Raspberry & Pistachio Bakewell Tart

Raspberries are one of my favourite fruits – they have a sweet flavour but with an underlying tartness that I find particularly appealing. It is this quality that makes raspberries the perfect fruit for making into jams and jellies which require large proportions of added sugar. Raspberries can stand up to this sugar onslaught and still retain their distinctive flavour.

Although I love a traditional Bakewell Tart, with almond sponge/frangipane and raspberry jam, I decided that I wanted to try something a little bit different, but something that did not dramatically change the essential characteristics of a Bakewell Tart. The one thing that I was absolutely sure of was that I wanted my version to retain the raspberry element of a traditional Bakewell.

I initially toyed with the idea of making a hazelnut frangipane as raspberries and hazelnut go so well together, but to be honest, the decision had already been made for me by virtue of the fact that a large tin of pistachio paste that I had ordered online last week had been delivered the previous day. A Raspberry & Pistachio Bakewell Tart it would be!

I have made many recipes using pistachios which I have ground myself; whilst the taste has been fabulous they have always had a slightly muddy green colour, mainly because skinning pistachios is one of those thankless and frustrating tasks that just drive me crazy. The only way to achieve that beautiful pure green pistachio colour when they are ground is to ensure that not a trace of their papery brown skins remain. I researched this subject and what emerged is that all the top pastry chefs seem to use pistachio paste in cakes and desserts that require both the intensity of flavour and for the green colour to shine through. The skins are removed and a beautiful green paste is created. Although pistachio paste is not cheap, its colour and taste are amazing. It can be stored for quite a long time after it is opened, so I decided that I would take the plunge and bought a 1 kilo tin of the stuff – I think it’s a fairly good bet that I will be posting quite a few pistachio recipes over the coming weeks!

Anyway, back to my Bakewell… I was really pleased with how the tart turned out and there was no doubt about how delicious it was. It is true how the old saying goes… it IS impossible to invent a new wheel… because I was convinced that I had come up with a rather quirky take on a traditional Bakewell, but there are actually many similar versions to mine out there! Having said that; this one IS really good and the marriage of raspberry and pistachio together is sublime!

 

Ingredients:

Pastry:

200g plain flour

1 heaped tblsp of icing sugar

120g butter, chilled and diced

1 large egg yolk

1-2tblsp cold water

Pistachio Frangipane:

150g butter

150g caster sugar

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

150g ground almonds

65g pistachio paste

25g plain flour

To finish:

4tblsp good quality raspberry jam

150g fresh raspberries
 

Method:

Pastry:

1. Sift the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl. Rub in the diced butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and sprinkle in the water. Using a fork, or your hands, mix until the mixture comes together to form a dough.

2. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work-surface, knead briefly and shape into a ball. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to rest.

3. Preheat oven to 180C/ Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Grease a 3cm deep, 23cm round fluted tart tin with a removable base) with a little butter. Place a large baking tray in the oven to heat up.

4. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough in a circle large enough to fit into the prepared tin. Use to line the bottom and sides of the tin, trimming it to the top edge of the tin. Set aside.

Filling:

5. Place the butter and caster sugar in a large mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer, beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually add in the eggs, beating well after each addition to ensure that they are fully incorporated. Mix in the ground almonds, followed by the pistachio paste and flour. Set aside.

To finish:

6. Using a small palette knife spread the raspberry jam in an even layer over the base of the pastry. Spread the pistachio frangipane evenly on top of the jam, making sure that you go out to the sides of the tart. Arrange the fresh raspberries on top of the pistachio frangipane, but don’t push them in too far or they will disappear into the tart as it bakes – merely perch them gently on top.

7. Bake in the preheated oven on top of the heated baking tray for 15 minutes and then reduce the heat down to 160C/Fan oven 140C/Gas Mark 2 and cook for another 25-30 minutes until the frangipane is just cooked and slightly risen. Check the tart about half way through the cooking time and if it is browning a little too quickly, cover with a little tin foil – shiny side turned upwards – to protect it).

8. Remove from oven and allow to cool before serving. The tart can be served chilled or as I prefer, at room temperature.
 

Serves 8-10.
 

Pistachio, Walnut & Almond Baklava

I absolutely love the Great British Bake Off (GBBO) – a baking competition which is televised on BBC1. The 5^th series of the programme reached its climax last night with three finalists vying to be this year’s baking champion. For anyone who has not seen it yet or is waiting to watch the repeat, I won’t reveal who the winner is… but watch it… it was hugely entertaining.

