Did you watch Bake Off this week? It was pastry week and the ‘signature bake’ was to create a savoury tarte tatin. So I used that as a bit of inspiration and decided to make a toffee apple tarte tatin. Here’s how it ‘panned’ out…
I’ve been spending the past few weeks making use of all the ripening fruit from our garden; plums, damsons and now apples. We don’t know the type of apple this is – we think it’s an ‘eater’ rather than a ‘cooker’, although it’s a bit on the tart side.
I was going to make a ‘plain’ apple tarte tatin, but I fancied a bit of extra bit of caramelisation. Sweet, gooey, sticky and chewy.
As a tarte tatin is an ‘upside-down’ cake, you want to lay the fruit on the base of the pan in an attractive pattern.
I could have done with making a little bit more pastry. I felt like I was stretching it across the top to thinly. But hey, it’s a rustic tart, a couple of cracks didn’t detract from the splendid taste and flavour.
Slice & serve with thick cream or vanilla ice cream. We’ve really been enjoying all our recent autumnal desserts; warming, hearty, filling and delicious; what will next week bring?
Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest!
- 110g/4oz plain flour
- 50g/2oz butter, cubed (room temperature)
- pinch of salt
- 25g butter
- 25g Demerara sugar
- 1tbsp golden syrup
- ½tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 large or 3 medium apples, cored, peeled and sliced into segments
- Pre-heat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4
- Sift the flour and salt together into a medium-sized mixing bowl
- Using your fingertips, lightly and gently rub the cubes of butter into the flour. When the mixture looks uniformly crumbly, sprinkle a tablespoon of cold water evenly over the top
- Using a round-bladed knife, repeatedly cut through the mixture, which will begin to form larger lumps. Bring the mixture together with your hands to form a smooth ball of dough.
- Cool the ball of pastry, in a ziplock bag, in the fridge for half an hour
- In a heavy-bottomed, cast iron skillet pan, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally
- Sprinkle in the cinnamon and stir to combine
- Arrange the apple segments into an attractive pattern on top of the toffee mixture in the skillet pan
- Roll out the pastry into a 1cm thick round, with a slightly larger diameter than your skillet
- Cover the apples with the pastry, gently pressing it down and tucking it down the sides
- Cook for 30-40 minutes or until the pastry begins to brown
- Cool for a couple of minutes and loosen the edges with a sharp knife if necessary
- Flip over, apple-side-up, on to a serving plate
Cakes & Bakes: Cheesy baked bean tartlets
I recently saw a picture somewhere (I can’t remember where) of little cheesy baked bean tartlets and thought they looked delicious.
I started by making a basic, savoury shortcrust pastry. After that, all that’s needed is a small can of baked beans and a little bit of grated cheddar. Only 4 ingredients – not counting the pinch of salt and tablespoon of water.
Just before I put them into the oven, Justin said something like, “Aren’t they getting any pie lids?”. As they’re cheesy baked bean tartlets, I wasn’t planning on topping them. However, I has some leftover pastry so re-rolled some and cut out four extra rounds.
The tartlets (and the mini-pies for, that matter) were lovely with a little smear of tewkesbury mustard that we got from Tracklements.
These tartlets are really easy to make – you can even buy ready-made pastry if preferred. They’d be perfect for a picnic or served at a buffet or children’s party.
Save my recipe to Pinterest by clicking here
- 200g plain flour
- pinch of fine salt
- 100g cold butter, cubed
- 1-2 tbsp cold water
- (small) 220g tin baked beans
- 50g mature cheddar cheese, grated
- Put the flour, salt and butter into a food processor and pulse about a dozen times until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
- Add a tablespoon of water and pulse again until small lumps begin to form. Add another tablespoon if necessary
- Tip the mixture out on to a cross made from two lengths of cling film. Bring the four ends of cling film together and squeeze and pat down the mixture to form a dough. Chill in the fridge for an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
- Grease a bun tin
- Remove the chilled pastry from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured work surface
- Using a round pastry cutter slightly larger than the holes in the bun tin, cut out circles of pastry and carefully and evenly place them over the holes (If you'll be adding lids, brush around the edge with a little milk
- Spoon about a teaspoonful of baked beans into each followed by a generous pinch of grated cheddar (brush the edge of the underside of each lid before carefully pressing it down on to the edge of the lower pastry round. Brush the top of the lid with a little milk or egg wash)
- Cook for 12-15 minutes in the middle of the oven until the pastry has browned slightly
- Remove from the oven and allow the tartlets to cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before removing
Cakes & Bakes: Jammy marzipan tartlets
When I asked Justin what he fancied me making for this week’s Cakes & Bakes item, he replied: “I like jam, I like almonds, I like pastry.” So, that was my mission set; I’ve come up with jammy marzipan tartlets.
There are three stages to the method; the pastry, the marzipan and then the filling… four, if you count the bringing it all together.
Consequently, this means you can make the pastry and marzipan days – or even weeks (they can be prepared and frozen) – in advance if needed; making the filling and finishing off on the day.
The recipe is similar to a Bakewell tart – using marzipan rather than frangipane.
I have a cupboard full of my different home-made jams & jellies, so I chose a jar of mixed berry jelly for the bottom layer. If some of your jam/jelly bubbles up and leaks over (like half of mine did), don’t allow the tartlets to cool completely in the tin before trying to remove them. Unfortunately, my jelly set like cement and it was impossible to prise them out in one piece.
