Saturday, June 27, 2009

A Less Baked-Well Tart


The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

I had just baked an apricot frangipane tart a few days before this month's Daring Bakers' challenge was announced, so I decided I would wait a week or two before baking the Bakewell Tart, as they are quite similar (short crust, fruit, frangipane filling). Well, ya gotta love a deadline, because wait I did, all month...it is now 10:40 a.m. on June 27th (deadline day) and the tart is in the oven. Yes, I have been fairly busy with work, with baking and with doing nothing, but this tart is very quick and simple to make (luckily) and I could easily have whipped it up while watching TV in the evening.

I do love frangipane...both for the name and for the flavor. My boss, Margaret H., at the restaurant, said she thought that Frangipane (said with the most un-French pronunciation that you can muster...Fran-Gee-Pan-ee vs Frahn-Jhi-Pahn) would be a good name for a cat -- I always imagined a big fat orange calico that would casually swat at you as you passed by. For the weekend crowd we used to make little flat knots out of either brioche dough or cinnamon roll dough (I don't remember now which we used, but both would be good) and top them with frangipane before baking. The frangipane we used had a pastry cream base and was quite rich and deelish, I must say.

For the layer of jam in today's Bakewell Tart, I used cranberries that I had in the freezer (50 cents a bag after Thanksgiving, I bought 8 bags...how can you pass up a deal like that?) and some rhubarb that I had left over from something else. Both are quite tart, but I figured that would be okay, as the crust and frangipane could be on the sweet side. And cranberries are so fun to cook -- simmer em til they pop - yeeha.

Okay...so, now fast forward...the tart is out of the oven and the pictures have been taken. Hmmm. Listen to this charming tale of what happens when you wait until the last day to bake a Bakewell Tart and you wanna get the thing out of the oven because you want it to cool so that you can cut it and take a few hastily set-up pictures...here's what happens -- you take it out of the oven a little too soon (against your better judgment) and the frangipane has not fully baked, which you kinda feared when you looked at it so you left it in an extra five minutes but even then it wasn't quite as puffy as you thought it shoulda been but you took it out anyway because you didn't want to wait any longer (and the top was getting kinda dark, kinda) even though you knew, you did, you just knew deep down/in the back of your mind, that it was too soon and, no, it wasn't going to be done. And of course, it wasn't.

Oh well, we'll eat the done parts...


Bakewell Tart
Makes (9” tart)







Sweet shortcrust pastry
225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
½ tsp salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold
2 egg yolks
½ tsp almond extract
1-2 Tbsp) cold water
Pulse the flour, sugar and salt in the food processor a few times to combine.
Add the cold, cubed butter to the food processor and pulse a few times until the butter is the size of peas. Set aside.
Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.
Form the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Frangipane
125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 eggs
½ tsp almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour
Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is pale and very fluffy.
Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle.
After all three are in, add the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Assembly:
1. Roll crust to desired size. Fit into tart pan and freeze for approx 15 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 400.
3. Spoon an even layer of jam (3/4-1 cup) into the chilled tart shell.
4. Top with the frangipane, smoothing the top.
5. Bake 30-40 minutes, until the top is puffy and set.

1 comment:

Audax said...

I hope the 'done' bits were deelish. Your pixs look fine. Yes frangipane reminds me of summer flowers and the smell of yellow odd I know. Cheers from Audax in Australia