Peak Dupevitza During The Hot Days

It is hot! I know, it is summer and it is supposed to be hot, but for us, Sofia residents, accustomed to a bit colder mountain climate, temperatures above 30C feel HOT, HOT, HOT.

We were really tempted this week to go to the higher mountains, like Pirin or Rila, but we also felt like picking some wild raspberries, so in the end we chose the low mountain of Lulin and climbed peak Dupevitza.

I remember a climb of Dupevitza on a hot summer day a couple of years ago, when I really struggled in the hot humid air. This year I've been trying to increase my cardio-vascular capacity (which is unfortunately innately much below average) and so, apart from my daily walks (4-5 km), I also jog from time to time, usually once or twice a week. Maybe it's the jogging or maybe I just had a better day, but although it was one of the hottest days of the year, the climb to the peak felt like almost no effort at all. I really hope it's the jogging and not just a fluke.

Hike info:

Destination: round trail to peak Dupevitza

Mountain: Lulin

Total length: 10 km

Elevation gain: 320 m

Total duration (plus picnic and berry eating and picking): 3 and a half hours

Average difficulty: 3 / 10 

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxershorts

I: lingerie, Love Notion's Tunic, Love Notion's leggings

:On Dobrinova skala peak

:All Saints Chapel. We had our picnic at the picnic area nearby

:The Monastery of Gorna Banya

:As we still had quite a few handfuls of wild strawberries, I made another tart today, with cake base and divine custard filling with whipped cream. The aroma of these strawberries is unbelievable!

Tyrolean Tart

Husband and I hiked yesterday on Lulin mountain, a repeat of our last year's hike mid July in the hope to find again some ripe raspberries for half a dozen jars of wild raspberry jam. Alas, summer is evidently late this year and the raspberries were at least two weeks аваъ from riping. However, the wild strawberries were still fairly abundant - another evidence that the seasonal fruits are late this year, as other years we've seen ripe strawberries on Dupevitza as early as June 10th.

Anyway, instead of raspberries, we gathered some strawberries and in the evening I made my first Tyrolean tart. I liked it a lot and I am putting down the recipe in my blog, as I know I'll be willing to repeat it, and soon.

The biscuit crust:

• 100 g butter
• 1 egg
• 50 g sugar
• 220 g flour
• 5 g baking powder
  

Beat the egg with the sugar. Add the melted, but not hot butter. Add the flour with the baking powder and mix into a soft dough. I don't have a tart form, so I used my spring cake form, covering the bottom and forming a border along the walls of the form, high enough for the filling of the tart. I pricked the thus formed biscuit layer with a fork and placed it in a preheated oven to bake for 25 min at 180C.

The cream filling:

• 350 ml milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 50 g sugar
• 2 tbsp flour
• vanilla
• 10 g butter 
  

Stir the egg yolks with the sugar, add the vanilla, the flour and a small amount of the milk and stir, until homogeneous. Add the rest of the milk and cook over the hot plate at medium heat until the cream thickens and begins to boil. Set aside to cool down to room temperature. Cover with cling form to avoid a crust being formed.

The fruit layer

Here any fruit and any syrup goes. I used the wild strawberries and I prepared a syrup out of home-made strawberry jam, diluted in 150 ml water. This made my syrup somewhat murky, so next time I'll use something else for the jelly. To thicken it, I added 5 g of gelatin, prepared according to the instructions on the pack. 

Finally I assembled the tart and placed it in the fridge overnight. The resulting dessert is delicious crispy crust with sweet creamy filling and divinely aromatic wild berries with a very delicate sour tinge. Definitely recommend this recipe and will be making it soon with other berries (wild raspberries :), hopefully).