Despite this, they were gorgeous, bite-sized morsels of sweetness… and went down a treat with a cup of tea. I’ll be making these again!
Save my jammy marzipan tartlets recipe to Pinterest
- 90g/3oz plain flour
- 36g/1¼oz 'tant pour tant' (18g/⅔oz icing sugar + 18g/⅔oz ground almonds)
- pinch of salt
- 65g/2¼oz very cold butter, cubed
- ½-1 tbsp cold water
- 150g/5oz ground almonds
- 200g/7oz icing sugar + extra for rolling
- 2 tsp almond extract
- 1 egg white
- 100g/3½oz ground almonds
- 45g/1½oz caster sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ½ tsp almond essence
- 1 tbsp fruit jam or jelly
- 15g/½oz flaked almonds
- Put the flour, icing sugar, ground almonds and salt into a food processor. Pulse a couple of times to combine
- Add the cold butter and pulse again until you get to the fine breadcrumb stage
- Whilst still pulsing, add the ice cold water until the mixture begins to get lumpy - like dry scrambled eggs
- Empty the pastry into ziplock bag and seal
- Form the dough into a ball by bringing it all together, still in the sealed ziplock bag, as if you’re making a snowball
- Chill in the fridge for ½ to 1 hour - you can use this time to make your marzipan (directions below)
- Once the pastry is chilled, grease a 6-hole muffin tin
- Lightly flour your work surface, remove your ball of dough from the fridge, unwrap and divide it into 6 equal pieces (about 20-22g each)
- One by one, roll each piece of dough into a ½cm thick round shape. Cut into perfect circles with a cookie cutter (or upturned drinking glass if you don't have one) that's slightly wider than the hole of your muffin tin. **Rolling each pie case individually means that you don't overwork the pastry by re-rolling over & over again**
- Gently press the pastry rounds into the muffin tin holes (handy hint: use a small lump of pastry to do this if you have long fingernails!)
- Set aside while you make the filling
- Put the ground almonds, icing sugar, almond extract and egg white into a food processor and combine until a thick ball of dough is formed
- Turn the paste out onto a work surface and knead it a few times. Roll it into a short, fat log (you want the diameter to be slightly smaller than the pastry case base). Wrap the log tightly in cling film and chill in the fridge for ½ to 1 hour - you can use this time to make your filling (directions below)
- Put the ground almonds and caster sugar into a bowl and combine
- Add the beaten eggs and almond essence and combine well
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
- Spread a generous layer of jam/jelly onto the bottom of each tartlet pastry case
- Remove the marzipan log from the clingfilm, Slice off 6 x ½cm rounds. Any unused marzipan will keep for a month in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer
- Place a round over the jam/jelly in each of the tartlet pastry cases
- Spoon over enough filling to just below the rim of the pastry case
- Sprinkle the top with a few flaked almonds and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes, or until the filling is baked through and golden-brown all over
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool a few minutes in the muffin tin. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely
- Dredge a little icing sugar over the tops
Cakes & Bakes: Nutty treacle tart
This week, I realised that we have lots of bags of nuts coming to their use by date. I think we were given most of them as Christmas presents last year – and, more than likely, we’ll be receiving even more in a few weeks time.
I needed to use them pronto and I’d seen a nut-filled Nigella recipe a week ago that looked tasty. She calls it pecan-plus pie; an Anglicised version of the American pecan pie. I didn’t have any pecans in my nut hoard, so I’ve rechristened mine, nutty treacle tart.
I wasn’t too sure about the pastry case when I was making it; plain flour, vegetable oil and a pinch of salt. It looked very oily when the dough came together and was being pressed into the flan dish. I needn’t have worried though, it turned out perfectly fine – crumbly and biscuity.
The treacle sauce is sweet and unctuous but not sickly. One thing I’d do if making this nutty treacle tart again, however, is roughly chop the larger nuts. The Brazils were a bit large when trying to cut the tart into slices and also when spooning bits into my mouth!
Nigella’s instructions are to bake the tart for 40 minutes at 180ºC. After spending that length of time in the oven, my tart was still quite liquid and (thanks to my clear glass flan dish) I could see the pastry still had a ‘soggy bottom’. I’d suggest upping the oven temperature a bit or cooking it for a little longer… or both; just keep checking on in it as it bakes.
Serve it (I prefer it cold) with a dollop of whipped cream or crème fraîche.
Click here to pin the recipe to Pinterest
- 225g/8oz plain flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 125g/oz vegetable oil
- 60ml/2fl oz full fat milk
- 150g/5¼oz golden syrup
- 100g/3½oz soft butter
- 200g/7oz soft light brown sugar
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 350g/12⅓oz mixed nuts
- 3 large eggs
- Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/350ºF/gas mark 4
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, oil and milk to form a rough dough
- Tip it out into a 25cm /10" diameter flan dish, and press the dough evenly into the base and up the
- sides of the dish, slightly coming up over the top if possible. Put it into the freezer
- Melt the golden syrup, butter and brown sugar over a lowish heat in a saucepan
- Add the vanilla, stir, then take off the heat and allow it to stand and cool for 10 minutes
- Remove the pastry-lined flan dish from the freezer, and arrange the mixed nuts on it
- Whisk the eggs into the slightly cooled syrup until it looks like a caramel mixture, then pour it over the nuts
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the filling has set and the pastry is golden brown
- Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving