About a month ago, we were watching an episode of Food Unwrapped where they investigated the benefit of prunes in keeping you… ahem, ‘regular’.
The presenters did a little compare & contrast experiment where, each day, one of them drank a glass of prune juice, another ate a couple of plums and the third ate a few prunes. The last proved to be by far the most effective way of upping your fibre intake.
The programme took a trip to Agen in France which apparently produces the best prunes in the world. That was it, I was straight online to order myself a bag of Agen prunes.
They didn’t lie, Agen prunes put all other prunes in the shade when it comes to taste and size. I’ve begun eating 3 prunes each morning and I can attest that the workings of my alimentary canal are markedly smoother than previously!
I searched through all my cookery books looking for a tempting recipe to try so as to mix my prune intake up a little. Eventually, I came across a prune and almond tart with Armagnac in Rick Stein’s French Odyssey. I don’t think I’ve not previously posted any of his recipes despite the fact that we love a lot of the food he makes.
We’re not big brandy drinkers and I couldn’t find anywhere that sold miniatures, but decided to invest in a bottle of Armagnac for this and future recipes – it’s often called for in both sweet and savoury dishes.
Stein’s instruction is to soak the prunes for an hour prior to using them. However, I think a more extensive soak (overnight / 8 hours or so) would improve matters.
Not that the tart wasn’t incredibly good anyway – believe me, it was! Pairing it with a dollop of crème fraîche really works too.
Click here to pin the recipe for later!
- 225g/8oz plain flour, sifted
- ½tsp salt
- 130g/4½oz butter, chilled & diced
- 1½-2tbs cold water
- 300g/10½oz mi-cuit (semi-dried) Agen prunes, stoned
- 4tbs Armagnac
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 35g/1¼oz ground almonds
- 55g/2oz caster sugar
- 200ml/7fl oz crème fraîche
- icing sugar (for dusting)
- additional crème fraîche (for serving)
- Put the prunes into a bowl with the Armagnac and leave to soak for at least an hour, turning them occasionally to help them absorb the alcohol
- Put the flour and salt in a food processor or mixing bowl. Add the butter and work together to the fine breadcrumb stage
- Stir in the water with a round-bladed knife until it comes together into a ball
- Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and kneed briefly until smooth
- Rest the pastry in a fridge for about 30 minutes before using
- Roll out the pastry and use it to line a greased, loose-bottomed flan tin (2½ cm deep, 24cm diameter)
- Prick the base all over and chill for 20 minutes
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C/400ºF/Gas mark 6
- Blind bake the pastry case for 15 minutes then remove the blind baking gubbins and bake the case for a further 5 minutes
- Set the case aside and reduce the oven temperature to 190°C/ºF/Gas mark 5
- Drain the prunes over a bowl to reserve the remaining Armagnac
- Add the ground almonds, egg, sugar and crème fraîche to the Armagnac then beat together until smooth
- Distribute the prunes over the base of the pastry case and pour over the almond mixture
- Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer comes away clean
- Allow the tart to cool before dusting with a little icing sugar
- Serve with additional crème fraîche
Cakes & Bakes: Apricot dartois
I’ve been looking at a tin of apricots in our store cupboard for about 2 years. Every time I opened the door it whispered, “use me, use me”, but I always reached for something else. But not this week – it was finally the apricots’ time!
I decided on a recipe from Michel Roux’s Desserts: A Lifelong Passion and made an apricot dartois.
Dartois is traditionally two layers of puff pastry with a sandwiched layer of frangipane or jam. It can occasionally contain a savoury filling.
It’s quite a simple recipe – especially if you’re using ready-made puff pastry – and the pastry cutting is very straightforward too. Don’t be put off by the precision! The amount of frangipane made in the given recipe is HUGE! I halved the recipe (what’s half of 5 eggs? I just used 3 medium-sized ones) it still made half a kilo of the stuff. I set aside the 150 grams needed for the recipe, then portioned up the rest into small lidded tubs and froze it all for use at a later date.
The resulting dartois is very attractive and very delicious. I don’t think it would look out of place in a French pâtisserie’s shop window!
I used tinned apricots, but peaches, pears, plums or figs also work really well. If you’ve got fresh fruit, you can easily poach it beforehand in syrup.
Serve warm or cold with a fruit coulis, cream or ice cream.
