raspberry frangipane tart

raspberry frangipane tart

14 Jan 2019

It all began with a raspberry tart from my local bakery whilst I was in Paris last year. I love raspberry tarts and every one I've sampled in Paris has always been a little different. Some are nothing more than a crisp tart shell filled with berries; some have a crème patissiere filling, whilst others have a frangipane base topped with fresh berries. This one had a frangipane base topped with a berry compote rather than jam. It was delicious and I knew it was something I'd like to create at home.




Well raspberries are plentiful at the moment and not too expensive so I set to work trying to recreate that special tart. Rather than making individual tarts I decided to make a singular larger tart.



Why I decided to make pastry on a 30°C day is beyond me. When I tried to roll out the pastry, it melted so there I was at 9.00 p.m lining the tart shell when the weather had cooled down a little. 




The beauty of a frangipane tart, is there is no need to pre-bake the tart shell. Whilst the recipe sounds like a lot of work, many of the stages can be made ahead and put together at the last moment. I made both the pastry and the Crème pâtissière ahead of time. I made the frangipane in the food processor so it took 5 minutes to make from whoa to go. The raspberry compote only takes a few minutes to prepare as well and you could always leave this step out and use  some raspberry jam.




Whilst I used my own pastry recipe and compote recipe, the filling is based on the one I found here. I was supposed to top the tart completely with fresh berries but the compote was so pretty I didn't want to hide it from view. I now have 2 extra punnets of raspberries in the fridge that I know, won't be going to waste.



Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Raspberry Frangipane Tart – makes a deep 17cm tart or a shallow 22cm
Pastry 
¼ cup icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
¼ cup almond meal
175g plain flour
Pinch salt
110 g (4 oz) cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg yolk lightly beaten

Crème pâtissière
1/3 cup milk
1/4 of a vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract
20 g sugar
1 tsp flour
1 tsp cornflour
½ beaten egg
5 g unsalted butter

Frangipane
50g unsalted butter
50g caster sugar
½ beaten egg
50g almond meal
Pinch salt
1 tsp plain flour
1 tsp rum
1 quantity crème patissiere

Raspberry Compote
250g frozen raspberries
75g (⅓ cup) caster sugar 
1 tbs water
7g cornflour mixed with 1 tbs water
A squeeze of lemon or lime juice

Topping
1-2 punnets raspberries

Pastry
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. You’ll only need about half of the pastry dough to make a 17cm tart or the full quantity to make a 22 cm tart. The pastry freezes well so just wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. 

Refrigerate the pastry for an hour and then roll out thinly - 3mm thick. Line a greased 17 cm flan tin with the pastry then return to the fridge for another 30 minutes during which time you can make the Crème pâtissière, the frangipane and the raspberry compote. 

Crème pâtissière
In a small saucepan, bring the milk, 10g of sugar and the vanilla pod to the boil. In a separate bowl, mix half the beaten egg with the remaining sugar, flour and cornflour.

Pour the milk over the egg mix, mix well, put back into the saucepan return to the heat and keep cooking for 1 min after the mix thickens. Add the butter, mix well to combine then cool and reserve.

Frangipane
Cream together the unsalted butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg followed by the almond meal, salt, flour and rum. You should end up with a soft paste. Stir in the cooled crème pâtissière.

Compote
In a small saucepan, bring half the frozen raspberries, the sugar and water to a simmer. To thicken the raspberries, add the cornflour mixture to the raspberries and allow to just simmer but don’t boil as the raspberries will fall apart. Cook gently until the mixture is quite thick then pour over the remaining berries and set to one side to cool. Add a squeeze of lemon juice to taste, stir through gently then place in the fridge until needed. You’ll need ½ cup of the compote for this recipe or 1 cup if you're making the larger tart. Store any remaining compote in the fridge and spoon over your muesli or serve with yoghurt.

Tart
Preheat the oven to 190°C. Fill the pastry shell with the frangipane mixture then level the surface with a knife. You only want the filling to come about halfway up the pastry shell. Place the tart on an oven tray in the preheated oven and bake at 190°C/375°F for 40 minutes until the frangipane filling has puffed and is golden brown. Remove from the oven, place on a rack and let the tart cool completely.



To assemble the tart - spoon the raspberry compote over the baked almond filling. You’ll need a full cup of the compote and more fresh raspberries to make the 22 cm tart. Place each raspberry around the edge of the tart facing down as close as possible to the next raspberry to create a nice circular pattern. Place in the fridge until serving time.

