Posts tagged blackcurrant

Bakewell Tart

January 13, 2016 Comments Off read Sweet Treats

love a traditionally made bakewell tart but its seems that those who don’t agree seem to have a tainted opinion founded into their childhood from thier experiences of Mr Kipling’s overly sweet and synthetic offerings. Found overdosed with grainy icing in your packed lunch that should ideally inspire and energise!? That said, on baking this tart over the weekend for my family his holy name was referenced three times without provoking! But I assure you that a homemade bake well is a good way to convince those haunted by Mr.K’s recipe and being such a traditional recipe I felt it needed a proud place on my blog archive.

I do already have a Rhubarb bake well tart recipe but this arguably this is not ‘traditional’ as is my style. And in fact this one is in my style also using some leftover homemade blackcurrant jam from the summer. But feel free to use a jam of choice here, traditional raspberry or strawberry, apricot or even marmalade!

Makes 1 tart

1 pastry case (see here)
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
75g ground almonds
50g plain flour
2 eggs
Splash almond extract (optional)
100g jam (raspberry, blackcurrant, strawberry etc)
Handful of flaked almonds
6 tbsp icing sugar
Juice 1/2 lemon

Make the pastry case – instructions here
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Cream the butter and sugar together
Then gradually beat in the eggs and the almond extract until the mixture is combined
Gently fold in the ground almonds and flour until well combined.
Spoon the jam evenly over the base of the pastry case.
Cover with the almond frangipani mixture and use a palate knife or spatula to smooth out the surface until even and the jam is completely covered.
Scatter over the flaked almonds
Bake for 30 minutes until golden and the middle is set. Leave to cool completely.
Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl. Add the lemon juice drop by drop being careful you don’t add to much to fast. You’re aiming for a really thick paste consistency that you can pipe.
Spoon into a piping bag and snip a small end off. Pipe the icing in your desired pattern over the top.
Serve with creme fraiche!

Almond Blackcurrant Tarts with Salted Lime

September 29, 2014 Comments Off read Sweet Treats

I spent a gorgeously sunny few days at home in Wiltshire this weekend and had to make a batch of my favourite sweet treat. The recipe is from one of my previous blog posts but adapted slightly with some lime salt which I thought was a quirky experiment. I love salt with sweetness and the sharp lime and blackcurrant in this recipe make sure you’ll never forget the taste. Served with coconut ice cream it would happily top off my last meal…

Recipe

1 x Blackcurrant almond tart recipe
1-2 limes
2 tbsp icing sugar
Pinch salt
Mint to decorate

Make the basic tartlets as per the recipe link above adding the zest of 1 lime to the frangipane mixture.
For the icing, mix about 2 tbsp of icing sugar with a tiny amount of lime juice and mix until thick. Add more icing sugar if its too runny. Spoon into a plastic piping bag and snip off the end.
Once cool, ice a neat pattern or random design on top.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 75°C. Place the zest of 1- ½ a lime on a piece of parchment on a baking tray and dry in the low oven for about 20 minutes to intensify the flavours. Alternatively you can leave it to dry overnight. Mix the dried zest with a tiny pinch of salt.
Scatter sparingly on top of the tarts and top with a few dainty leaves of mint.

Blackcurrant Lemon Madeleines

May 4, 2014 Comments Off read Sweet Treats

Not many things beat a gift box of homemade goodies especially when they’re madeleines. Delicate, pretty, elegant and gorgeous. A sweet crusty cinnamon-sugar coated Parisian madeleine is the personification of a classy French lady. I baked a fresh batch of these the morning before visiting an old and very special friend (you know who you are) to take as a gift.

Makes about 12

100g unsalted butter, melted
100g caster sugar
100g plain flour
1 level tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
Grated zest 1 lemon
50g blackcurrants/blueberries
50-100g cinnamon sugar (made with a ratio of 1 large tbsp: 300g golden granulate sugar)

Whisk the eggs and the caster sugar together until pale and creamy.
Add the flour, baking powder and lemon zest and lightly whisk in with the melted butter to prevent overdeveloping the gluten. Mix in the berries.
Set aside for anywhere up to 3 hours. Apparently, the longer you leave the batter to chill the better as it chills and hydrates the flour. This helps to give you that bump on the back that is characteristic of a madeleine.
When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease your madeleine tray with a little melted butter and a dusting of flour if it is liable to sticking..
Fill the moulds making sure you don’t overfill. The mixture will settle into place in the oven so don’t worry about smoothing them out.
Bake for 8-12 minutes depending on how big you made them and how large your madeleine pan is.
Once golden and cooked, remove from the oven and, while warm, coat in a generous blanket of cinnamon sugar and then leave to cool on a wire rack before eating
Best eaten fresh on the day or the sugar will make them sticky. Try with some cream/creme friache and some slow roasted strawberries.

