apple pie with an olive oil crust

apple pie with an olive oil crust

15 Jun 2026

Is there anything better than a piece of homemade apple pie? I think not. Each year my Grandma Sonie made apple pie for her Mother's Day morning tea and her pie was delicious. Grandma only read and wrote in Russian, so I don't have a written version of her recipe, though there may be a copy in my Mum's hand written recipe book. I created my own version when I was a teenager, adapted from a Women's Weekly recipe and since then I have made many, many apple pies.

Phil Khoury specialises in plant based baking, and I was keen to try his apple pie recipe. The filling uses both the apple flesh and the peel, something I'd not seen before, whilst the pastry is olive oil based, something I've not made before. I was intrigued, so as soon as it was apple season, I got to work making my own version of Phil's apple pie.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 16-cm tart, adapted from a Phil Khoury recipe and you can watch Phil make the pie here. To make a larger tart please refer to the original recipe. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60 g 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.

Apple Pie with an olive oil crust

Apple filling
500g apples (I used a mix of Pink Lady and Granny Smith apples)
75g caster sugar 
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp vanilla bean paste
1½ tsp finely grated lemon zest and 1 tsp lemon juice
15g cornflour

For the flaky pastry
225g plain flour
½ tsp fine salt
15g caster sugar
90ml olive oil
15g cooked sweet potato, cooled (see Recipe Tips below)

To assemble
¼ cup apricot jam
Soya milk or cream 
Demerara sugar, for sprinkling
Vegan ice cream or cream, to serve

Filling
Peel and core the apples, reserving the peel. Either chop the apple peel finely by hand or blend in a small food processor. Set aside.

Thinly slice the peeled apples about 2 mm thick using either a sharp knife or a mandoline. Place the thinly sliced apples into a large bowl with the sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, lemon juice, zest and cornflour and toss the apples gently until everything is combined. Stand for 20 minutes.

Pastry
Prepare the flaky pastry by mixing the flour, salt and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the oil and use a silicone spatula or your hands to mix it into the flour. The oil should coat all the flour. Add the sweet potato along with 37 ml cold water and mix until the dough just comes together. Don't overmix because the dough will start to separate and become more difficult to handle.

Place two-thirds of the pastry dough between two sheets of baking paper then roll out into a large disc until it is 3-4 mm thick and about 9 inch in diameter. Roll out remaining one-third of pastry between two sheets of baking paper into a smaller (8 inch) disc that is 3 mm thick, and set aside.

Use the larger disc of pastry to line a 16 cm tart tin by removing the top sheet of baking paper and gently placing the tin on top of the pastry as a guide. Use a small sharp knife to trim the pastry around the tin, allowing for at least a 3 cm border, then remove the tart tin. Use the bottom sheet of baking paper to help flip the pastry gently into the tin, then carefully ease into the shape of the tin with your fingertips leaving any excess overhanging.

Chill the pastry in the fridge for 15 minutes, then use the tip of a small knife to ‘dock' the base with a few pricks, about 2 cm apart, to stop the base from puffing up. If blind-baking the pastry (see recipe tip), preheat the oven to 190°C, conventional/170°C fan forced. Scrunch up some baking paper, then unfurl it and press into the pastry-lined tart case and fill it with rice or baking beans. Bake for 18 minutes or until nicely golden. If the edges are browning too early, cover them with a piece of kitchen foil. Remove and allow to cool.

If not blind baking the pie, place a baking tray, on which the tart tin can sit while baking, on the middle rack. Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional/180°C fan. 

Spoon the apricot jam over the base of the tart, then arrange the finely chopped apple peels over the jam and then gently layer the sliced apples on top, stacking to fill all the gaps. There will be some liquid leftover from the apples, so stir to agitate any settled cornflour and drizzle it slowly over the pie. You can push the apples into a slight domed shape, if you like.

Brush the overhanging edge of the piecrust with water, then place the smaller disc of pastry over the apples and press the edges together. Trim and crimp the edges as you like. Brush the soya milk or cream across the top of the pastry and sprinkle some demerara sugar on top for a tantalising crunch. Use a sharp knife to cut some steam holes – I like one in the centre then six in a little burst radiating from it.

