passover week - passover fig frangipane tarts 2015

passover week - passover fig frangipane tarts 2015

1 Apr 2015

Welcome to day 3 of Passover week. Do you remember a few years ago I made some Passover fig frangipane tarts? I didn’t share the pastry recipe because I wasn’t very happy with the one I used and I promised to work on it.




Well it’s taken me 3 years but I think I’ve finally found a decent pastry recipe. 





A few weeks back I went to Dungog to visit Farmer Andrew where I spied these gorgeous cattle dogs in the main street. I brought the leftover pastry from Belinda Jeffrey’s Three Nut Cake with me hoping to turn it into something special as it was Farmer Andrew's birthday.



I went into the garden to find the chicken ladies had laid an egg for me to use. There were figs on the trees so I decided to make fig tarts. The pretty jam spoon was a gift from the lovely Jocelyn from Heaven in Earth.





I found the pastry was quite delicate to handle but the tarts themselves turned out well. 





I didn't blind bake the pastry but that’s my goal between now and next year. If the pastry can be blind baked I'll have a whole slew of Passover tarts I'd love to try and make.



Here are all the tarts glazed with apricot jam. The pastry brush is also from Heaven in Earth.



Here’s the recipe for you. If figs aren't in season where you live, you could use thin slices of pear or any type of berry.

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.

Passover Fig Frangipane Tarts (makes eight 7 cm tarts)
Pastry
120g (4¼ oz) almond meal
2½ tablespoon caster sugar
3½ tablespoon Passover baking mix (equal quantities superfine matzo meal and potato flour)
75g (2¾ oz) very cold butter

Frangipane
80gm (3oz) unsalted butter
80gm (3oz) caster sugar
1 large egg
80gm (3oz) almond meal
1 tsp finely grated orange rind
1 tablespoon Passover baking mix
1 tablespoon orange juice

Filling
¼ cup apricot jam

Topping
4 figs, sliced (depending on size)
¼ cup flaked almonds
Thick cream to serve

For the pastry, put the almond meal, sugar and Passover baking mix into food processor and whiz together until combined. Add butter and whiz some more until it forms coarse breadcrumbs. Press the dough into a ball, flatten it out a little and wrap in plastic. Put in fridge to chill for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Place the dough on a surface lightly dusted with extra Passover baking mix (or you can use greaseproof paper) and roll out thinly with a rolling pin. Grease eight 7 cm tartlet tins. Line the tins with the pastry and trim the edges of the tart tins with a sharp knife. If you’re having trouble with the pastry, then just press the pastry into the tins with your fingers. Chill the cases while you’re preparing the filling.

To make the frangipane filling, place the butter and caster sugar in a food processor and whiz to combine. Add the egg, the almond meal, the grated orange rind, the Passover baking mix and the orange juice, then pulse to combine.

Spoon 1 teaspoon of the apricot jam over the base of the tart shells. Evenly divide the frangipane filling between the tarts and gently spoon over the jam. Place 2 or 3 fig slices onto the frangipane filling. Sprinkle a few flaked almonds over the tarts. Place the tartlets onto a baking sheet and place on the middle shelf of the oven.

Bake at 190°C/375°F for 30-40 minutes or until the frangipane filling has slightly puffed and is golden brown. Baking time will depend on your oven so start checking the tarts after 20 minutes.

Remove the tray from the oven and cool the tartlets on a wire rack. Gently remove the tarts from the tins and if you like you can glaze the top of the tarts with some warmed, strained apricot jam.




These would be lovely served with a good dollop of cream. 

Time for me to go so I'll see you all again tomorrow with a very citrusy Passover treat.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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plate 2 plate - sour cherry chocolate almond biscotti

plate 2 plate - sour cherry chocolate almond biscotti

15 Dec 2014

Welcome to this year's edition of The 5 days of Christmas. This year's theme is cherries and chocolate and today I'm also bringing you the second Plate to Plate column. A few months ago, Juliana and I decided that we were going to bake and style a Christmas themed recipe for our second Plate 2 plate blog post. Juliana suggested a few things and in the end we chose a Williams Sonoma chocolate cherry almond biscotti recipe. 






Now I've only made biscotti once before and they weren't a great success, so I was keen to try another recipe. One of the key ingredients in this recipe, sour cherries, are a bit hard to find in Sydney but I eventually found them in the local health food store. As it's Christmas, I couldn't help myself and added some chocolate chips to the biscotti mix just to make the cookies a little more festive. Here's my take on the biscotti double baking process. 


Here's Juliana's.

I got myself into a little bit of trouble. I don't know if Australian flour is less absorbent than US flour or if my eggs were a bit larger but the biscotti dough came out very, very sticky. I was covered in biscotti dough; the bench top was covered in biscotti dough and I could barely scrape it out from the bowl. 