Apricot dartois
Ingredients
For the frangipane [Makes 1.15kg/2lbs 10oz. I halved the recipe and still had enough for 3 portions]
- 250 g/9oz butter at room temperature
- 500 g/1lb 2oz 'tant pour tant' equal quantities of ground almonds and icing sugar sifted together
- 50 g/2oz plain flour
- 5 eggs
- 50 ml/2 fl oz rum optional
For the dartois
- 1 500g pack of ready-made puff pastry or you could make your own
- 150 g/5oz frangipane (ingredients above)
- eggwash 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 soup spoon of milk and a pinch of salt
- 1 tin apricot halves drained (or you could poach your own)
- Icing sugar for dusting
Instructions
For the frangipane
- Beat the butter until very soft
- Still beating, add the tant pour tant and flour
- Add the eggs - one at a time - beating well between each addition until the frangipane is light an homogeneous
- Stir in the rum
For the dartois
- On a lightly floured work surface, roll 225g/8oz of the pastry into a 27cm x 12cm/11" x 5" rectangle
- Roll this pastry around the rolling pin, then unroll it on to a baking sheet lightly dampened with cold water. Prick the pastry with a fork
- Using a spoon, spread the frangipane along the length of the pastry leaving a clear 2cm/¾" border on either side
- Brush these pastry borders with egg-wash
- Pat dry the apricots and arrange them on the frangipane
- Roll out the remaining pastry into a 27cm x 13cm/11" x 5½" rectangle
- Fold the pastry in half lengthways without applying pressure
- Make incisions down the length of the pastry about every 4mm/⅙" with the heel of a chef's knife, leaving a 2cm/¾" strip intact on the two outside edges
- Unfold the pastry into its original shape and drape it over the rolling pin and unroll it on to the apricot-filled rectangle
- Lightly press the edges together with your fingertips and refrigerate the dartois for 30 minutes
- Preheat the oven to 175ºC/345ºF/gas mark 4
- Using a chef's knife, trim off about 3mm/⅛" in pastry along the length of the rectangle
- Delicately and sparingly brush the top of the pastry with egg wash
- Liberally brush the sides with more egg wash
- With the tip of a small, sharp knife, make light, diagonal incisions in the borders, then along the edges
- Bake for 25 minutes. Increase the temperature to 195ºC/380ºF/gas mark 6, dust the dartois with icing sugar and return it to the oven for 1-2 minutes, or place it under a hot salamander/grill for a few seconds until beautifully glazed
Roux recommends serving it with a little jug of red fruit coulis. I prefer it with pouring cream.
Adapted from Desserts: A Lifelong PassionCakes & Bakes: Plum flaugnarde
We were given half a dozen sweet, ripe plums last week. We ate a couple and used the others in a plum flaugnarde.
A flaugnarde is similar to clafoutis in that they’re both baked French egg custard fruit puddings. However, if you’re a purist, the latter can only ever be made using cherries.
A flaugnarde on the other hand may contain all manner of fruit including pears, apples, figs, dried fruit, nuts…
The addition of a little buerre noisette gives the custard a lovely, nutty flavour. Make sure you only cook it until it goes a nice, golden brown. If the butter’s even just a little bit burnt, it will ruin the dish.
A tablespoonful of almonds isn’t essential, but it adds texture, bite more nuttiness… and looks beautiful too!
It puffs up beautifully while it’s cooking, but don’t worry when it deflates as it cools once out of the oven – it will do this. Serve it straight away with a little double cream or clotted cream.
Plum flaugnarde
Ingredients
- 4 ripe plums
- 20 g/¾oz unsalted butter plus extra for greasing
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 heaped tbsp plain flour
- 50 g/1¾fl oz milk
- 75 g/2¼fl oz double cream
- pinch salt
- 1 tbs flaked almonds optional
- icing sugar for dusting optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
- Grease a baking dish with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Shake the sugar around the dish so it's evenly coated. Tip away any excess
- Halve the plums, remove the stones and place them cut side down, evenly spread into the baking dish
- Heat the butter in a small frying pan over a low heat until it turns a light brown colour. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside
- In a large bowl or measuring jug whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence until creamy
- Add the flour, whisk until smooth, then slowly incorporate the milk, cream, salt and beurre noisette.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish making sure the plums are still evenly spread out
- Sprinkle with the flaked almonds
- Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the top is puffed up and a skewer inserted into the middle comes away clean
- Place on a wire cooling rack, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve warm with double or clotted cream