Place the tart on the preheated tray then bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the tin and bake for another 20–25 minutes, until golden brown all over. Remove from the oven and leave to stand for at least 30 minutes. Serve warm with a scoop of vegan ice cream or regular cream or ice cream if not vegan.

Recipe tips
Prepare the sweet potato in advance, preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional or 180°C fan forced and bake whole sweet potatoes for 45 minutes. When cooked, halve and scoop out the soft potato inside. Cool completely before weighing and mashing with a fork ready to use in the recipe.

If using a metal tin, you do not need to blind bake the pastry case. Other tart dishes made from glass or ceramics do not conduct heat as well, so in this case you will need to blind bake the tart case as described above.

Once cooked, the apple pie keeps well in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 4 days. When it’s cooled completely, slice from the fridge then reheat in the oven or microwave. 

The apple pie was so delicious and the olive oil pastry was a revelation. I had no problem lining the tart tin but I had some trouble getting the top crust in place without it cracking. The raw sugar topping covered up any flaws and once baked the olive oil crust was really crisp and it stayed that way for a few days. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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passover week 2026 - torta di pere da pietro

passover week 2026 - torta di pere da pietro

26 Mar 2026

Well I do like to test myself at Passover week and this year I chose to 'renovate' an old recipe for torta di pere da pietro. The original tart is a lovely thing - a custard filled pastry shell topped with pear slices and an almond filling - but could I make it passover friendly. I probably last made this tart 20 years ago and I was up for the challenge.

I used my regular passover shortcrust pastry and followed the original pastry cream and filling recipes but used potato and/or tapioca starch instead of the original plain flour/cornflour. 

The tart is not exactly the same as the original. The pastry is a temperamental thing. It is crisp the day of baking but softens overnight, so ideally bake and serve the tart on the same day. If you must serve it the following day, keep it refrigerated so you can cut the tart without the pastry shattering into pieces. Look at that cross-section!

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 35 x 10 cm oblong tart. You will have some leftover pastry and almond filling but I think its better to have too much than too little. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and 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.

Passover torta di pere da pietro 

Pastry 

125g superfine matzo meal

¼ cup (25g) almond meal

2 tbs (35g) tapioca or potato starch

3 tsp caster sugar

pinch sea salt

110g unsalted butter, cut into 1-cm pieces

1 egg yolk 

2- 4 tbs iced water

Pastry Cream

110g caster sugar

3 egg yolks

pinch sea salt flakes

¼ cup potato or tapioca starch or superfine matzo meal

1 tsp Passover vanilla extract or the seeds of ½ vanilla pod, scraped 

450mls full cream milk

Almond Filling

75g unsalted butter

55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar

85g almond meal

a pinch of salt

1 egg 

½ cup reserved pastry cream 

¼ cup potato or tapioca starch

 

To assemble

2 small ripe pears

To serve

icing sugar

Pastry

Combine the first 5 ingredients in the food processor and pulse to aerate. Add the diced butter and pulse ten times until butter is the size of peas. Whisk together the egg yolk and 2 tablespoons of ice water. Add it to the dough and pulse until it comes together. Add more ice water if needed. Knead the dough a couple of times and wrap it in plastic wrap forming a flat rectangle. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Pastry cream

In a medium size bowl, mix together the sugar, the egg yolks, vanilla and salt until well combined. Mix in the potato starch or tapioca starch to form a smooth paste. Stir  the milk into the mixture then pour through a sieve into a saucepan. Cook over a low heat until the mixture boils and thickens. It will start to look lumpy during the cooking process but just keep stirring vigorously until the lumps disappear. Scrape into a container, cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap to prevent a skin forming on the pastry cream and set aside to cool.

Almond filling

Measure out ½ cup of the cooled pastry cream. In a small bowl, cream the butter with the sugar, the almond meal and the salt. Add the egg and beat until light. Fold in the pastry cream and the potato or tapioca starch. Taste for sweetness and adjust as needed. Set to one side.

Assembly

The pastry makes a generous amount, so you won’t need all of it. Roll out the pastry to about a 4-mm thickness between the two sheets of paper and line a lightly greased oblong tin with the pastry. The pastry is inclined to break apart so just gently press it together and patch any holes. Trim the edges then place the pastry shell in the freezer to rest for 30 minutes or until frozen. 

