When I was in Paris, I did a tiny bit of shopping but not for clothes. The only things that came home with me were linen napkins from the Conran Shop, six glass tumblers from Merci and some tartlet forms from La Bovida. Sunday morning I was up bright and early removing all the pesky adhesive labels from the tartlet forms because it was time to christen them.
I decided to make some frangipane tartlets. This recipe is an oldie but a goodie and one that I've made with lots of different fruit toppings.
Rhubarb is in season and plentiful here so I topped the frangipane tartlets with some oven baked rhubarb. The rhubarb compote lasts a week in the fridge so you can make it well in advance.
If it's not rhubarb season where you live, plums are an excellent topping as are pears, sliced figs or any kind of berry.
Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional gas oven, so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.
Rhubarb Frangipane Tartlets – makes eight 7cm tartlets
Filling
1 bunch rhubarb, washed, trimmed of tough strands and cut into 2 cm chunks
4 tbs caster sugar
Thinly peeled rind and juice of ½ orange
1 cinnamon stick
Pastry
110 g (4 oz) cold unsalted butter, diced
¼ cup icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
¼ cup almond meal
1⅓ cups plain flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cold water
Frangipane
75 gm (2½ oz) unsalted butter
75 gm (2½ oz) caster sugar
1 large egg
75 gm almond meal
1 tbs plain flour
1 tsp grated orange rind
Topping
1 tbs pistachios, coarsely chopped
Optional - Sieved warmed apricot jam
Method
Preheat oven to 200°C. Arrange rhubarb snugly in a baking dish, scatter sugar and orange peel over, drizzle with juice and add the stick of cinnamon. Cover with foil and roast until rhubarb is just tender (15-20 minutes but I start checking at 10 minutes). Set aside to cool. Taste for sweetness before using and adjust to taste, as sometimes the rhubarb can be very tart. You will only need a small quantity of the rhubarb to make this recipe. The rhubarb compote is delicious served with a dollop of Greek yoghurt and I use it to top my muesli.
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes. You’ll only need about half of the pastry dough for this recipe. The pastry freezes well so just wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface (I use greaseproof paper) and roll out thinly with a rolling pin. Grease eight 7 cm tartlet tins. Line the tins with the pastry and trim the edges of the tart tins with a sharp knife. Place the tartlets onto a baking sheet then return to the fridge for another 30 minutes.
While the tartlet shells are chilling, make the frangipane filling. Place butter and caster sugar in a food processor and whizz to combine. Add the egg, the almond meal, the flour and orange rind, then pulse to combine. Evenly divide the frangipane filling between the tarts and sprinkle some of the chopped pistachios over the filling. Spoon a few pieces of the well drained rhubarb over the frangipane.
Place the tray on the middle shelf of the oven. Bake at 190°C/375°F for 30-40 minutes until the frangipane filling has slightly puffed and is golden brown. Baking time will depend on your oven so start checking the tarts after 20 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and cool the tartlets on a wire rack. Gently remove the tarts from the tins; glaze the rhubarb with some warmed sieved apricot jam if desired. Serve as is though a dollop of cream on the side wouldn’t go astray.
I hope you have fun making these little tarts.
See you all again later in the week with another Sydney wander.
Bye for now,
Jillian
A few weeks back, I had a hankering for sweet rolls so I tampered with the Ottolenghi Krantz cake recipe and made some chocolate pecan knots. My first version was very tasty but I found the knots a bit dry. I tried again but this time I adapted the dough recipe using my Dad's sweet roll recipe for reference and used the chocolate filling from the Ottolenghi recipe.
Dad's sweet roll recipe is very down to earth and simple. There's no complicated brioche type butter adding, it's all melt and mix and throw everything into the mixer.
I made some Swedish style knots but you don't have to bother. You could just roll it up swiss roll style, slice the mixture into 6 and go from there.
Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional gas oven, so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.
Chocolate Pecan Knots - makes 6 knots.
The recipe is adapted from Ottolenghi Chocolate Krantz Cake recipe and my dad's bulkha recipe. Please note, it's best to start this recipe the day before.
For the dough
75g unsalted butter
100mls milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour, plus extra for dusting
¼ tsp salt
45g caster sugar
1 tsp dried yeast
1 egg
additonal 2 tbl melted butter
oil, for greasing
Filling
12g icing sugar
18g cocoa powder
35g dark chocolate, melted
30g unsalted butter, melted
Topping
50g toasted pecans, roughly chopped
1 tbs caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Glaze (optional)
⅓ cup water
⅓ cup caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick
To make the dough, melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat, add milk and vanilla and heat until lukewarm. Mix flour, salt, sugar and yeast in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Make a well in the centre, then, with motor running, pour the beaten egg into the well and gradually add the milk mixture and knead until smooth and shiny (2-3 minutes). The mixture will be quite soft at this stage. If it's not then you might need to add a little more milk.
Grease a large bowl. Transfer the dough to the greased bowl, turn to coat, cover with plastic wrap and stand in a warm place until doubled in size (1 hour) or you can leave the dough to prove in the fridge overnight, which is what I usually do. While the dough is proving you can make the filling and the topping. In a small bowl, mix together the icing sugar, cocoa, chocolate and melted butter to form a paste. In a separate bowl combined the toasted nuts, sugar and cinnamon. Put to one side.
