The Ordinary Cook

I was inspired to make this by Thomasina Miers’ recipe in The Guardian’s Feast magazine this Saturday. Thomasina’s tart is topped with cherries and hazelnuts and I have changed the frangipane recipe a little. I make a dessert every Sunday, it’s the only day of the week that we eat a pudding so I always try to make it a bit special. I wanted to film making puff pastry for my upcoming online courses for Veg Patch Kitchen Cookery School so I combined the two. The tart in the photo is made with puff pastry and whilst it was delicious, the weight of the frangipane topping meant that the puff didn’t have chance to expand into its layers so I recommend making shortcrust for this beauty instead. Save your puff pastry for something that really showcases puff at its best.

You can watch how I make the tart in this video:

You can make a sweet shortcrust if you prefer but I prefer the standard version for most desserts.

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:
250g plain or pastry flour
125g cold unsalted butter
5g fine salt
50-70g cold water

Ingredients for the Frangipane:
100g softened butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
140g ground almonds
75g plain flour

Additions:
Your choice of fruit, nuts and a drizzle of honey. I used plums but you could use anything that you have.

Method for the pastry:
You can make the pastry in a food processor with the cutting blade by placing the flour, salt and butter in the machine and pulsing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add 50g of water and pulse again until it all comes together, if you need more water add it slowly. Wrap in a food bag or clingfilm and place in the fridge for at least twenty minutes but two hours is better as the gluten relaxes fully making it easier to roll out. 

If you are making it by hand, place the flour and salt in a bowl and mix well. Add the butter and using just your fingertips lightly rub the butter through the flour, picking up new pieces of flour and butter all the time. It requires a light touch. When the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs, with some larger pieces of butter, add 50g of the water and stir through with a knife until starting to come together. Then using your hands (preferably cold) bring the pastry together into a ball. Wrap well in clingfilm or a food bag and place in the fridge.

Method for the frangipane:
Place the softened butter and sugar in a bowl and beat well until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well between each addition making sure they are well combined. Fold in the flour and ground almonds.

Method for the tart:
Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and preheat your oven to 180 degrees centrigrade, gas mark 4 or use the floor of the Aga’s roasting oven. Roll out the pastry to a rectangle a little smaller than your baking tray and place on the lined tray. Spread the frangipane over the pastry leaving a 4cm edge all the way around. Spread over your choice of fruit or nuts and drizzle with a little honey. Bring the edges of the pastry over a little way to make a rustic looking tart.

Place in the centre of the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes until golden brown all over and the pastry is fully baked. Serve warm or at room temperature with cream, custard or a scoop of ice cream.

Well, when I read back my last post written in early January and think that I thought the world was in crisis then, who’d have thought that in just a short few weeks it would become even worse? I hope all of my readers are taking good care and are able to stay safe and healthy in these strange times.

We are extremely lucky here, we have the garden to get out into and we are surrounded by countryside if we want to take our daily exercise. We have planted a few seeds in the greenhouse – salad leaves, radish, peas and broad beans and have loads more to plant when the weather warms up a bit. We have also had time to prepare the veg patch, which we failed to get round to last year because life was so busy. So, fingers crossed for some future meals from the garden.

Talking about veg patches, my cookery school, Veg Patch Kitchen, came to a standstill on March 20th, the day the girls finished school for the foreseeable future and we made the decision that we are not offering an essential service, so classes booked for the remainder of March, April and May were deferred. I am unsure when we will be able to open again, but as soon as the government advice is that we can return to normal we will be back. For now, I am hoping that maybe over the Easter break, my teenage girls will help me with the technicalities of doing a couple of YouTube video showing the basics of bread making. It has been something that we have been meaning to do for ages, so we might take the opportunity now. At the moment, the girls have a list of homework a mile long, as the teachers try to keep them up to date with the curriculum. Some days are easier than others for that one, but they are doing some work each day and we are focusing on staying sane and happy.

I am doing a weekly bake for local friends and whilst I was lucky to put in a flour order before all the madness well and truly kicked off I know that lots of people are finding it hard to source flour and yeast. I put a few tips on that subject of yeast on the cookery school blog, so if you want ideas for making sure your supply of yeast lasts hop on over for a read. You can also make bread with plain flour if you can’t get your hands on strong bread flour and it may be easier to get hold of more unusual flours such as einkorn, emmer, Kamut and spelt. I wrote about Kamut bread a long time ago on here, but it is a lovely bread and if you have one of the other flours mentioned just add the water until the dough is softly sticky as each of the flours absorb water differently.

It is an unprecedented and weird time, but I hope that you are able to make the best of your situation and that you can fit in some baking therapy. Please take good care of yourselves.

Kath x

A quick note to wish you all a Happy 2020. I hope that this year brings you joy.

It seems a bit odd to wish you that when the world seems to be in a bit of a crisis at the moment. I took the decision to stop actively listening to or watching the news in December. I realised that it was making me feel anxious and that just by listening to it all didn’t mean I could change anything. So I am taking a break from worrying about it all, instead focusing on what I can change. We are trying to reduce our energy use and waste fewer resources. We don’t throw much food away in this home, what we don’t eat the dogs or chickens normally can, and if not then it goes onto the compost pile. But I am trying to make sure that we have even less. We are lucky to have a farm locally that sells organic milk from a vending machine, so we can buy really delicious milk in a reusable glass bottle and help to support a farmer. I am also lucky to be able to buy organic grain from Mark and Liz Lea for our bread. Mark and Liz live just seven miles away and Mark features heavily in a really interesting series of podcasts by Farmerama Radio, Cereal. If you are at all interested in local food networks or bread making it makes for an interesting listen when you would otherwise be listening to the news.

I am trying to make small changes that will hopefully make a big difference to our family and our sense of happiness. I am grateful for the small things to find joy in, the red sky this morning was really something to behold and my sourdough starter is bubbling away ready for me to make a loaf later.

I am also incredibly lucky to have a job that I love, passing on my love of bread making and baking to others through Veg Patch Kitchen Cookery School. Next week will mark five years since my first class for paying customers. The time has flown by. Nothing makes me happier than hearing from someone to tell me that they are making bread regularly since taking a class with me and that it is making them feel happier and healthier.

So whatever resolutions you may have made or whatever 2020 brings I hope you can find joy and happiness in the small things each day and maybe pass on your love of baking to friends and family either by passing on your skills or making them a delicious cake to share.

Kath x

The wheat is growing in our veg patch.
You can catch up with the latest instalment here