Summer Fig & Mascarpone tartlets

 

This fig tartlets are a light and fresh dessert recipe for your summer gatherings with friends and family.

Those who know me well, know that apart from being a destination wedding photographer, I have a passion for food. Both cooking AND eating! :)

So sharing with your today this as a celebration for the last days of summer and welcoming fall with this new recipe. Here's a super easy recipe (yes I love easy and yummy recipes, remember THIS) for fig tartlets. The great thing about this recipe is that you can actually keep the base and switch with any fruits you'd like (berries, apricot, apple, pear etc), fits any seasonal fruits !

Shot on Mamiya645, Dev & Scans by Carmencita Film Lab

 

Recipe for awesome summer fig & mascarpone tartlets:

Pastry:

• 250g flour
• 125g butter
• 50g icing sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 30g cold water
• 1 pinch of salt

Cut the butter in small dices and mix it with the flour [use your hands! :) ] until the butter is 'absorbed' by the flour. Add the icing sugar and mix again. Then add the cold water and the egg yolk, finish with the salt. Once everything is well mixed together, keep in the fridge for 30min.

After 30min, roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface. Cut out the size of the tartlets you'd want, I personally use an ordinary water glass to cut them out (about 6cm diameter, note: they will shrink in baking) and put them in muffin tins. You can also use a normal 20-25cm flan tin if you want to make a normal size tart. Bake for 15 mins at 180°c. Let it cool down before filling in.

Mascarpone filling:

• 125g mascarpone
• 1 egg
• 35g honey + tbsp vanilla essence (optional)

eparate the egg white and yolk. Mix the yolk and honey (+vanilla) together and whisk until you see some foam. Add the mascarpone and blend together. Beat the egg white until stiff and incorporate slowly to the mix. Keep in the fridge for 45min-1hr

The figs :

• 6 to 8 figs - depending on the size of your tin. Cut into 4.

Roast the figs in the oven for 7min at 180°c or even better if you have a blowtorch, sprinkle a little bit of sugar and caramelized them using the blowtorch.

Serving:

Fill your tartlets crust with a tablespoon of mascarpone. Top it up with a 1/4 roasted fig.

Tadaaaa you're done ! Enjoy !

Love is light

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

- Martin Luther King

This quote has run through my mind on and off for a while now, especially after the horrific attacks in Paris, Brussels and around the world. I've quite pondered about how my work, how my passion for love stories and for the beauty of life in general could, in some ways, bring light in others' lives, or a breath of life to the lifeless minds who are driven by hate. Tough question, I know right ? To date, I don't have a clear answer to it. But the project I wanted to share with you today was a sort of revelation to me, a sort of glimpse of how light, love and art can do when they're put together. A few weeks ago, my friend Nick from Greece showed me some pictures of an amazing place called Tatoi, I booked my flights straight away because I knew I wanted to shoot there. It used to be a Royal Palace (you can read more about it here and see some pictures of how it used to be here). But it's now completely abandoned and what used to be a magnificent Palace is now turning into ruins. It's quite an amazing experience to walk through these abandoned buildings and imagined how life was back then...Some buildings still have some furniture, old cars and wine barrels are still left there. The fate of this Royal estate is both sad and mesmerizing at the same time. I couldn't help but compare it to Versailles, imagine how it would be to see it abandoned and turn to ruins ?! 

So our aim was to kind of bring back to life this lifeless place. To bring the light of love within this complete chaos of ruins. To see life and motion where you think it wouldn't be anymore. Here are the pictures:

White dress : Violette Tannenbaum | Lilac Dress : Shopgossamer | MUHA : Frantzeska Koukoula | Headpiece and Silk runner & ribbons : Orchidée de Soie | Calligraphy : Nice Plume Calligraphies | Bespoke rings : Myrtille Beck | Film Lab : Carmencita Film Lab