'Un déjeuner au soleil'
A french proverb = Lunch in the Sun = A brief but delicious treat!
Un déjeuner au soleil. If only, the
weather is not being kind to us at the moment.
Thus, food has taken on the role of lifting our spirits. I am
endeavouring to create summer in the kitchen, in spite of the grey skies and
pouring rain outside. During a recent, brief sunny spell my daughter and I
visited The Hawarden Farm Shop to play in their wooden fort and say hello to their
animals. As the skies began to darken,
we decided to take cover in their café with a hot chocolate and a piece of
cake. Before dashing through the rain back to the car I caught a glimpse of these
gooseberries which reminded me of a visit by our friends last summer. They arrived
with gifts of mini gooseberry tarts and scented sweet peas. Without giving it a second thought I picked some up and off we went home to
recreate the taste of summer in the kitchen; a brief but delicious treat.
For the shortcrust pastry
300g plain Flour
150g fridge cold butter cut into cubes
1 tbsp icing sugar
Ice-cold water; enough to bring the dough together.
For gooseberry compote
300g
gooseberries
A
slug of elderflower cordial
For the frangipane
100g butter; at room temperature
100g caster sugar
100g ground almonds
2 eggs
A sprinkling of flaked almonds
Form
your dough into a disc, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge to rest for
about half an hour.
After
the rest, Heat your oven to 200°C and roll out your disc on a floured surface;
I prefer to do this between two floured sheets of cling film. Then, lift the
pastry into a tart tin and gently press into place.
Prick
the bottom of the tart with a fork before placing a sheet of baking parchment
over the top. Add beans, rice or baking weights. Place in the oven for 15
minutes or until cooked but still pale.
Remove
from the oven and take out the baking parchment and beans. Now for the
filling...
Put
the gooseberries and elderflower cordial into a saucepan and heat on medium
until the gooseberries are just softening, check the sweetness and add more
cordial if desired.
Beat
the eggs and sugar for the frangipane until smooth and pale. Beat in the eggs
one at a time, followed by the ground almonds.
Spoon
the gooseberry compote into the part baked pastry case, followed by the
frangipane, sometimes I dot it around so that the compote bubbles through. Here,
I smoothed it out and topped with flaked almonds.
Return
the tart to the oven for a further 20 minutes or until the frangipane and pastry are golden.
Happy Birthday William! I hope you have got some yummy cake to eat. See you soon. V, N & G xxx.
No comments:
Post a comment