 

In last week’s semi-final, the remaining four contestants were challenged to bake their own versions of baklava. One of the offerings particularly intrigued me as it was made with a ‘breakfast’ filling which used toasted muesli and other ingredients more associated with the first meal of the day. Watching the programme definitely inspired me to make my own baklava, but I decided that for my first attempt, I would keep to the more familiar versions.

 

It has been many years since I have eaten baklava and my overriding memory was that it was very sweet and tasted predominantly of rosewater. Now; here is the thing… I really am not a great fan of recipes that incorporate the flower waters, extracts or essences. I think that the problem I find is that the taste of the particular flower, whether it be lavender, rose or hibiscus tends to overpower everything else. To be quite honest, often the smell of dishes where flowers have been used reminds me of soap, perfume or other beauty products; not something that I want to eat! But there is no denying it; the flavour of flowers is very on trend in the restaurant world these days!

 

After watching GBBO last week, I really wanted to bake my own baklava, but decided that any flower flavouring I used would be quite subtle and that I would avoid using rosewater. I carried out some research by reading a number of different baklava recipes contained in some of my cookbooks and also looked online at a variety of alternative baklava recipes and found that although rosewater is regularly used it is by no means mandatory.

 

The recipe that I give here is based in part on a couple of the recipes shown on GBBO but also largely on one by Mark Hix in his wonderful book Mark Hix on Baking.

 

I have used pistachios, walnuts and almonds as my nuts of choice for the filling of my baklava and these tasted wonderful. I ground the nuts in a food processor and would definitely recommend that you do the same rather than buy nuts already ground, as these would be too powdery – what you want is for them to retain a bit of texture! Once baked the baklava is soaked in a syrup which serves to hold everything together once cooled. I decided to confront my flower flavour issues and used a little orange flower water to flavour the syrup. I didn’t go overboard with it and I will admit that I really liked what it brought to the finished pastries!

 

Finally, unlike the contestants in last week’s GBBO, I did not make my own filo pastry. I used store-bought filo and found that it worked a treat, although it is a little temperamental to handle (you must cover any pastry you are not working on with a clean damp cloth to prevent it from drying up and becoming unworkable).

 

This baklava is buttery rich and very sweet, but there is something a little addictive about it which leaves you wanting more. It keeps its crunch for an incredibly long time if stored in an airtight container.
 

Ingredients:

225g butter, melted
16 sheets of filo pastry
125g pistachios, coarsely ground
50g walnuts, coarsely ground
50g almonds, coarsely ground

1tblsp granulated sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground cardamom

Syrup:

300g granulated sugar

275ml water

½ lemon, juice only

2tblsp orange flower water
 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Grease a 18cm x 25-28cm non stick baking tray/dish with deep sides with a little butter and line with on-stick baking parchment.

2. Place the nuts, a tablespoon of granulated sugar and the ground spices in a bowl and mix together to ensure that everything is evenly distributed. Set aside.

3. Take a sheet of the filo pastry and place on the baking parchment in the lined baking tray/dish. Brush liberally with butter and fold over any excess pastry and brush this with butter too. Place another sheet of filo on top of the buttered layer and then butter the new layer with butter. Continue doing this until you have used half up half the filo pastry. N.B. Make sure you cover the unused filo pastry with a clean damp clothe when you are not using it to prevent it drying up.

4. Sprinkle the nut/spice mixture over the buttered filo pastry, reserving 2 or 3 tablespoons for later.

5. Place another layer of filo pastry over the sprinkled nuts and repeat the buttering and layering process that you used before. Butter the uppermost layer of filo and using a sharp knife cut the baklava into small squares or triangles.

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes and then reduce the heat to 150C/Fan Oven 130C/Gas Mark 2 and bake for a further25-30 minutes until the pastry is a deep golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly while you make the syrup.

Syrup:

7. Place all the ingredients for the syrup in a medium sized saucepan over a moderate heat until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat and bring up to the boil. Immediately reduce the heat so that the mixture is simmering briskly. Allow to cook for about 15 minutes until the liquid has reduced by over a half and has become quite syrupy.

To finish:

8. Sprinkle the reserved nuts over the baked baklava. Pour the hot syrup slowly over the top of the baklava and set aside and allow to cool completely and to give the syrup a chance to soak in completely. The baklava can be served when completely cooled.
 

