A little blast from the past - Coconut Cheesecakes/Tarts

Whilst listening to Loreena McKennit on You Tube ( and If you do not know who I am on about  she is responsible for a lot of the beautiful music in Lord of the Rings) and pottering about whilst  listening to her haunting music which touches the soul, I came across a bag of paperwork.  Whilst sorting through it I found one or two of the recipe bits and bobs that my mum had accumulated over the years amongst which was the remnants of a little cookery book that my mum always went to and indeed taught me to cook from.  The little BeRo recipe book.  Its lost its cover and I think some of the pages and I will probably end up putting it into plastic sleeves to preserve it like I did with my old faithful preserving book; but at least that way on I still have the recipes.

One of the recipes that my mum always cooked was what she referred to as coconut cheesecakes/tarts which are a firm favourite in our family and with the extended family.  This simple little pastry brings back so many memories; in the end mum did not need the book and taught me the same so I know how to make them but I cannot tell you the quantities - however the book has come to the rescue.  They are very tasty though and soon go once made.  They are in the BeRo book as Rich Coconut Tartlets.

These little tarts are so delicious and so Moorish whenever I make them I always end up making a double batch and they always go like hot cakes.  My mum was good at pastry making.  However I had been taught a different method of making pastry and I ended up getting into a right stew when making it as a result.  My hands are nearly always cold except when it comes to making pastry when they go red hot.  My pastry however  always comes up short in any event and my mum used to reckon that I made pastry like her mum did tasty but you had to be quick in rolling it out  otherwise it would crumble to pieces.

Anyway here are the Ingredients and Method for the shortcrust pastry you will need to make these delicious little tarts.

BeRo SHORT PASTRY

8ozs BeRo Self-Raising Flour

Half a teaspoonful of salt

1 oz of sugar

2 ozs of lard

2 ozs margarine

cold water approximately 8 teaspoonfuls

METHOD

1.  Mix the flour and salt into a bowl.

2.  Rub in the lard and the margarine lightly until like breadcrumbs.

3.  Stir in the sugar and using a round ended knife mix with the cold water to a stiff dough.  Roll out the pastry.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE COCONUT CHEESECAKES/TARTS

1.  Make the BeRo Pastry as given above.

2.  Line approximately 24 patty tins with the same.

3.  Place less than 1/2 teaspoonful of Raspberry jam in each.  You can use whatever you have but Raspberry is the traditional jam used for this recipe.

FILLING

4.  Cream together:

4ozs margarine

4ozs caster sugar (you can use granulated)

5.  Stir in:

4ozs of dessicated coconut

1 beaten egg

6.  Mix well.

7.  Form the filling into 24 little balls (about 1 teaspoonful per tartlet) place one on each case and flatten to fit.  (we use a fork for doing this)

8.  Bake in a moderate oven 350 degrees to 375 degrees F.  Gas Regulo 3 to 4 for about 15 minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy.

We always do. 

The added plus is that nowadays if you don't or cannot make your own shortcrust pastry you can always buy this from the chiller at your local supermarket and so can still achieve something for the tins in your pantry.  We have so many more options than our forebears.

Teaching your children how to cook is a skill that needs reintroducing to my mind and if they learn at your heels they often will go on to continue to cook as adults.  If you are not as terribly proficient yourself at cooking, use it as a training exercise and learn together.  Yes there might be flour and bits and bobs everywhere but that's art of the cooking process.  (I think as a child I never quite got over making mud pies!). 

When I bake it always brings back memories of mum in the kitchen cooking the Sunday Roast, me being in there helping, watching and assisting (usually with the washing up) then being allowed to make something for Sunday afternoon tea.  Happy days for me and my family as mum was an excellent cook and we were always well fed.  We seem too much in a rush these days but if you have a family hopefully you will be able to make your own traditions and perhaps reintroduce the practice of a full Sunday afternoon High Tea, especially in the winter months.   When at home as a child this always used to take place in front of the fire as we used to have things like crumpets and muffins toasted on the open fire followed by fruit, jelly and "cream" usually Ideal or Carnation evaporated milk or if mum had saved the cream off the top of the milk  then we would have whipped cream.  Then there would be sausage rolls, scones, schoolboy's earholes (jam tarts), coconut cheesecakes and a Victoria sponge cake or chocolate cake.  Anything left over went into the Tins in the pantry for use in pack ups.  So we did not do too badly.

Hope this recipe gives you "something to put in the tins" for your family this week.

Toodaloo catch you soon.

Pattypan

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