Blackcurrant Bakewell Macaroons

August 26, 2013 Comments Off read Sweet Treats

I’ve been making a lot of macaroons recently….perfecting the skill you might say! These were without doubt the lightest batch I’ve made to date and the super sweet blackcurrant puree (see here) which I made was to die for with the creamy but punchy almond buttercream filling. Sandwiched lovingly between two girly pillows these taste like a mouthful of bakewell tart! Feel free to use a cherry or raspberry jam for a more traditional ‘bakewell’ flavour however.

For me, the excitement of macaroons comes in the endless combinations of flavours but I love taking a traditional dessert recipe and deconstructing it into a light macaroon in an ‘amuse bouche’ style! The possibilites are endless….pecan pie, treacle tart, creme brule macaroons perhaps?

Macaroon Shells

60g egg whites (about 2 eggs)
40g caster sugar
50g ground almonds
110g icing sugar
Red food colouring

Filling- Almond Buttercream

80g butter, softened
80g icing sugar
Up to 1 tsp almond essence (or to taste)
Blackcurrant/cherry/strawberry jam
Yellow food colouring (optional)

Preheat the oven to 170°C and line a baking tray with parchment.
Blend the ground almonds and icing sugar together in a food processor until fine and then sieve into a bowl.
In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then add the caster sugar a spoon at a time until glossy stiff peaks form. Briefly whisk in a good splash of red food colouring.
Fold in 1/3 of the almond mixture to loosen it. Then fold in the rest, being gentle not to knock the air out.
Spoon into a pipping bag with a round ended nozzle and pipe consistent circles of mixture evenly. Give the tray a sharp slap on the surface to level the mixture and leave for 20 minutes, uncovered to form a skin.
Bake for about 12 minutes. They are ready when they come away easily from the tray. Leave to cool.
Combine the butter, icing sugar and almond essence in a food processor or a bowl until smooth and combined. Add a splash of yellow food colouring if you like- the bright yellow colour can look great with the red shells. Spoon into a piping bag.
Pipe some of the buttercream onto a macaroon shell half and top with about ¼ tsp of jam. Sandwich together with another empty macaroon half, squeezing together gently but not so the jam oozes out too much. Enjoy!

NOTE: I didn’t (as I ran out of icing sugar) but for authentic decoration, make up some thick wet icing with icing sugar and a tiny splash of cold water and spoon into a piping bag. Snip off the end and pipe some lines on the macaroons on the outside like a bakewell tart.

Lime Layer Drizzle with Blackcurrant and White Chocolate

August 16, 2013 Comments Off read Sweet Treats

Its been a frustrating week of unknowns but what can be guaranteed- as so rightly put by Julie from ‘Julie & Julia’- is that at the end of the day you can always rely on eggs, sugar, butter and flour producing something delicious. Chuck in some gooey lime syrup, some sharp mouthwateringly-tart blackcurrant puree and the soothing sweet sugary hug of a palate knife of white chocolate buttercream and you’ve got yourself the solution to any first world trauma…(excluding obesity….!) With too many handpicked blackcurrants from the allotment to fit in the freezer- yes the frozen joints of meat and 2 year old pack of fish fingers for those emergencies had to be sacrificed- it was time for the blackcurrants to earn their keep. With a vat of blackcurrant sorbet and enough jam to keep a Frenchman happy, it was time to use them in a new recipe.

If you can’t get hold of blackcurrants (get in touch, our crop would supply international orders) then blackberries would be good too but the tart sharpness of the blackcurrants is really lovely with the white chocolate.

Serves….many!

Cake

225g unsalted butter, softened
225g golden caster sugar
225g self raising flour
4 eggs
1 1/2 zest lime
85g caster sugar
6 tbsp juice (about 1 ½ limes)

Fillings

300g blackcurrants
100g caster sugar
100g white chocolate
140g unsalted butter, softened
140g icing sugar, sieved

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line two small (16cm) cake tins.
Beat the butter and caster sugar together until pale and creamy. Add in the beaten eggs one at a time followed by the lime zest.
Sieve in the flour and fold in to combine.
Spoon into the tins and even out. Bake for about 40-50 minutes until just cooked and springy to touch.
While they are baking, combine the 85g caster sugar, and the lime juice and warm over a low heat to dissolve the sugar. As soon as the cakes come out the oven, prick all over with a tooth pick and spoon the syrup over the two cakes, allowing it to seep into the holes. Leave to cool COMPLETELY in their tins before turning out.
For the blackcurrant puree, wash the blackcurrants so they retain a bit of water on their skins and heat with the sugar in a pan over a medium heat until they begin to burst and soften and turn a little syrupy. Don’t boil and obliterate them, as soon as they start to simmer, remove from the heat. Puree in a food processor or the like until smooth.
Tip into a sieve and strain out the pips and skins to achieve a smooth glossy puree. You should get about 180g (ish).Chill until needed.
For the butter cream, melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Give it a beating if it is a bit lumpy to get a smooth melted chocolate. Leave to cool a little.
Combine the sieved icing sugar and softened butter until smooth and then beat in the melted chocolate. Set aside until needed.
Only when the cakes are completely cold, slice each into half horizontally to get 4 layers. Place one layer on a cake stand and then spread ¼ of the buttercream evenly over followed by a generous spoonful (just under 1/3) of the blackcurrant puree. Place another layer on top and repeat, finishing with a top layer of buttercream if you like.
Sit back and admire your effort before devouring.

