Winter strawberries

Big, red, juicy and flavoursome strawberries in winter.

These lovely strawberries are from Queensland. Their flavours are really delicious. I must admit that I prefer these to the summer varieties, which can be a little tart to my liking.

You may notice that I have changed the layout of this blog. I am still in the process of fixing and editing things. After a few years of blogging, my blog is a big mess (just like my PhD corner!). Nevertheless, the main content has been organized so far. I hope you like this new look!

I have a new feature, too. Inspired by Haalo, who runs a calendar for Melbourne Farmers´ Market, I have created a Google Calendar for Sydney Metro Farmers´ Market. The calendar is displayed at the bottom of the blog or you can access it here. Feel free to use it and contact me if there are any errors. I hope we can make efforts to support our local farmers!

Back to my kitchen. My baking craze is on once again. This time, I have joined the wonderful and enthusiastic Vietnamese bakers for a monthly baking challenge. All the information is on this site (it´s in Vietnamese, of course). So I am calling all passionate Vietnamese bakers to join us for extra fun and unforgettable friendship.

The challenge for this month is Strawberry cream cheese tart. If you know me well enough, fruity tarts are my favourite things and I have made quite a few before. However, much to my horror, I failed miserably this time around. The challenge crust recipe was a bit different from the ones I have tried in the past (very minimum chilling time). My crust melted and became as flat as cookies in the oven. I should have trusted my gut feeling to chill the dough more. So I started again with cold butter and went back to the old-fashioned way, and things worked just fine.

The tartlets turn out nicely. I am quite fond of the custard-like cream cheese filling. Its richness compliments the beautiful flavours of my strawberries. Mandarins are also in season with lovely sweet notes, so I have added a few segments to the tartlets.

Fruity tartlets. And nice golden days in the middle of winter. What more can I ask?

If you are looking for the recipe, unfortunately, as part of the challenge, I cannot display it here. Just email me, I will gladly post the recipe to you.