I'm yet to have a slice but I'll report back when I have. (I had my slice last night and it was delicious!)

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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lemon and ginger syrup cake

lemon and ginger syrup cake

27 Aug 2018

I was in Brisbane unexpectedly last week and with some time on my hand I decided to bake a cake. I was going to make an almond cake but Dad suggested I make something a little less ambitious. I turned to an old copy of the Cook's Companion and after looking through it I made an old favourite, Angie's lemon cake. I hadn't made the cake in ages and I'd forgotten how delicious it is. By the time I left Brisbane the last piece had been eaten.



Now that I'm back home again it's time to return to my normal routine. A few weeks ago one of my long time patients, Peter, brought me some home grown lemons. With lemons in the fruit bowl and preserved stem ginger in the cupboard I planned to make Tamasin Day-Lewis's recipe for drenched ginger and lemon cake. In the end it seemed easier to adapt what I already had so with the addition of some finely chopped preserved ginger and a spoonful of the ginger syrup, I turned my lemon syrup cake into a lemon and ginger syrup cake.



You can make the entire cake in a food processor but I chose to use my hand beaters and a bowl. I first whizzed the lemon rind and sugar in the little food processor attachment that came with my stick blender. If you don't have one of these handy items or a food processor, just rub the finely grated zest through the caster sugar with your hands to release the oils. If you don't have any ginger syrup I think you could add a small piece of peeled ginger to the lemon juice and sugar while making the syrup. It would work just fine, maybe even better!


Here's the recipe for you which makes a small bundt cake. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. As always if you want to make a larger bundt cake then double all the ingredients and bake for the same amount of time.

Lemon and Ginger Syrup Cake

Ingredients 

1 lemon

90g caster sugar 

125g self-raising flour 

pinch of salt 

½ tsp baking powder 

125g softened unsalted butter 

2 large eggs 

⅓ cup natural yoghurt, buttermilk or milk

40g finely chopped crystallized or preserved ginger 

Syrup 

60g caster sugar 

The juice of 1 lemon

1tbs ginger syrup (home-made or bought) 

Method
Preheat oven to 170ºC. Grease and flour a small bundt tin and place in the freezer until needed.

Zest and juice the lemon. Pulverise the zest with sugar in a small food processor or just rub the finely grated zest through the caster sugar with your hands to release the oils. Sift flour with salt and baking powder into a small bowl and set to one side.

In a medium size bowl cream the softened butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time followed by the flour, alternating with the yoghurt or milk until you have a nice soft batter. Gently stir through the chopped ginger before spooning the mixture into the prepared tin. Smooth the top and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and tests cooked when tested with a skewer.

While the cake is cooking, make the syrup. In a small saucepan, mix the sugar with the lemon juice and ginger syrup and stir over a gentle heat until the sugar has dissolved. Let it simmer for a minute or two to thicken. Pour a little syrup over the base of hot cake when it comes out of the oven then let the cake cool for 10-15 minutes before turning it out onto a rack. Pour a little more of the syrup over the cake allowing it to absorb. You may not have to use all the syrup. 

Tamasin Day-Lewis serves this cake warm as a pudding with some crème fraiche and leftover syrup. Normally I allow the cake to cool completely before serving. Serve as is or if you like you can serve the cake with a dollop of cream and any remaining syrup. The candied lemon slices you see are completely optional.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekends. See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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lemon buttermilk cake with passionfruit syrup

lemon buttermilk cake with passionfruit syrup

4 Sept 2017

I've made lemon yoghurt cake many times but with half a container of buttermilk about to expire in the fridge I wondered how the cake would taste made with buttermilk instead of yoghurt.



I was up really early on Sunday, too early to use my stand mixer so I made this all in one bowl, stirred with a wooden spoon just like I did when I first started baking.



I bought a net of passionfruit a few weeks ago and had to use them quickly as the skins were starting to soften. I decided to make a passionfruit syrup to pour over the cake. It's not a new idea and I've made something like this before using a different lemon cake recipe.



It was a lovely day on Sunday so I went out for a few hours while the cake was cooling.



Once home I doused the cake with some more of the syrup before cutting a slice.



Here's the recipe for you which makes a small bundt cake. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. To make a large bundt cake, just double all the cake ingredients and bake for the same time. The passionfruit syrup recipe makes a generous amount which should be enough for the large cake.