If you've proved the dough in the fridge you'll need to let it come back to room temperature first before proceeding with the next steps. Knock back dough on a lightly floured surface, roll out to a 25cm x 40cm rectangle. Brush the dough with half the extra melted butter. Cover half the dough with the chocolate filling. Sprinkle the chopped nut mixture over the chocolate paste. Fold the dough over to cover the chocolate filling and press the edges gently to seal. If the filling is leaking out everywhere put the dough parcel into the fridge for about 30 minutes to make the next stage easier.
The next part is a bit messy. Cut the dough crosswise into 6 even pieces. Loop each piece twice around your hand and tuck in the ends to form a knot. You'll lose some of the pecans and filing at this stage. Place the knots on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Coat the buns with the remaining melted butter and you can sprinkle any random pieces of pecan that have fallen off. Cover the knots with a tea towel and stand in a warm place to prove (from 30 minutes up to a few hours).
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Bake the knots for about 25 minutes or until the buns have risen and are well browned. Cool on tray for a few minutes and then cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
If you like you can glaze the buns and you can make the glaze while the knots are in the oven. Combine the water and sugar in a small pan. Bring sugar and water to a simmer stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove the pan from the from heat, pop in the cinnamon stick and set aside to cool somewhat. As soon as the knots come out of the oven, brush the syrup over each knot and allow to cool.
I think these are best served the day you make them. If you have any leftovers, like I did, store them in the freezer then reheat them before serving. I normally zap each knot for 10-15 seconds and then they're good to go.
These knots are a lot of work but I do think they're worth it. I hope you agree.
See you all again soon,
Jillian
A few weeks back I had a hankering for pie, specifically apple and blackberry pie. It's not blackberry season in Sydney but that didn't deter me. I checked the freezer cabinet in the supermarket and found a packet of frozen blackberries and so on Father's Day, away I went to make pie and to test out the oven.
For the pastry I adapted a recipe from Tara O'Brady and cobbled together a filling using the frozen berries and some canned pie apple I'd picked up at the shops.
Why pie apple? I've used tinned unsweetened pie apple to make apple pie my whole life and I can't see any reason to change my ways now. It doesn't involve all that peeling, coring, slicing and cooking of apples so it's a faster way to make a pie. If you'd like to make the pie using fresh apples, I always precook the apples in the microwave then let them cool before using them. I also decided to make a lattice pie because I wanted to see those juicy blackberries.
Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional gas oven, so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.
Apple and Blackberry Pie
Pastry
½ cup cold water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2½ cups plain flour
1½ tbs caster sugar
pinch salt
250g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
Filling
1 800g tin unsweetened pie apple (or 1 kilo green apples peeled sliced and stewed then cooled)
200g fresh or frozen blackberries
½ cup caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2-3 tbs blackberry or cherry jam
Topping
Milk
Granulated sugar, for sprinkling
Pastry
Combine the cold water and lemon juice in a small jug. In the bowl of a food processor combine the flour, sugar and salt. Add the cubes of butter and process the mixture for about 10 seconds or until the butter is the size of peas. Add half the cold water and process for another 10 seconds. Check the mixture to see whether it clumps together when a small amount is squeezed. If not, then add the remaining water. Tip the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and squeeze and flatten the mixture until it makes a dough. Avoid the temptation to knead the dough at any time. There should be visible streaks of butter in the pastry. Divide the pastry into two portions, and shape each into a circle. Wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.
To make the filling
In a large bowl combine the cooked apple, the blackberries, the sugar and cinnamon and place in the fridge while preparing the pie.
Method
On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the pastry circles and fit it into a 9-inch pie plate, leaving a small overhang around the rim. Spoon the jam into the base of the pie crust then spoon the fruit into the pastry shell mounding slightly in the centre. Brush milk over the pastry edge. Roll the second half of pastry into a circle. Leave whole, or cut into strips for lattice. Top the pie with the second crust, either whole or weaving into a lattice.
Trim the top crust to barely overlap the bottom. Lift the edge of the bottom crust over to enclose the top, rolling inwards with even, firm pressure. Keep working around the perimeter of the pie, forming the edge slightly inside the pan’s rim. Crimp or flute as desired. Place the pie onto a baking tray and refrigerate the pie for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F placing the rack in the lower third. Glaze pastry lightly with milk, cutting steam vents into the pastry if using a whole crust, then sprinkle with some granulated sugar. Bake the pie on the baking tray for 45 minutes. If the pastry isn’t golden brown at this stage, raise the oven temperature to 220°C, move the rack to the centre of the oven and bake for a further 10-15 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the juices are bubbling.
Allow the pie to cool a little to let the filling firm before serving with a nice dollop of cream.
My brother Farmer Andrew was in town unexpectedly on Sunday so he was invited to partake of pie. Very quickly half the pie was eaten and the other half swiftly followed when I took it into work the next day.
I guess I'll be making pie a bit more often in the future.
See you all again soon,
Jillian