While the tart shell is chilling, preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional and place a baking tray on the centre rack.

Remove the tart shell from the freezer. Spread the remaining pastry cream over the pastry base to a depth of approximately 1 cm. Peel, core and slice the pears and arrange the slices over the pastry cream. Gently spoon the almond filling over the pears and smooth the top. 

Place the tart on the preheated tray and bake at 170°C, conventional for about 1 hour or until golden. Reduce temperature to 150°C and bake for another 20 minutes or until the tart is cooked through. Place on a cooling rack and let the tart cool completely in the pan before unmoulding. 

Chill and dust with icing sugar before serving.

The tart was very well received. I did miss the crisp tart pastry shell but the superfine matzo meal added an earthiness to the pastry that was not unpleasnat at all. It was still a lovely tart.

See you again tomorrow with my last bake for Passover Week 2026.

Bye for now,

Jillian 

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passover week 2026 - passover fig galette

passover week 2026 - passover fig galette

24 Mar 2026

For Passover Week I like to challenge myself and this year my challenge was to make passover puff pastry. Puff pastry needs to be made in a cold kitchen to prevent the butter layers melting and it was 30°C the day I made the pastry. The end result, whilst not really puff pastry, was crunchy and flaky and pretty good but not worthy of 6 letter folds and 6 hours of your time. 

As I don't want to share a recipe with you that isn't perfect, the pastry recipe I'm sharing today is one that I've used for the past 4 or 5 years. It's a shortcrust pastry recipe though so it will be less flaky than the one pictured here. It's adapted from an Aran Goyoaga gluten free pastry recipe and it gives consistently good results. Just to note if figs aren't in season where you live, you can use another fruit like apples, pears, plums or even blood oranges to make the galette.

Here's the recipe for you, which makes a 9 x 13 inch rectangular galette. 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 galette 
Pastry 
150g superfine matzo meal
30g almond meal
2 1/2 tbs tapioca or potato starch
1 tbs caster sugar
pinch sea salt
135g unsalted butter, cut into 1-cm pieces
1 egg 
4-5 tbs iced water

Frangipane
60g unsalted butter
55g caster sugar
50g almond meal
2 tsp grated orange rind
2 tsp potato or tapioca starch
pinch sea salt 
1 egg yolk, lightly whisked

Fig Filling
10-12 figs  
55g sugar
1 tsp grated orange rind
1 egg white

Glaze
2 tbs apricot jam
1 tbs boiling water 

To serve
Whipped cream

Base
Combine the first 5 ingredients in the food processor and pulse to aerate. Add the diced butter and pulse ten times until butter is the size of peas. Whisk together the egg and 2 tbs of ice water. Add it to the dough and pulse until it comes together. Add more ice water if needed. Knead the dough a couple of times and wrap it in plastic wrap forming a flat disc and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Frangipane
Combine all of the ingredients in a small food processor and mix until well blended. Chill until needed.

Assembly
Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. Roll the dough into a rectangle, approximately 9 x 13 inches (5-mm thick). Transfer the dough to a baking tray lined with baking paper or a silpat. Spread the frangipane over the prepared pastry, leaving a 3-cm border, then place the tray in the fridge while you slice the figs.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. Combine the sugar and orange rind in a small bowl. Arrange the fig slices decoratively over the filling until it is completely covered. Sprinkle most of the sugar over the figs, leaving a little to sprinkle over the edge of the pastry. Gently fold the pastry over the figs, pressing as you go to hold the figs in place. It’s ok if the dough cracks a bit – simply pinch it back together. My pastry was quite soft by this stage so I returned the filled galette to the fridge for 30 minutes until the pastry was firm again.

Brush the pastry border with the beaten egg white then scatter the pastry border with the rest of the sugar. Place the galette on the bottom shelf of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 190°C, conventional, then move the tray to the centre rack of the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes or until the galette is beautifully golden on top and the crust is crispy. Take the tray from the oven and transfer the galette to a cooling rack. 

