Blackberry and almond tarts

We had this at Glyndebourne yesterday, and I made some mini ones with left over scraps of pastry and frangipane. I think the little ones were even more cute and I didn’t bother baking them blind. I made them in the white earthenware pots that you get free with (I think) Gu hot puddings (or a Waitrose equivalent). The recipe is a combination of Tamasin Day Lewis’s pastry (Art of the Tart) and Skye Gyngell’s blackberry and almond filling from A Year in My Kitchen. I did the big one in a 9inch tart tin. Alice took photos so I must ask her to stick them up here – it was pretty (she says vainly)…

 

Pastry:

120g plain white flour (I used 00 flour because I was in a posh mood but have never worked out if it really makes a difference – my pastry tends to work if I’m an a good mood and fail if I’m in a strop and the ingredients don’t seem to affect it)

60g unsalted butter – v cold

1 tablespoon sifted icing sugar (I probably didn’t)

2 egg yolks (stick them into the freezer 5 minutes before you start, especially if you don’t keep eggs in the fridge)

Chop the cold butter into small cubes and blast it in the magimix with the flour and icing sugar until it looks like fine sand. Add the egg yolks and pulse it until it starts to come together. When it’s almost coming together, stop the magimix, take the blade out (grandmothers sucking eggs etc but I have dropped the blade on my big toe in the past leading to several stitches so I’m assuming wider incompetence) and bring it together with your hands into a ball. Wrap this in clingfilm and leave it in the fridge for at least 40 minutes. It’s quite sticky pastry so needs chilling more than standard shortcrust. After 40 minutes take it out, roll it out to the size of the tin (greased etc) and fit it in, patching any holes and cracks as you need to. Put it back in the fridge for another half an hour (or overnight, which is what I did as I had a ghastly hangover and had to go to bed at that point (Blyth/Shakespeare/whisky combination). Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees or just over 150 for the cottage’s Baby Belling. Cut off a piece of greaseproof paper that’s large enough to cover the tart tin and put this on top of the pastry shell and fill it with baking beans, rice or whatever you use. Bake it blind like this for 12-15 minutes, then take it out, empty out the beans and paper then stick it back in for another 5 minutes (or 3 at the cottage). Let it cool down.

 

Filling:

200g ground almonds

200g sugar (I used nearly all caster and some soft brown)

200g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 organic large egg yolks (eek – need to make lots of meringues this week)

250g blackberries (so says the recipe – I just picked half a jug from the lane, no idea of the weight)

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees/gas 4.

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the vanilla extract, then add the egg yolks one at a time beating until just combined. Finally add the ground almonds, gently mixing until they’re all combined. Scrape and splodge this mixture into the pastry case, but do this gently and carefully as the pastry is very crumbly and fragile and the mixture is quite dense. Stud the backberries into the mixture all over. I found this intensly pleasurable and -bad mother – wouldn’t let Nell help me as I was enjoying myself too much to share it.

Bake the tart for 20-30 minutes until the filling is golden and browning round the edges.

Serve this at room temperature with pourable double cream.

 

For the little tarts, I just shaped the pastry into the little moulds (greased well), filled them with the almod mixture and added as many blackberries as I could fit into the tops. I think I cooked them for about 15-20 minutes but wasn’t really concentrating. They were very sweet and helpfully slipped out of their little pots looking golden and so pretty.

Jemima’s carrot cake

1.5 cups white sugar
1.5 cups oil (sunflower)
4 eggs
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
0.5tsp salt
0.5tsp nutmeg
0.5tsp cloves
4tsp cinnamon
3.5 cups grated carrot

Whizz all in blender. 1 hour at 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 or less. NB this rose far too much for me so I will halve the raising agents next time

Carrot cake icing
4oz cream cheese
1tsp vanilla
Icing sugar

Devil’s carrot cake

3.5 large grated carrots
0.25lb (just over 100g) margarine or butter
4 tbspn honey
2oz/60g brown sugar
1tbsp molasses
2oz sesame seeds (or finely chopped pecans)
2oz carob flour
4oz wholewheat flour
2oz white flour
3tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp each mixed ground spice, nutmeg, ginger, cloves
2tsp cinnamon

 Sift all dry ingredients together. Heat the sugar, honey, margarine and molasses and add the melted mixture to the flour bit by bit. Mix the carrot and the eggs in a smaller bowl and add last with the vanilla. Cook at 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 for an hour. NB best substituting plain white flour for all the fancy stuff

Banana bread (The Times)

Feeds 6. Takes 1 hour 20 minutes. This cake-like banana bread will stay moist for days. Serve thickly sliced with a dusting of icing sugar, or wrap in foil and warm gently in the oven before slicing and serving with fresh banana for breakfast.