Lemon buttermilk cake with passionfruit syrup
Cake
⅔ cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbl finely grated lemon rind
110g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1¼ cups self-raising flour
Pinch salt
½ cup buttermilk
⅓ cup lemon juice

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C (conventional). Grease and flour a small bundt tin. In a large bowl, combine the caster sugar, the egg and the grated lemon rind. Gradually add the cooled butter and mix thoroughly. Sift the flour with the pinch of salt and stir into the egg mixture in thirds, alternately with the buttermilk and the lemon juice. 

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes. The top should be golden and when tested, a skewer comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a rack before dousing with the passionfruit syrup.



Passionfruit Syrup
½ cup sugar
¼ cup water
¼ cup lemon juice
2 passionfruit, pulped

Method
In a small saucepan combine the sugar, water and the juice. Bring to the boil and lower the heat. Simmer the mixture for a few minutes. Gently stir in the passionfruit pulp and simmer for a further minute. Remove from the heat.

The verdict? The syrup makes for a more dense cake than usual but overall it tastes pretty yummy.

I hope you had a lovely Father's Day on Sunday. See you all again soon.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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tartine chocolate cake

tartine chocolate cake

3 Jul 2017

I'm in Cape Town at the moment struggling with jet-lag. I should be fast asleep but I'm not so I thought I'd post this recipe. There are many June babies at work so to celebrate we had a joint work birthday tea just before I flew to Cape Town. I've had this Tartine chocolate almond cake recipe bookmarked for a while so I decided to bake it.



The cake uses almond flour so its gluten free. It also eschews extra fat in the cake batter, relying on the fat from the almond meal and from a topping and filling of whipped cream.



Instead of making a double layer cake I decided to half the recipe to make a loaf cake. It meant using less jam and cream and for that reason I found the cake wasn't quite sweet enough. Maybe halving the cake and sandwiching the 2 layers with a layer of jam would be a good idea or otherwise increasing the caster sugar a little to ½ cup.


Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.



Tartine Chocolate-Almond Cake - makes one loaf tin

Ingredients
2 cups almond flour (sift it if there are lumps)
35 g cocoa powder, sifted
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
40 grams caster sugar
¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ tsp vanilla
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon white vinegar
¾ cup milk
⅓ cup blackberry jam (sieved)
2 tsp water
1 cup of cream, whipped and lightly sweetened and flavoured with vanilla 
Chocolate curls (optional)

Method
Preheat the oven to 350° F (180° C). Grease and line a small loaf tin with baking paper.

In a bowl, combine the almond flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda and mix well, making sure that any lumps of almond flour are broken up.

Using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs, caster sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and salt on high speed until very thick and pale in colour, about 3 minutes. When you lift up the whisk, a ribbon of beaten eggs should trail back into the bowl.

Whisk the vinegar, milk into the egg mixture. Pour the milk-egg mixture into the almond meal mixture and whisk until combined. Pour the batter into the cake tin. Evenly space dots of the jam over the top of the cake. If the jam is too thick to drop off the spoon, slightly thin by stirring in the water. Bake until the cake is set and a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean, 50 minutes to 1 hour.



Set the pan on a cooling rack and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Unmould the cake and peel away the baking paper. Allow to cool completely. When cool, place on a serving plate and top with the whipped cream and chocolate curls, if using. Serve at room temperature.




If you look very closely you can see the little pockets of jam at the base of the cake. I used blackberry jam but you can use any jam you like. Make sure you use a seedless jam though or sieve the jam first to avoid any unwanted seeds.




That will be the last food post for a while until I'm back in Sydney. Expect a post from South Africa when the conference commitment is done.

See you all again soon.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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Chocolate, apricot and oat slice

Chocolate, apricot and oat slice

1 May 2017

Do you like cacao nibs? I'd never tried them before I bought a packet at the supermarket a few months back. When I brought them home, I realised I didn't know how to cook with them either. Thankfully last months Australian Gourmet Traveller included a few recipes which contained cacao nibs so I set to work.


 
I planned to make the chocolate sour cherry and oat slice but I didn't have quite enough sour cherries so I used dried apricots instead. I can't tolerate cream so I used a simple chocolate glaze instead of the chocolate truffle topping and also sized down the slice to fit an 8 inch square tin. The slice takes no time to put together and it was in the oven in no time.



Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.




