my heart-shaped tart pan and use it a lot. You can use round or square tart pans if you prefer.
Make a recipe of tart pastry dough. I make mine in a food processor.
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
- 7 tablespoons water or heavy cream, or 2 eggs lightly beaten
Combine both flours and the salt in the food processor and process for 15 seconds.With the processor off, add the butter and liquid and process for 30 more seconds. If the dough still looks powdery, add up to 2 more tablespoons of liquid. Form into a disk, place in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.
Blind bake your tart shell. Roll pastry out and place in a tart pan that has a removable bottom.
Place a sheet of parchment paper over the dough-lined pan and pour in enough dried beans or rice to come up to the sides. Bake for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees F. Remove from oven when the edges are golden brown. Remove the parchment paper and rice. (Store the rice for future blind baking needs). Put the tart shell back in the oven and bake a further 15 minutes until the inside of the tart shell is golden brown.
Make the chocolate ganache
- 8 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I use Callebaut chocolate) (Great baking starts with great ingredients)
- 1 cup heavy cream (I’ve even found lactose free whipping cream for the Handyman)
Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to a simmer on the stove and pour it over the chocolate. Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes, or long enough to melt the chocolate. Stir the ganache with a rubber spatula and then switch to a whisk and stir until smooth and the consistency of sour cream. If you like a lighter texture, whisk the ganache with an electric mixer until it is light and fluffy. (This gives you the consistency as pictured below.) Cool this mixture before assembling your tart.
Place two or so pints of fresh raspberries on your cooled tart. Remove from tart pan and sprinkle with icing sugar. Place in the fridge until a half hour before serving. Add whip cream or serve with ice cream if you aren’t afraid of the calories.
Manufactured in Israel, it came in boxes, a lot of boxes. We ordered it online through 
It was built to start unusual perennial and annual seeds, mainly ordered from England, to sell at local farmer’s markets. More posts to follow on this enterprise…
This guy was a regular.
And then there was this guy, and according to the date stamp, scant seconds before a neighbourhood cat. Cat photo was too blurred to post. He was in a hurry.
It’s not all nefarious doings though.
All’s well that ends well for the cat. He came back, the very next day.
Clever marketing or quelle horreur?
A short drive to OK Falls and you can taste OMG, Hatfield’s Fuse and Big Bang Theory from some bottles featuring some very cool, award-winning artwork.
In a village of only 2,500, there is a bit of gossip. An in-the-know neighbour gave me the rundown on who is spending time with which Naramatian (yup, that’s really what we are called…kind of like Martians). “Things are pretty active in Naramattress at the moment.”
In summer, I call it Bearamatta.
This very healthy black bear kept me up in the tree fort, wondering if she would attempt to get in the trap door, until she decided to move along. My what big claws you have…
If I was Gandalf, the hobbits would have ridden this furry, happy guy that’s up at Apex Ranch. Apex Mountain is the place to go when the cloud hangs gloomily low over the lake in winter. It’s all blue skies up there.
Like a good vintage, the smell is evocative and stirs scent memories. It’s a combination of grassy notes with a tang of acid and a hint of vanilla overlaid with a mustiness. It’s not a particularly nice smell but it’s a heady aroma to a book lover.
The largest used bookstore in Western Canada and one of the largest in all of Canada is in a city of only 40,000 people and it’s only 20 minutes down the road from my village. Who knew? We moved here for the beautiful weather, the wineries, the scenery…blah, blah, blah… but the discovery of the book store cinched the move as the best idea we’ve ever had.
An outing to The Book Shop is like entering the bar on Cheers. Roz, pictured above getting my Beryl Markham biography off a high shelf, may not remember my name but she knows I’m training to swim the English Channel. It’s a place to go to chat about books, local politics, movies…whatever. With more than 25 years working at The Book Shop, she has an encyclopedic knowledge of book titles, authors and where in the maze to find what you are looking for.
Many, many of those uncountable books with their lovely old book smell are now part of my collection and may likely end up back there years and years from now. Who can resist when most only cost between $5 and $10.
I’m leaping ahead to the end of a story more than three years in the making. If all goes well (there are a fair number of elements to the “all”), in six months time, me and five mates will be making our own graffiti on the walls of the White Horse in Dover, England.
Successful solo and relay team swimmers of the English Channel come to celebrate their achievement with a pint and pen at this landmark pub. Team Crazy Canucks hopes to swim from Dover to Point Gris Nez in France and spend the next day or maybe a few days celebrating. With more than 135 years of history since Captain Webb made the first crossing, the basic elements of the challenge remain precisely the same. “Whatever the era, a Channel swim is and always will be a battle of one small lone swimmer against the sometimes savage vastness of the open sea,” says former Channel Swimming Association President Cmdr. Gerald Forsberg.
Forsberg goes on to say, “It is quite possible to be ten miles from shore on a pitch-black, cold night, with a cresting sea, a three-knot tidal stream, and thirty metres of depth underneath…In such conditions, the Channel is no place for a physical weakling.” We laugh at cresting seas and three-knot tidal streams…
Looks like our biggest challenge will finding some real estate to make our mark at the White Horse.
In the background is the names of a team from a city at the other end of our lake in Kelowna. Well done guys. Can’t wait to join you on the walls.
naramata-blend 