I kept adding flour until the dough was a bit more manageable but I was concerned all that extra flour would affect the final result.

Juliana also had problems with the recipe, though her problem was a bit different from mine. Here's her story.

Here's the recipe for you.
Ingredients

1¾ cups plain flour

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup Dutch process cocoa powder, sifted

¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

¾ cup dark chocolate chips

¾ cup dried sour cherries 

¾ cup toasted blanched almonds, coarsely chopped

3 whole eggs, plus 1 egg white

1 tsp. vanilla extract

 
Method

Position racks in the upper third and lower third of an oven and preheat to 325°F/170°C. Line 2 baking sheets, preferably insulated sheets, with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda until well mixed. Add the chocolate chips, the cherries and almonds and toss with your hands to distribute them evenly. 

In another bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg white and vanilla extract. Pour into the dry ingredients. Using a fork, mix together the dry and wet ingredients, taking care to work all the bits of dry ingredients into the dough. This will take about 5 minutes. The dough will be dense and sticky. Divide the dough in half.

Place a piece of plastic wrap 18 inches long on the countertop. Transfer half of the dough to the plastic wrap. Lightly moisten your hands with cold water to prevent the dough from sticking to them, then shape the dough into a flattened log 12 inches long by 2 1/2 inches wide by 1 inch high. Lifting the plastic wrap and cradling the dough, flip the dough onto the centre of one of the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining dough, flipping it onto the second prepared baking sheet. 

Bake the logs until they are dry to the touch and firm in the centre when pressed with your fingers, about 30 minutes. They will spread considerably and may crack slightly on top. Transfer to wire racks and let the logs cool on the pans for 30 minutes. The logs will still be slightly warm to the touch. Leave the oven on.

Carefully transfer the logs to a cutting board and set the parchment-lined pans aside. Using a serrated knife, cut the logs crosswise on the diagonal into slices 1/2 inch wide. Arrange the slices, cut side down, on the lined baking sheets, placing them close together but not touching. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and, using tongs or a spatula, turn the biscotti. Continue to bake until dry and crisp, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer the biscotti to wire racks to cool completely. Store the biscotti in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 weeks. Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma, Essentials of Healthful Cooking, by Mary Abbott Hess, Dana Jacobi & Marie Simmons (Oxmoor House, 2003).


Here's how Juliana styled her biscotti.





Here's how I styled mine.




The lovely gold garland is from here.

Juliana's look so festive, don't they?



These taste great straight from the oven when the chocolate chips are still all melty but actually taste even better when they're a few days old. I always dunk my biscuits (I can't help myself) and these are perfect for dunking as they're quite sturdy. I've made these biscotti  twice now and the second time I made them in my stand mixer using the dough hook. I increased the flour to 2 cups and was more prudent adding the eggs and had no trouble the second time around.






The cookies all packed ready to distribute to my neighbours for Christmas.

See you all again tomorrow with some more Christmas Baking!

Jillian

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shopshoot - high tea with mrs woo

shopshoot - high tea with mrs woo

29 Apr 2013

Last Christmas I was on the hunt for some Paper Boat Press stars. I knew High Tea with Mrs Woo stocked some of Kylie's products so off I went. Unfortunately they didn't have any of the stars but I still left with a few goodies. I'd not visited the shop before and I found it to be charming and made a mental note to return one day to photograph the store.



I don't know if you've been along Oxford Street Paddington recently but it's a bit of a sad affair these days. So many shops are empty and have been for quite some time. Well the same can't be said for High Tea with Mrs Woo - the shop was buzzing with people the duration of my stay.



The shop is part clothing store/part gallery space and the clothing is all designed by the three Foong sisters. As well as the Paddington store, the sisters run another High Tea with Mrs Woo store in Newcastle.



If you look really carefully you can see an old holiday photo of the three sisters.



High Tea with Mrs Woo's philosophy.



Some items from their clothing line



Another corner of the store.



Some of the jewellery and ceramics on display.



A vignette of earthy textures with a touch of green



High Tea with Mrs Woo hosts regular pop up shops. Heaven in Earth was the pop up shop when I visited the store and some of the items you can see here are from their online store. Since then Rebound Books has moved into the store and will be there until the end of May.



Some Heaven in Earth, Sunday Morning Designs and East of India products.



A final vignette from the store.


Here is where you can find High Tea with Mrs Woo. (2016- Paddington store now closed but you can still find the store in Newcastle and online)

NEWCASTLE STORE
74 Darby Street, Cooks Hill
NSW 2300 Australia
PHONE +61 2 4926 4883

If you can't make it to one of their stores, they have an online shop here. 

Many thanks to the Foong sisters for allowing me to shoot their shop.

See you all again on Wednesday. 

Until then,

Jillian

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