The crust is very tender when warm, so let it cool and settle before serving. Just before serving, glaze the figs with the warmed apricot jam and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

The galette is best served the day its baked. Any leftovers need to be stored in the fridge as the pastry softens at room temperature.

The galette received rave reviews from the neighbours and even though the pastry was made from matzo meal they were none the wiser. They thought the galette was delicious and in fact one neighbour declared the galette was one of my best ever bakes, which makes my heart glad. 

I'll keep working on the puff pastry recipe and hopefully I'll be able to share a new and improved recipe with you next year.

See you all tomorrow with another bake for Passover Week 2026.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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pillowy peach polenta tart

pillowy peach polenta tart

2 Mar 2026

I've had this pillowy peach polenta pie recipe bookmarked for quite some time.  The recipe (s) came from Natalie Paul's first cookbook, Beatrix Bakes, which I borrowed from the library then photocopied the recipe. Once peach season  arrived I fished out the recipe and discovered I didn't have the recipe for the custard filling. When I copied the recipe I hadn't realised there were 4 separate elements to the recipe and I'd only copied 3 of the 4 components. In the end I decided to use a different custard filling from Natalie's second book, Beatrix Bakes Another Slice, which I whipped up in the microwave.

Although I do own a 24cm round tart tin, I just love my rectangular tin. It's so easy to cut the finished tart into neat slices but it's smaller and I have to scale the recipe down to 2/3 of all the ingredients. If you'd like to make the 24cm round tart, you'll need to roast a kilo of peaches and prepare 50% more of the polenta pastry recipe. The amount of custard should be sufficient.

Here's the recipe for you, adapted from Natalie Paull's recipe for pillowy peach and polenta pie, which makes a 10 x 35cm oblong tart. 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. 

Pillowy peach and polenta tart - serves 7 

Citrus-roasted peaches
750g ripe peaches (approximately 6 peaches)
150g/ml orange juice (or juice from other mid-acidic citrus, such as mandarin or tangelo)
40g caster sugar

Polenta crust
160g plain flour
65g fine (or instant) yellow polenta
65g caster sugar
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
100g unsalted butter, cold and diced
1 egg yolk (25g)
15g/ml cream
½ tsp vanilla paste
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Vanilla pastry custard 
50g caster sugar

20g cornflour

pinch sea-salt flakes

40g cream

40g egg yolk (from 2 eggs)

200g/ml full-fat milk
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

To assemble

1 egg white, lightly beaten
icing sugar for dusting

Citrus-roasted peaches 
Preheat the oven to 160°C, fan forced/180°C, conventional. Have ready a large non-reactive roasting tin that will hold the fruit, when halved, in a single layer.

Remove any stems and cut around the natural seam of the fruit. Twist the sides to release the halves from the stone - do this over the roasting tin to catch any juice. If the fruit shows resistance, switch to carving the lobes off with a small-serrated knife. Put the fruit in the tin.

Pour the orange juice over the fruit and scatter over the sugar. Place a piece of baking paper on top and press down lightly to meet the fruit. Cover tightly with foil. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Peel the foil back and lift the paper carefully to avoid nasty steam burns. You are looking for the fruit to retain their shape, but for the flesh to feel yielding to the touch when squeezed lightly and for the raw appearance to diminish. If the fruit are just on the cusp of cooked when you take them from the oven, employ the resting technique; keep them covered with foil to retain the heat and leave them to rest to doneness.

Cool to warm, taking the foil off but leaving the paper on to prevent discolouration. If the skins slip off easily, peel away. If they are obstinate, leave the skins on, as removing the skin can tear the flesh away and that's too precious to lose. Store the fruit in their syrup in the fridge.

Polenta crust 
Put the flour, polenta, sugar and salt in a wide mixing bowl. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients just until the butter lumps are the size of small peas and the flour has taken on a yellowy hue. When tossing through your fingers, it should feel like silky ground almonds with a little polenta grit interspersed with buttery lumps. These small butter lumps are going to melt during baking, creating a little steam, which will help flake the pastry apart.

