Fat Friday #15 Apple Crumble Tartlets

Welcome to Friday and on Cupcakes, Cake and Passion its Fat Friday. The day were food rules the day. This week its an autumnal dinner party dessert which can be made a little in advance. The pastry is called pate brisee, which is a short crust French sweet pastry. You can put any fruit in the tartlets, use any fruit you would use in a crumble. I have to apologise for the lack of pictures. When I'm in the middle of pastry class, I do forget to take pictures. I'm going to try to remember, so my bad!

 

Recipe: Makes 4 (Recipe provided by my pastry tutor)

Pate Brisee:

·250g soft flour

·205g very cold butter

·5g salt

·55g ice cold water

Apple Mixture:
    ·3 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks

·125g blackberries

·2 tablespoons cinnamon

·50g sugar

Caramel:
    · 200g sugar
    ·25ml water
    ·100g double cream
    ·100g butter

Crumble mixture:

    ·300g flour
    ·200g butter
    ·100g sugar

Equipment:

· Bowl
· Saucepan
·Jug
·Wooden spoon
·Rolling pin
·Knife
· Chopping board
·4 small round tins
·Baking beans
·Baking sheet lined with silicon paper
·Cling film
·Fork

For the Pastry

1.Rub the flour, salt and butter together until just combined. If you over work the mix, the butter will mix too much.  
2.Add the iced water and bring the dough together.
3.Once the dough has been brought together wrap in a neat parcel and chill in the fridge while you make the other parts of the dish.
4.Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4/180c/350f
5.Cut the chilled dough into 4 pieces. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, until about 2 mm thick.
6.Line the metal cases with the dough and roughly chop any remaining edges. Prick the dough base lightly with a fork.
7. Place a little clingfilm into the dough cases and fill with baking beans.
8.Blind bake for 18 minutes or until completely cooked through.
9.Take the baking beans out of the tart and bake a little longer to dry the cases out.

Apple filling:

1.Peel, core and cut the apple into the chunks.
2.In a saucepan add the water, apple, sugar, blackberries and cinnamon and cook on a medium until the apples soften to a very soft consistency.
3.Put aside to cool.

Caramel:

1.Put the water and sugar in a pan, allow to boil until the colour changes from clear to a golden brown. Don’t be tempted to stir.
2. Once the colour has changed add the double cream and butter. Mix in.

Crumble topping:
1.Pre heat oven to Gas Mark 4/180c/350f .
2.Rub the flour, sugar and butter together.
3.Spread onto a lined baking sheet and bake for a 12 minutes.

To serve:

1.Place the baked tartlet on a plate.
2.Spoon a little of the caramel in the tartlet.
3.Then add the cooked apples and sprinkle a little of cooked crumble on top. Eat let there's no tomorrow.

Pastry Class: Fruit Bavarois, Vanilla Pannacotta, Lemon Steamed Sponge Pudding and Easy Apple Crumble.

In this week's pastry class, we were continuing to look at hot and cold desserts. It was a mixed bag of recipes, all of which can easily be done with the intention of impressing your family and dinner guests. 

A bavarois is a type of mousse made with double or whipping cream. It can be made with chocolate, fruit or even vegetables. I wasn't surprised to see that Heston Blumental of the Fat Duck restaurant has already made a wacky version of a bavarois. If your new to a bavarois, stick to fruit such as strawberries or raspberries. I had to do this for a pastry assessment along with creme caramel, which was surprisingly easy, why not give it a go?

Fruit bavarois made by me with raspberry puree

Recipe: Fruit Bavarois

Ingredients:

·       125g fruit puree (I used raspberry)

·       125g stock syrup (recipe here just omit the cinnamon)

·       250g whipping cream

·       3 gelatine leaves

·       10g lemon juice

Equipment:

·       Whisk

·       Bowlx2

·       Saucepan

·       Spatula

·       1 bowl of ice

·       4 round cook rings lined with clear acetate

·       1 tray lined with silicone paper

·       1 disposable piping bag

Step 1. Line the tray 

1.    Line a tray with silicone paper and then line 4 small cook rings with clear plastic acetate. 

Steap 2. Soak the gelatine

2.    Soak the gelatine in a small with cold water. Make sure that it is cold water as if the water is warm the gelatine will dissolve and become useless.

3.    Whip the whipping cream until it just standing up, holding its peak.

4.    Mix together the syrup and fruit puree in a saucepan and heat gently on a low heat.

5.    Once the fruit and syrup has heated through, take off the heat and add the gelatine leaves. To do this, take the gelatine out of the water, (they should be squeezy and a little slimy) and squeezing until all of the water has been rung out.

6.    Stir the mixture until the gelatine has dissolved, this should take about a minute. At this point you can add the lemon juice according to taste. If you’d like a really sweet mousse then omit the lemon juice.