Blackcurrant Bran Breakfast Muffin

August 3, 2013 Comments Off read Sweet Treats

I hate the way recipes for these types of muffins seem to stress them as being ‘healthy’ breakfast muffins- they’re not healthy (note the sugar and oil content) but they are great for breakfast once in a while! They’re fantastic devoured warm, fresh from the oven if you’re organised or satisfying a spontaneous lazy craving on a Sunday morning. Alternatively, leave to cool and then toast/grill and slather with trowel-fulls of creamy salted butter. Have I got your attention yet?

NOTE: The recipe was lovely but quite oily, next time I may reduce the oil content to about 200ml but if anyone does in the meantime, let me know how they taste!

Makes 18 man muffins

100g bran
300ml milk
300g self raising flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
160g caster sugar
85g muscovado sugar
300ml sunflower oil
200g blackcurrants (or blueberries)
1-2 tbsp demerara sugar

Preheat the oven to 170°C and line a muffin tray.
Pour the milk over the bran and leave in a bowl to soak (when I first wrote that step, I wrote ‘brain’…..don’t do that).
Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl and then incorporate the oil until combined.
Into this, sieve the flour, bicarb and baking powder and fold in gently but don’t overmix. Leaving the odd lump of flour is fine. Lightly fold in the bran (I just wrote ‘brain’ again…) and milk mixture and lastly add the blackcurrants and mix until just combined.
Spoon generously into the muffin cases, sprinkle each with a little demerara sugar and bake for 25 minutes until golden and cooked. Once cooked, leave to cool on a wire rack to firm up a little before serving warm with an optional scoop of cooling vanilla bean ice cream or a spicy cinnamon infused mascarpone cream dolloped on the side. These are also dreamy cooled and then toasted for breakfast and smothered in salted butter.

Blackcurrant and Almond Tart with Blackcurrant Sorbet

June 4, 2013 Comments Off read Sweet Treats

If I had to chose my last super then without a doubt this tart would be for dessert as it is literally my downfall. It’s taken from ‘Sarah Raven’s’ allotment inspired cookbook and its a serious crowd pleaser. If you can’t get hold of blackcurrants then other fruit like blackberries will work too.

This tart always makes an appearance during blackcurrant season and is one of those default and faithful desserts that I can be confident will always be loved if I’m stuck for inspiration. I love it served with a creamy coconut ice cream and with that as my last meal I would contently go. However, we have an obscene amount of blackcurrants on the allotment which, after tedious and hand-staining picking, provides us with multiple bags of these little currants. Seeing as I have now exhausted the Cassis and blackcurrant jam making process, I ventured into the world of fruit sorbets to go with the tart. Its super sweet and shiny like a well polished cricket ball and is wonderfully refreshing.

Sorbet

500g blackcurrants
250g caster sugar

Blackcurrant Almond Tart (makes one large or two small tarts)

200g ground almonds
200g caster sugar
200g unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g blackcurrants
Icing sugar

Start with the sorbet. Wash the blackcurrants well and tip them, while still wet, into a large pan.
Add the sugar and heat gently. Heat until the sugar melts and the mixture begins to turn dark purple and the berries just begin to burst. I added a few splashes of water to help the process along. Just as the berries begin to burst, remove from the heat and puree in a food processor or liquidiser
Pass through a fine sieve and discard the pulp. Cool in a jug in the fridge then churn in an ice cream maker until frozen and smooth. Alternatively, freeze in a shallow container, forking every 20 minutes or so to break up the ice crystals.
For the cake, preheat the oven to 180°C and line one 23cm round tart tin or 2 smaller tins.
In a food processor, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time between handfuls of ground almonds and mix until all is incorporated. Add the vanilla.
Spoon into your lined tart case. Scatter the blackcurrants evenly over the top and bake for 30-40 minutes until cooked. It can take longer depending on the state of your ingredients and the depth of the tin but if it needs longer than 40 minutes, just make sure it doesn’t brown too much and cover with foil if needed.
Cool on a wire rack and allow to firm up a little. Dust with icing sugar and serve with the sorbet (or coconut ice cream alternatively) and a sprig of mint!