Lightly combine the egg yolk, cream, vanilla and lemon zest in a small bowl, then add to the buttery flour. Keep mixing with your hands, lightly squeezing the dough together. The mix will look crumbly at first and then will come together like stiff play dough. Loosely wrap the dough in plastic wrap, then press the dough into a 2 cm thick disc, gently squeezing around the edge to smooth out any cracks. If the dough is not too warm, you can start rolling now. Or if it feels sticky, chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes - just ensure that the dough is nicely pliable before rolling.

Divide the dough into two pieces: two-thirds and one-third (280g and 140g). The larger portion is for the base of the tart and the smaller portion is for the top. Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and press it out a little with the palm of your hand to ease it into the start of rolling. Roll out the dough to into a rectangle about 4-mm thick. Trim, then gently lift and flop the dough into the tin.

Working in sections, tuck the dough right into the edge and against the side of the tart tin to prevent air pockets, then roll off the excess with a rolling pin.

Add the offcuts to the smaller dough portion wrap in plastic wrap and chill until needed. The pastry can be a little pesky to roll, so ensure it isn't too warm before you start. It will happily be lightly kneaded again for a second or third attempt at rolling.

Freeze the tart shell for at least 1 hour before blind baking. Make the custard while the tart shell is chilling.

Cold start vanilla custard
Place the sugar, cornflour and salt into a medium heatproof bowl. Mix in the cream and the egg yolks and stir until well combined. Stream in the milk and vanilla bean paste and mix until smooth.

Place the bowl into a microwave oven and cook on high for 2 minutes, stirring after each minute. Cook for another 30 seconds on high, stir and then microwave for another 30 seconds. As the custard thickens it will look lumpy but just whisk hard and it will all come together into a thick paste in 30 second to a minute. Return the bowl to the microwave and cook for another 30 seconds if not quite thick enough.

Once cooked, scrape the custard into a plastic container and press a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the custard to prevent a rubbery skin forming. Chill for an hour. If, after chilling, the custard appears sloppy, it was undercooked. Simply return the custard to the microwave and cook for another 30 seconds to 1 minute or until thick.

Prebake the crust
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), conventional. Cover the frozen dough with a piece of aluminium foil, tucking it snugly into the edge of the tin. Fill the lined tin with sugar or baking beads and bake for 20 minutes or until the crust has just set and there is a whisper of brown on the edges. The pie will be filled and re-baked, so the crust is only baked until pale. Cool for at least 15 minutes before filling.

Meanwhile, remove the remaining portion of dough from the fridge to soften for rolling. Get the citrus-roasted stone fruit ready. Pull the peaches out of the syrup (you will have some fruit and syrup left over, so freeze them for another baking adventure) and dry between paper towel. When the crust has cooled, smooth the vanilla pastry custard over the base using an offset spatula. Place the peaches on top, cut side down.

Roll out the dough to a rectangle large enough to cover the tart. Carefully brush a light coating of egg white on the crust edge and a little on the peaches, to encourage the top pastry to adhere. I like to roll the top pastry just before baking so it settles effortlessly over the filling and is pliable enough to seal well. You can roll it earlier and keep it chilled: just ensure it returns to a floppy state before it goes on top.

Place the pastry top over the filling
To do this, shimmy a spare tart tin base or a thin flat board under the pastry and slide the pastry into position on the peaches. Do this carefully, as the egg wash will adhere it to the top immediately. (This step didn't work for me and the pastry cracked into pieces. I cut the rectangle into 3 separate pieces and placed each third separately, overlapping each piece slightly which seemed to work out fine). Push the top pastry down to meet the cooked pastry on the side and pinch the excess off with your fingers. Use a knife to poke a few steam-release vents in a pretty pattern over the pastry top.

Bake in a 190°C (375°F) conventional oven for 45 minutes until light golden and a little puffed. You want to preserve the golden glow of the polenta, so don't over-brown. If a few cracks form on top, they will settle upon cooling. Cool the pie for at least 2 hours before dredging with icing sugar and slicing into generous wedges.

The end result - beautifully soft roast peaches, and a vanilla custard filling encased in a crunchy polenta pastry. Who could not love this combination. The pastry is a bit tricky though so I'm wondering whether I could polentarize my almond shortcrust pastry recipe, which is much easier to deal with. Watch this space.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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treacle and vanilla salt tart

treacle and vanilla salt tart

16 Feb 2026

I have some shortcrust pastry in my freezer, leftover from other baking projects. As I don't like to waste food I've been looking at tart recipes both online and in my recipe books. Many of the recipes I found seemed to be riffs on the classic British treacle tart. As I've never had treacle tart before I thought I better make one first.