Step 7. Cool it down as quickly as possible

7.    To cool the mixture down as quickly as possible, have a bowl of ice ready. Put the fruit mixture into another bowl and place that into the bucket of ice and whisk lightly to cool down. Scrap the sides down once and a while so that the mix doesn’t set on the side of the bowl.

Step 8. fold in the cream

8. Once the mixture is cold enough then fold in the semi whipped cream in thirds.

Step 9. Pipe into the cook rings

9. Once all the cream has been incorporated, place the mixture into a piping bag and pipe into the cook rings.

10. Place in the fridge for about an 1 hour and 30 mins or until set.

Step 11. Remove from mould

11. To remove, place a palette knife under the bavarois and place on desired plate. Take the cook ring off and carefully peel the acetate off.

A finished bavarois made by my pastry tutor faye

My finished bavarois made by erm me!

12. Keep the decoration simple, pipe a little whipped cream and garnish with raspberry and mint, and maybe a little icing sugar if your feeling fancy!

Vanilla panna cotta to the right of this picture. 

Panna-cotta is an Italian cooked cream dessert that can be flavoured with chocolate, fruit or caramel. As long as you get the jiggly wiggly cream right its a sure-fire winner!

Vanilla Panna-Cotta

Ingredients:

·       125ml milk

·       375ml double cream

·       ½ vanilla pod

·       1 aniseed

·       2 gelatine leaves/ 2 agar agar leaves if you're a vegetarian 

·       50g caster sugar

Equipment:

·       Whisk

·       Bowlx2

·       Saucepan

·       Spatula

·       4 dario molds/ or the small Christmas pudding moulds/ ramakins

·       Measuring jug

·       Sieve

1.    Soak the gelatine in a small with cold water. Make sure that it is cold water as if the water is warm the gelatine will dissolve and become useless.

2.    Add the cream, milk, the vanilla pod and the aniseed into a saucepan and heat gently until boiling slightly.

3.    Once the mixture is hot enough add the sugar and gelatine.

4.    Take the mixture off the heat and stir until the sugar and the gelatine has dissolved.

5.    Sieve the mixture into a measuring jug. This removes the star anise.

6.    Let the panna-cotta mixture cool for a few moments before pouring into the Dario molds and placing into the fridge for about 1 hour or until set.

7.    The best way to get the pannacotta out of the mold onto a plate, is to have a bowl of warm water ready. Place the mold into the water for about 6 seconds, get your desired plate on top of the mold then flip the plate, so that is on a table. Wiggle the mold a little until it is evenly on the plate.

Steamed sponge pudding to the left

There is little to explain about this. It's lemon flavoured sponge slowly steam cooked, perfect with custard or ice cream.
Lemon Steamed Sponge Pudding

Ingredients:

·       270g plain flour, sieved

·       15g baking powder, sieved

·       250g caster sugar

·       250g margarine, room temperature

·       5 eggs

·       The juice and zest of 2 lemons

Equipment:

·       Wooden spoon

·       Grater

·       Bowlx2

·       Electric hand held whisk/Spatula

·       Sieve

·       Small Dario moulds or small metal moulds well greased with margarine and flour

1.    Preheat the oven to Gas ¼/ 225f/ 110c

2.    Sieve the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl and put aside.

3.    Cream the sugar and margarine together using a spatula/hand held electric whisk.

4.    Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.

5.    Fold in the flour and baking powder gently until fully incorporated.

6.    Add the lemon zest and juice and fold in again.

7.    Spoon into the very well buttered and floured moulds.

8.    Bake for 30-45minutes at Gas ¼/ 225f/ 110c. This is a steamed pudding, so the oven needs to be at a lower temperature. You will know when the puddings are ready when you can put a knife into the cake and it comes out clean.

Apple crumble top of the picture.

An apple crumble is, as far as I'm aware, is a British dessert which is served in Autumn when apples are at there best.  This makes a great family dessert and is insanely easy to make!

Apple crumble

Ingredients:

·       300g plain flour, sieved

·       150g caster sugar, sieved

·       100g unsalted butter, room temperature

·       1 can tinned apples or 450g peeled, cored apples and cut into 1cm cubes

·       1 pinch of cinnamon  

·       Cream or custard to serve

Equipment:

·       Sieve

·       Bowl x 2

·       Oven proof dish

·       Colander

1.    Pre-heat the oven to 180c/350f/Gas Mark 4

2.    Drain all the syrup from the apples using a colander Or peel, core and dice the apples. Put the fresh apples in a bowl of water with a little lemon juice to stop them from going brown.

3.    Sieve the flour and sugar into a bowl with the butter, rub together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

4.    Place the apples into the oven proof dish and then a pinch of cinnamon on top of the apples.

5.    Sprinkle the crumble mix on top. Don’t be tempted to pack it down, this will solidify the crumble into a biscuit.

6.    Bake the crumble for 40-45 minutes, or until the top is brown.

7.    Serve with custard or thick cream

I hope you've enjoyed this weeks pastry class!
Bake on!