English Bakewell 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 was very intrigued when I first began reading about this dessert, as I had never heard of one before. As people tend to say about the Daring Bakers' challenges, it definitely wasn't something I ever would have made before, but it was really good and I'm glad I made it. I had a lot of trouble with the dough...it was really difficult for me to make and mine was really sticky even after it had been in the fridge for the recommended time. I realized a little too late that maybe it should have stayed in the fridge a bit longer than suggested...it was already stuck to my pie plate and covered in flour.


I decided to use a simple strawberry jelly from the supermarket as it was my first Daring Bakers' challenge, and I thought the tart would be challenge enough; I didn't want to have to deal with making a jelly too since I've never made one before.

I ended up with way too much frangipane. I ate a ton of it from the bowl and it was still leaking out of my tart all over the oven (and all over the pie plate, as you can see in the pictures). I ended up having to put a cookie sheet beneath the pie plate so it would be easier to clean when the tart was fully baked.

Mine also took a ridiculously long time to bake, more than twice the normal baking time. It was a frustrating experience, but it was still fun and it tasted delicious when it came out of the oven.


Here is the recipe:

Bakewell Tart

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)

Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)

Resting time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 30 minutes

Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. 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 cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (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 primrose in colour 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. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in 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.

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

I recently bought a recipe book entitled Desserts au chocolat in Belgium. I was super excited to finally get a chance to make something from this book. Then I remembered that my brother and dad don't like chocolate. And my mom doesn't really eat sweets anymore at all. So my chocolate book is unfortunately out until I get tired of baking what everyone else wants or until I get back to school.

I decided to make some apple cinnamon muffins instead, which people will actually eat in my house. I got the recipe out of a cupcake book I've had for a couple years, but haven't made too much out of. The recipe is fairly easy to make. The only issue I had was in trying to get my mother's food processor to work to cut up the apples. I later realized the blade was not on...and felt like a total idiot. I ended up cutting the apples by hand so they were probably a little bigger than they should have been. I prefer crunchier things anyway, though, so the apple chunks didn't bother me.

I had my first one warm right out of the oven, along with some cookie dough ice cream :)

It was interesting that the recipe said it would make six muffins. I actually got 14 from the batter and they weren't especially small muffins either.



They were really good though...made me feel better about myself and my baking abilities after my failing angel food cake attempt over the weekend.



Here is the recipe:

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins from 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly

Ingredients
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 lightly beaten eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 small apples, peeled, cored, and finely diced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease or put 12-16 paper baking cups into a muffin pan (depending on how big you want the cupcakes to be).

2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon with a large wooden spoon or other appropriate baking apparatus. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, beat the oil, butter, eggs, and buttermilk with an electric mixer until well combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until almost fully combined. Stir in the apples, but make sure you don't overmix them.

4. Spoon the mixture into your muffin pan.

5. Bake for 20 minutes (it took my old oven 40 or so...just stick a toothpick in a muffin in the middle, and if it comes out pretty much clean, they're ready). Remove pan from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the muffins and cool.

Angel Food Cake with Strawberry Sauce

For Father's Day, I decided to make an angel food cake, as that is one of my health conscious father's favorite desserts. I wanted to make the cake with some kind of fruit topping because my Dad can't eat chocolate or anything else that is really fatty. I did a search on Food Blog Search and came up with Biscuits and Such's Angel Food Cake with Strawberry Sauce.



Unfortunately, mine didn't turn out as well as hers did. I had never made an angel food cake from scratch before and didn't know if I should grease the pan or not. I asked my mother and she thought I should. As my mom is usually right on all baking related questions, I sprayed some Pam on the pan. However, I later found out via an internet search that if you grease the pan for an angel food cake, the cake can't climb up the pan and rise. So that is why mine looked really tiny and had a strange consistency, probably because it didn't rise all the way. It tasted alright though, and the strawberry sauce was really good. I would love to try the recipe again sometime and actually make it right.



I also learned from the recipe directions that you can make super fine sugar by spinning regular sugar in the food processor, which will be really helpful for future recipes. I don't have my own food processor at school, but while I'm home for the summer, I will definitely use this trick.

Here's a copy of the recipe:

Angel Food Cake with Strawberry Sauce from Biscuits and Such

Cake:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cup super fine sugar
12 egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp almond extract

1. Stir together the flour, salt, and half the sugar. Set this mixture aside.

2. Add cream of tartar and almond extract to the 12 egg whites by whisking by hand for 1 or 2 minutes. Then, use an electric mixer with a hand whisk to beat the mixture for another five minutes. It should look a lot like soap when it is ready for the next step.

3. Slowly add in the rest of the sugar, while beating the mixture. Then, use a rubber spatula to add the flour mixture in.

4. When the flour is all mixed in, pour into a bundt pan and cook at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35-40 minutes. Let cool 1 hour before serving.

Strawberry Sauce:

1 box strawberries (about 3 cups)
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
1 tbsp strawberry jam

1. Bring water and sugar to a light boil. Meanwhile, chop strawberries into halves or fourths, depending on the size of the berries and your personal tastes.

2. Reduce heat to medium level and add in chopped strawberries. Then, add in jam and let melt. Let the mixture boil. Then cool.

3. Place in a bowl and cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Since we weren't planning on eating the whole cake at once, we served the cake with the bowl of strawberry sauce at its side so as not to make the parts that wouldn't be eaten mushy.

A Culinary Journey Through Belgium and Paris

This weekend, I'm planning on making my first Daring Bakers challenge. Since I can't post that here for another couple weeks, I'm going to post some of the interesting foods and desserts I had/saw in Belgium and on a side trip to Paris over the past five weeks.



I've never seen so much fresh bread in my life. This store sold pretty much only fresh bread and had multiple locations in Brussels. A large loaf was only about $3 and sooo good.


Chocolate was more than plentiful in Belgium. These are some photos of a chocolate shop in Brugge, I believe.

I was amazed by the complexity of some of the chocolate designs, especially this rooster.

Chocolate Manneken Pis. The Manneken Pis is this little statue in Brussels of a little boy peeing that people there just love and tourists go look at it all the time. He's on tons of key chains, etc, and apparently, you can purchase a chocolate version of him.

Handmade pistachio truffle from Planet Chocolat...yum.

They made us a Clemson chocolate for our visit to Planet Chocolat! The whole thing is seriously all chocolate.

Fresh olives on the street.

Belgium is famous for its waffles. I can't say I was crazy about waffles before I went to Belgium, but now I definitely love them. Theirs are a lot sweeter and crisper than the traditional American recipe waffles. And the toppings are great as well.

Unfortunately, I can remember the name of this treat, but it was really good. It reminded me of an Italian cannoli, except the filling was a plain chocolate creme.

Mocha eclair. Both the filling and the frosting were mocha flavored...

Javanais...layers of vanilla cake and coffee flavored creme topped with chocolate marzipan frosting.

Taking a break from sweets, here are some traditional Belgian "frites," topped with the current "speciale" sauce: a mix of mayonnaise, a red sauce, and chopped onions.

Handmade pasta in Paris

For my first lunch in Paris, I ordered a crepe...they cook the egg right on top of the crepe.

Adding salmon and cheese....

Some of the best-looking pastries I've ever seen at a Parisian boulangerie. I had a pistachio macaroon and it was amazing.

Well, hope this entry was interesting. I definitely liked seeing all the different foods being served in Europe, especially different desserts. I wish I could make pastries like the ones I saw in Paris...