we recently had a spell of very fine weather here in Ireland
It is amazing how the landscape changes here when the sun comes out
and the humour
when the weather is 24c suddenly all kinds of things are possible
A dip in the lake
An evening walk collecting wild garlic becomes a thing of beauty
you can stop and blow the dandelion clocks
You can potter in the garden until 11pm
because in summer, in Ireland it stays light until then
Or you can go for a dip in the pool!!
All of this "hard" work calls for a little refreshment
Some mint, lemon balm and nettle tip tea
Pear and Almond tart
You will know that I am attempting to make some healthy changes
the running is going well
after a few stalls I have kept going and am really starting to see and feel a difference
I downloaded the couch-5k app
I try to get in 2 runs a week
The no sugar thing is tough but i have definitely cut down considerably
and i have also tried to adjust some of my favourite recipes
to up their nutrition and make them a treat but a slightly healthier one
so here is a slightly healthier but incredibly delicious pear tart
Spelt Flour Shortcrust
250g whole spelt flour
95g cold butter
Tbspn sugar
1 egg yolk
preheat oven to 180c
butter and line a 25cm tart tin
Rub butter into flour until you get breadcrumbs
add sugar, stir
add eggyolk and bring together to form dough
wrap in plastic and pop in fridge for an hour
remove from oven and *grate into a prepared tart tin
push and flatten evenly to create crust
refrigerate for 10 mins
prick the base with a fork
line with parchment paper and add baking beans
cook for 15 mins
remove beans and parchment and cook for a further 5 minutes
allow to cool
Topping
3 ripe pears peeled, cored and sliced into quarters length ways
200g soft butter
200g ground almonds
2 large eggs lightly beaten
200g honey
preheat oven to 150c
cream the butter for 3 mins until light and fluffy
add almonds, eggs, honeyand fold carefully until combined
place the pears on the cooled tart case
spoon mixture over allowing pears to stand proud of the mixture
bake for 50 minutes until golden brown
serve with Greek yoghurt with a little honey added
* The method of grating a cold pastry dough into the tin is one which i think works incredibly well and it is much simpler than rolling and lining the tin
also because you are not pulling the dough it remains very light and crumbly
I will never go back