Chocolate, apricot and oat slice - makes about 16 pieces
Base
150 gm (1 cup) plain flour
150 gm rolled oats
100 gm brown sugar
50 gm dried apricots, roughly chopped
40 gm cacao nibs
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp sea salt flakes
135 gm melted butter, cooled slightly

Easy chocolate glaze
200 gm dark chocolate (56%-60% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped
80 mls boiling water
20 gm butter
Sea salt flakes, to serve

Preheat oven to 180°C. Butter a 20cm x 20cm square tin and line it with baking paper. Combine flour, oats, sugar, apricot pieces, cacao nibs, baking powder and sea salt flakes in a bowl, stir in butter, then press mixture evenly into the tin. Bake until golden brown (15-20 minutes). Cool to room temperature.

To make the glaze, combine the chocolate, boiling water and butter in a heatproof bowl. Microwave in 30 second bursts until chocolate starts to melt and then whisk until smooth. Let stand for a few minutes and when the chocolate mixture starts to thicken, spread the chocolate glaze over slice, sprinkle with sea salt and refrigerate until firm (1-2 hours).



To serve, cut into portions with a sharp knife (heat the blade in hot water, then wipe it dry before cutting for a clean slice). Chocolate, apricot and oat slice will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days.



I took this slice into work and it was absolutely demolished by the throng. And as for me? I discovered I don't like the taste of cacao nibs and I'm wondering how best to use the rest of the packet???? As it's such an easy slice I'm sure I'll make it again but next time I'll use some chopped nuts instead of the nibs.



See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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chocolate plum cake

chocolate plum cake

17 Apr 2017

Each month my receptionist brings me a few back issues of the Australian Women's Weekly because she knows I like doing their puzzles. There are always a stack of recipes to leaf through and a picture of a spiced plum cake in a recent issue, piqued my interest.





Although it still feels like summer, we're officially in autumn and the stone fruit won't be in the fruit shops for much longer. A few weeks back, I bought some plums and made the spiced plum cake. 




Something went awry. The cake turned out quite heavy and the finished cake, sweetened with brown sugar, wasn't sweet enough; the cocoa barely added any chocolate flavour and the spices were so mild they were barely noticeable. 



I do not like failure so I decided to make the cake again this time tweaking my own tried and true plum cake recipe. I swapped the lemon rind for vanilla, reduced the flour a little because I was adding cocoa and added cinnamon to the sugar topping and baked the cake in a larger tin. The changes worked a treat and the cake came out moist, delicious and chocolatey. 



This is a very moist cake so don't be alarmed if the plums sink to the bottom of the cake. It only makes the cake more luscious!




Here's the recipe for you. Please note for all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate plum cake 

Cake Ingredients
4-6 plums
1 tablespoon caster sugar
110 grams unsalted butter
½ cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
¾ cup plain flour
2 tbs dutch process cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
¼ cup milk

Topping
2 tbs raw sugar
½ tsp cinnamon

To serve
Icing sugar
Cream, optional

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F, conventional. Grease and line the base and sides of a 20 cm springform tin with baking paper.

Cut the plums in half and remove the pits. Slice each plum in half again and sprinkle a tablespoon of caster sugar over the plums. Set  to one side.

To make the cake, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix until combined well. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder together. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk to make a soft batter. You may not need to use all the milk.

Spoon the batter into the lined tin. Decoratively arrange the plum slices over the top of the cake, gently pressing the plums down into the batter. Combine the raw sugar with the cinnamon and sprinkle over the plums and the cake batter. Bake the cake for 50 minutes or until the cake tests 'cooked' when a skewer is inserted into the middle of the cake.



Cool the cake in the tin for about 15 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack. 



To serve, sprinkle with icing sugar and if you like, a good dollop of cream wouldn't go astray.

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter break.

See you all again soon.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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lemon ricotta and polenta cake

lemon ricotta and polenta cake

27 Mar 2017

I first saw a photo of this cake in Delicious magazine way back in 2014 and I've been thinking of making it ever since. With soon to expire leftover ricotta in the fridge, I decided the time had come to make the cake.




The recipe is quite similar to an Ottolenghi upside down orange cake I make quite often, so I changed the proportions a little based on that tried and true recipe. If you compare the recipe to the original, there's more egg in my recipe, lemons were used instead of the limes and I've added a little bit of flour.



Here's the recipe for you which makes a small loaf tin. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. To make a regular size loaf cake, just double all the ingredients and bake for the same length of time.




