No bake Oreo chocolate cherry tarts – because I’m still oven-less!

I haven’t been baking. At all. My excuse since we moved to Singapore in the last 6 months was that we do not currently own an oven here. However, when I saw Mowiekay’s blogpost on these no bake oreo chocolate cherry tarts, I knew that excuse wouldn’t fly anymore!

These little tarts were easy to make and totally more-ish. I’d be deluding myself if I said they were good for my diet but it certainly made me feel better that there were cherries on them! Please hop on over to Mowiekay’s blogpost for the full recipe (and his gorgeous photos because seriously, mine does not even compare.. at all).

Whilst I used all the same ingredients in making these tarts, I did amend the method slightly in making the chocolate ganache. Instead of heating the cream, chocolate and golden syrup together, I broke the chocolate into pea-sized pieces in a bowl, brought the cream and golden syrup to a boil in a small saucepan, then poured the hot cream mixture over the chocolate. I then slowly stirred with a small balloon whisk until all the ingredients formed a thick glossy ganache.

Since most of the flavour in a chocolate ganache comes from the chocolate, I would advise you to use some good quality chocolate – I used Green & Black’s dark chocolate. My bar of chocolate was 150g and the double cream (or thick cream in Singapore) was 200ml. I didn’t want to waste the cream (the recipe calls for 200g dark chocolate to 200ml double cream) so just used up all of both. This would have resulted in a thinner ganache than in the recipe but I was satisfied with the consistency.

This ‘non-baking’ session reminded me of how much I miss baking and generally pottering about in my own kitchen. As most of our kitchen equipment (including my beloved Kitchenaid mixer) remains in storage, my activities in the kitchen have been limited to putting together salads for lunch and these non-bake tarts. I miss having easy access to my props and cookbooks; and long for the day when they can be displayed in all their glory in a dedicated bookcase in our own home. Until then, I feel like I’m still in a transitional period of sorts and can’t seem to find the focus or inspiration to make anything more complicated; or to style and shoot food – I really struggled to take photos of these tarts that I was happy with.

That aside, if you’re oven-less like I am at the moment but want to treat your loved ones to something sweet and delicious, I hope you’ll enjoy making these tarts. They really are lovely jubbly (bless you Marco!)!!!