There are so many treacle tart recipes out there but I liked the sound of Heston Blumenthal's recipe. The recipe wasn't very clearly written though and made a huge tart. I've made a few Michael James recipes in the past and they're pretty reliable so when I discovered this Michael James recipe, which looked similar to Heston's, that's the recipe I decided to use. 

I used my leftover pastry but I've linked to the original recipe if you'd like to make Michael's pastry recipe. You'll need to start this recipe the day before serving as the filling gets an overnight sleep. The vanilla salt and the pastry can be made ahead of time and the tart case can be pre-baked.

Here's the recipe for you which makes an 18-cm tart. For a larger tart please refer to the linked recipe. 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.

Treacle and vanilla salt tart - makes an 18-cm tart

Almond shortcrust pastry

45g icing sugar

25g almond meal

200g plain flour

pinch salt

110g cold unsalted butter, diced

1 egg

cold water, if needed

Treacle filling

1 egg 

20g thick cream

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

227g golden syrup 

45g unsalted butter

45g sourdough breadcrumbs

3 tsp lemon rind

35mls lemon juice

Vanilla salt

½ vanilla pod, seeds scraped

1 tsp sea salt

To serve 

clotted cream or crème fraîche, 

Shortcrust 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 sufficient 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. 

You’ll only need about half of the pastry dough to make an 18-cm tart. The pastry freezes well so just wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. 

Treacle filling 

Whisk together the egg, cream and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside. 

Brown the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, leave it until it starts to brown – you will know it’s ready when it stops spitting and bubbling, and produces a wonderful nutty aroma. This means the water has evaporated and it’s close to burning. Strain through a fine sieve to remove the solids, and weigh 30g into a medium sized bowl.

Add the golden syrup to the butter and mix to combine. Stir this into the egg mixture, then add the breadcrumbs, followed by the lemon zest and juice, stirring well between each addition. Chill the mixture in the fridge overnight to allow the breadcrumbs to absorb all the liquid.

Day of baking

On a lightly floured bench, roll the pastry out into a large disc, 4mm thick. Lightly grease a 18-cm round tart tin with butter, and gently lay the pastry over it. Press the pastry firmly into the base of the tin. Trim the excess with a knife, then place the tart shell in the fridge to rest for an hour. Retain the excess pastry to patch the tart should cracks form as it bakes.

Preheat the oven to 160°C, fan forced/180°C, conventional. Line the rested pastry case with baking paper or foil and fill with dried beans, rice or baking weights. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and bake the tart shell for a further 10 minutes, until lightly golden. Set aside to cool in the tin and patch any cracks that have formed with some of the excess pastry.

Vanilla salt

Rub the vanilla seeds and sea salt together. You will have more than you need, but it keeps for ages in a small jar, so you can save it for later.

Assembly

Preheat the oven to 155°C, fan forced/175°C, conventional. Take the breadcrumb mix out of the fridge. It will have separated slightly, so mix it with a spoon until it comes back together then pour it into a jug.

Place the tart shell on a flat tray lined with baking paper. Place the tray in the oven, then gently pour in the treacle mixture. Fill the pastry case to just below the rim, as it will expand a bit in the oven. Bake for 45–50 minutes, until just set. The filling should be just firm on the edges and have a bit of wobble in the centre, like a jelly.

Place the tart on a wire rack to cool, then remove the tart from the tin and transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle the top with the vanilla salt, and serve with a dollop of clotted cream or crème fraîche, if desired.

I was expecting a somewhat bland tart so I was surprised by the intensity of the lemon flavour. Next time I'd use less lemon rind and perhaps a little less juice. The filling is quite sweet so I think the cream or crème fraîche toppings are necessary, not optional extras. Now I can't wait to make the other tarts. 