Lemon Ricotta and Polenta Cake - adapted from a Darren Robertson recipe via Delicious magazine 2014

Ingredients
55g fine (instant) polenta
2 tbs plain flour
1 cup almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of sea salt
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup caster sugar
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 eggs
125g fresh ricotta, cut into 1-2 cm pieces
Sprig fresh rosemary

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease a 17cm x 9cm x 8cm pan and line the base and sides with baking paper.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and set to one side.

Cream the butter and sugar and lemon rind in an electric mixer. Still beating, slowly add the eggs until completely mixed. Mix in the dry ingredients alternating with the lemon juice to make a soft batter. Allow the mixture to stand for a few minutes before gently folding in the ricotta, trying to keep the ricotta pieces whole.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, then sprinkle a few rosemary leaves over the cake mixture. Bake for 1 hour, or until golden brown and cooked when tested with a skewer. If the cake is browning too much, cover the cake with a piece of baking paper. Allow the cake to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out.



This makes a moist dense cake. The rosemary adds an intriguing flavour but next time I'd add some finely chopped rosemary to the cake batter rather than on the top of the batter. The rosemary sprigs dry out as the cake bakes and they get a little bit too crunchy.



I've been baking up a storm in preparation for Passover week. I have lots of good things to share with you. 

See you all again soon.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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semolina and fig tart

semolina and fig tart

13 Mar 2017

It's fig season in Sydney. As the season is so short as soon as figs appeared in the fruit shop, I bought a few and took them home with me.



Normally I'd use them to make a fig frangipane tart but on this occasion I decided to adapt the semolina and raspberry tart recipe from Ottolenghi, the cookbook. I used my own pastry recipe but adapted the filling recipe a little and of course swapped out the raspberries for figs.



Unless the figs are perfectly ripe, they're not very sweet so I added a little sugar to the cut figs before baking.



I increased the sugar in the filling a little but still found the tart wasn't quite sweet enough for my taste buds, so I've adjusted the quantity of sugar a little.

Here’s the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 gm and my oven is a conventional oven, not fan forced. If your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the cooking temperature by 20°C.

Semolina and Fig Tart Recipe – makes a 16-18 cm tart (filling from Ottolenghi - The Cookbook)

Pastry
110 g (4 oz) cold unsalted butter, diced
¼ cup icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
¼ cup almond meal
1⅓ cups plain flour
1 egg, lightly beaten

To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and if necessary, a small amount of cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade.

Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes. You won't need the whole amount of this dough for the tart. Wrap the pastry in cling film and freeze for another day.

Lightly brush a 16-18cm loose-bottomed cake tin with a tiny amount of oil and set aside. Make sure you have a clean work surface. Dust it with a bit of flour and, using a rolling pin, roll out your dough. You should have a disk that is about 2-3 mm thick. Once you have reached the right thickness, cut the pastry into a circle large enough to cover the tin and most of the sides comfortably. Carefully line the tin and patch up any holes with excess pastry if necessary. Once you lined your tin, trim the pastry with a sharp knife, so you have a nice edge, about 3-4 cm high. Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190°C, conventional. Cut out a circle of baking parchment large enough to cover the base and the sides of your cake tin. Place inside the case and fill up with baking beads or dry beans or rice so that the sides of the pastry are totally supported by the beans and won't collapse during baking. Blind bake the case blind for 25-35 minutes or until it is very light brown. Remove from the oven and take out the beans of rice (you can keep it for future tarts).

Filling
80g unsalted butter
180ml cream
350ml milk
75 - 90g caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla paste
60g semolina
1 egg
6 small figs, quartered
1 tbs sugar
50g apricot jam (optional)
icing sugar, for dusting

To make the filling, put the butter, cream, milk and 75g sugar and vanilla paste in a saucepan. Place the saucepan onto the stove and bring to the boil. Let it simmer while you slowly whisk in the semolina. Continue whisking until the mix comes back to the boil and thickens up like porridge. Remove from the heat and whisk in the egg. Taste the filling at this stage and if not sweet enough, add a little more sugar.

Pour the semolina mixture into the pastry case. If you use a 16 cm tin you won't use all the filling, you'll use about 2/3 - 3/4 of the filling. Decorate the top with some of the quartered figs allowing them to show on the surface. Lightly sugar the figs before baking. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the filling is slightly golden. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before removing the tart from the tin.



Put the apricot jam in a small pan with a tablespoon of water and bring to the boil. Strain it through a sieve and brush over the tart. Finish with the remaining figs and dust with icing sugar.



Now I'm itching to make this again but this time with the raspberries!

See you all again next week with a little shopshoot.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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