125g butter
175g unrefined soft brown sugar
2 eggs
280g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
125 ml milk
3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
75g walnuts, chopped I don’t like walnuts so have replaced these with both choc chips and chopped dates, both fab.

 Heat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4. Lightly oil a 25cm x 11 cm loaf tin. Cream butter and sugar together in a processor until smooth. Add one egg and beat well, add the second and continue to beat well. Sift in half the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix well. Mix in the milk then the remaining flour. Mash the bananas and then fold them into the mixture with the vanilla extract and walnuts. Then tip the mixture into the loaf tin and level the top with a spatula. Bake for around 1 hour [took 1h25 in our oven] until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean and not sticky. Cover the top with foil if it starts to brown too quickly.

Allow to cool in the tin for at least 20 mins before turning out.

Apple Charlotte

Pre-heat oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5

6 Granny Smith apples
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp brandy
125g/4.5 oz soft brown sugar
12 thin slices of bread
125g/4.5 oz butter, melted.

Peel and core apples and cut them into 1cm/0.5 inch dice. Place in very hot dry pan and sauté for c.30 secs. Add cinnamon and brandy then add sugar and cook for 10 minutes.

Cut bread into circles the same diameter as pot to be used as charlotte mould (or in ramekins) and strips the height of pot (or ramekins). Dip into melted butter and line pot.

Fill lined moulds with apple mixture. Seal with final round of bread and bake for 20-25 minutes until crisp and golden. Cool slightly and dip cut.

Serve with custard

Cherry clafoutis

500g ripe cherries, stoned
170g caster sugar
4tbsp kirsch (optional)
10g butter, melted
4 medium eggs
6 drops vanilla essence (optional)
zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
20g plain flour
100ml milk
150ml whipping cream
70g unsalted butterMarinate cherries with 2tbsp caster sugar and the kirsch for two hours. Preheat oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Brush the inside of a round cast-iron or china baking dish (5cm deep x 20cm) with melted butter. Add 3tbsp caster sugar and shake dish to coat the inside. In a bowl whisk the eggs, remaining caster sugar, vanilla and lemon zest together until creamy. Add flour and two pinches sea salt and whisk until smooth, then slowly incorporate milk and cream. In a small saucepan, heat the butter until it reaches a blonde hazelnut colour and whisk it into the mixture. Mix the batter with the cherries and their juices and pour into the baking disk. Dot with butter and bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes. The calfoutis is cooked when the blade of a knife comes out clean. To serve, sprinkle caster sugar over. Apricots, pears or apples can be used instead of cherries.

Venning rhubarb crumble

8oz demerara sugar
6oz flour
4oz butter or margarineServes 6. Proportions 4, 3, 2 sugar, flour and margarine. Serve cold.

Warm red fruit compote

225g redcurrants
150g blackcurrants
4tbsp sugar
450g raspberries or loganberriesPut the currants in saucepan with 2 tbsp  water and sugar. Bring slowly to boil. When the currants start to burst, tip in remaining fruit. Simmer for two minutes then serve with icecream.
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Blackcurrant compote

400g blackcurrants
4tbsp sugarPlace fruit in saucepan with sugar and bring it the boil. When the fruit starts to burst remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Nectarine and blackcurrant tart with bitter almond crumble (Telegraph)

Sweet pastry
110g flour
Salt
55g butter
40g sugar
1tbsp water
1 egg yolkCrumble topping
100g butter, chilled and cubed
100g flour
100g sugar
30g ground almonds

Fruit filling
450g nectarines, stoned and cut in wedges
140g blackcurrants, trimmed
25g caster sugar
Icing sugar

Sieve flour and salt and rub in butter. Stir in sugar and add water and egg yolk, mixing gently. Gently knead for a few moments until smooth. Wrap and chill for at least and hour. Roll the pastry out and line a 24cm fluted tart tin. Chill it again for 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 175°C/Gas 4. Blind bake pastry until golden on base. Meanwhile, make almond crumble. Rub the butter into the flour, add the sugar and the almonds. Place the nectarines in a bowl with the blackcurrants and sugar. Pile into the baked tart shell and spread evenly. Scatter over the topping and bake for 30 minutes or until crisp and golden. Dust with icing sugar and serve with cream.
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