Makes 20-24 small squares.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creamy Celeriac Soup with Waldorf Garnish

The weather has begun to get quite chilly and the days are definitely getting shorter. To be honest, I am not actually complaining because I actually love this time of year. I love sitting snuggled into the sofa, in front of the firs, sipping tea and reading through my cookbooks! To me that is the perfect way to spend an evening… well… THE perfect way to spend an evening is having a good meal out in good company, but snuggling on the sofa comes a close second!

When autumn and then winter really set in, there is nothing I crave more than comfort food; food that is delicious, warming and satisfying. When I think of comfort food, I think of hearty stews, puddings with loads of hot custard, hot milky drinks and steamy bowls or mugs full of nourishing soup.

One of the first things I ever cooked from scratch was cream of celery soup, which upon tasting my mother loved and would often ask me to make thereafter.

I often feel sorry for celery… because it is so rarely showcased as a vegetable in its own right, but rather it is used as a base ingredient in stock, stews and soups or raw as a crudité. It never seems to get the limelight. Although celery leaves can be eaten they are rather string tasting, so it is most usually the stem of the plan that we eat, which when fresh is beautifully crisp to eat.

The first time that I really appreciated this particular vegetable was the first time that I made my cream of celery soup. Celery can sometimes taste a little bitter, but I actually quite like that and it is this quality that makes it perfect for pairing with blue cheese where the earthy sweetness of the cheese balances any slight bitterness in the celery.

Celeriac on the other hand is a root vegetable which has become extremely popular as a vegetable in recent years. Celeriac is not unlike celery in taste, but it has a sweeter, earthier taste. It is extremely versatile and can be eaten raw as in, for example, a classic remoulade or cooked in a variety of ways.

Given the slightly cooler weather, I really felt in the need for something warming to eat, but didn’t want something heavy or stodgy. I had initially decided to make a cream of celery soup, but opted to use celeriac instead.
 

If you have never used or prepared celeriac before, do not be put off by its very knobbly almost alarming appearance. Let me assure you that this strange looking vegetable makes the most velvety soup imaginable. It is easier enough to prepare, just use a large sharp knife to cut away the outside skin to reveal its creamy white flesh, which you can then cut into chunks ready to be used in the soup.

The soup can be eaten as it is, once it is made, but you can also garnish it with croutons, a dash of cream or the option that I give here, with a spoonful of finely chopped Waldorf salad. The constituent ingredients of a Waldorf salad are celery, apple and walnuts bound together in a mayonnaise dressing. I have dispensed with the mayonnaise and dressed the garnish with a light vinaigrette made with cider vinegar and rapeseed oil. I also lightly caramelized the walnuts before chopping them and I loved the sweetness that this brought to the dish. This garnish was absolutely heavenly and added a fresh and fruity element to the rich and creamy soup which was delicious.
 

Ingredients:

Soup:
50g butter
3 shallots, peeled and chopped
1 large celeriac, peeled and diced (about 600g)
500ml vegetable stock

200ml cream

A little freshly grated nutmeg

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Waldorf garnish:

20g caster sugar

50g walnuts

½ Granny Smith, apple peeled and finely diced

2 sticks of celery, finely diced

1tsp cider vinegar

2-3 tsp rapeseed oil

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
 

Method:

1. Place the butter on a large saucepan over a moderate heat and once it is melted add the chopped shallots and allow to sweat for about 5 minutes, without colouring until they are translucent. Add the diced celeriac and allow to sweat for a further 5-7 minutes, again without colouring.
2. Once the celeriac has begun to soften a little, add the vegetable stock and increase the heat under the saucepan. Bring up to the boil. Once everything is bubbling away, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and allow to cook for approximately 15 minutes until the celeriac is very soft. Remove from the heat.
3. Spoon the mixture into a food processor (or use a stick blender) and purée until smooth. Pass the purée through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan and add the cream. Taste, add a pinch of ground nutmeg and adjust seasoning as necessary. Allow to heat gently (but do not boil) while you make the Waldorf garnish.
Waldorf garnish:

4. Place a small frying pan over a moderate heat and add the walnuts. Heat the walnuts for a minute or two until they begin to small nutty and just start to colour. Sprinkle the sugar over the walnuts and toss together. The sugar will begin to melt. Keep a close eye on the walnuts, stirring them frequently as the sugar can caramelize very quickly. As soon as this happens, remove from the heat and turn out onto some non-stick baking parchment. Allow to cool.

5. When cool chop into small dice and mix with diced apple and celery in a small bowl. Add the cider vinegar and rapeseed oil and season well. Mix everything together with a small teaspoon.

To serve:

6. Pour the soup into serving bowls and top with a heaped teaspoon of the garnish.
 

Serves 6.