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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xmas week 2025 - passionfruit posset flower tarts

xmas week 2025 - passionfruit posset flower tarts

18 Dec 2025

Welcome to Day 4 of Xmas Week 2025. Christmas is peak passionfruit season in Australia so when I saw a photo of these sweet little passionfruit topped tarts in Nicola Lamb's cookbook, Sift, I immediately added them to my Xmas folder.

The recipe isn't particularly complicated but it does involve a number of steps. The pastry shells, passionfruit juice and white chocolate ganache can be prepared in advance. The passionfruit posset needs a few hours to set before you can decorate the tarts so remember to factor that in if you're planning to serve these for Christmas lunch. 

Don't make the rookie mistake I made and use regular cream for the posset because you'll end up with a very loosely set posset. On a warm Sydney day the posset pretty much melted in the heat as I photographed the tarts. I'd made a few extra tart shells, so I bought some double cream and I remade the passionfruit posset. The second batch of posset set up nicely in under 2 hours.

Here's the recipe for you which makes six 8cm tarts. 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. 

Passionfruit posset flower tarts 

Tart cases
45g icing sugar, sifted 
165g plain flour
15g ground almonds
pinch flaky sea salt

100g cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1 egg yolk 

Whipped vanilla ganache
300g thickened cream 
1½ tsp good quality vanilla bean paste
Pinch of fine salt
120g white chocolate, finely chopped

Posset
30g passionfruit juice (about 3 passionfruit)
10g lime juice
200g double cream (48% fat)
60g caster sugar
40g butter
1g flaky sea salt (about 1/4 tsp)

Plus
2-3 passionfruit, to serve

Pastry
Mix the dry ingredients together in the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and pulse a few times to break up the butter into pea sized pieces. Add the egg folk and mix until a dough forms around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and knead lightly a few times to bring the dough together. Wrap in plastic then refrigerate the pastry for 1 hour.

Roll out the soft pastry between two sheets of baking paper to a 4mm thickness. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes until firm. 

Have your six 8cm tart tins handy. Trim the pastry so it is larger than the tart tin you are lining. For small tart cases, you may want to use a circular pastry cutter. 

Remove the paper and drape the pastry into the tart tin, gently pressing it into the edges and base. Place the lined tart tins into the freezer until the pastry is firm, around 30 minutes, or in the fridge for an hour.

To blind bake
Preheat the oven to 190°C conventional/170°C fan. Place foil dull side down in your chilled and lined tarts. Fill with weights - baking beans, sugar or raw rice work well. Place the tart shells onto a baking sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes on the centre rack until dry, then remove the weights and bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden. Take the tart shells from the oven and place on a cooling rack

The baked tart cases can be kept in an airtight container for 3 days. Refresh in a 180°C conventional/160°C fan oven for 5-10 minutes before using.

Vanilla ganache

Heat the cream with the vanilla and salt until simmering. Pour this over the white chocolate and whisk until smooth. Pour into a container and leave to chill completely.

To juice the passionfruit for the posset, spoon out the flesh, discard the seeds and place into a blender. Blitz until liquefied, then pass through a fine sieve to remove any seeds.

Passionfruit posset

Juice the passionfruit by spooning out the flesh, then placing the pulp into the bowl of a small food processor. Blitz until liquefied, then pass through a fine sieve to remove any seeds. Mix the passionfruit and lime juices  together and set aside. 

Heat the cream and sugar together, then continue to simmer for 3 minutes to ensure the sugar is fully dissolved. Turn off the heat, then whisk in the juice, followed by the butter and salt. Pour this mixture into the tart cases, about 50g per case, and put into the fridge to chill completely, around 2 hours.

To finish

Whip the ganache until soft peaks form, being careful not to over-whip. This can take less than a minute in a stand mixer on a medium speed. Either spoon blobs on top of each tart or transfer into a piping bag and cut a large 1.5cm hole or fit with a round tip. Pipe blobs around the edge of the tart cases. Add a spoonful of passionfruit pulp into the middle of each.

These tarts are best enjoyed on the day they are made but can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days, though the tart cases will soften.

Yes they are a bit fiddly to make but Christmas comes but once a year. Not only are the passionfruit posset flower tarts pretty to look at, they taste just as good as they look.

See you all again tomorrow with another bake for Xmas week 2025.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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