Apple and Almond Tart

Right then, you make a sweet short crust pastry with 15g of almonds as a replacement to some of the flour which just gives it that little extra bit of almond loveliness. This must then be blind baked at 170 degrees heat for 20 mins with the little beans in the case.

This is then filled with a almond frangipane mixture, or a kind of almondy sponge... I think that's a lie but that is what it reminded me of so that is how I will describe it. This makes it think and delicious and warming and fab.

You pour this mixture in to the pastry case and cut up an apple, with or without the skins on, I left mine on as I like the colour that it adds to a slightly beige pudding but feel free to peel them off as there doesn't seem to be an affect on the actual cake.

The cake/tart is baked for another 30-35 minutes or until risen and golden at the same temperature.

You can then dust a sprinkling of icing sugar over the top to make it look all snowy and slightly nicer than before.

I have found that this can be a little dry, it tastes nice but the sponge can be a bit claggy. So until I find a way to combat this, leave a comment below with your idea if you have one, cream, custard or ice cream are great for making it a little lighter.

Caramel Milk Tart

Wow long silence. Exams. Excuses. Excuses. I have been baking but not blogging so over the next few weeks expect a few!

Anyway first up here is a custard tart with a caramel crumble topping.

Ingredients:
Pastry:
250g plain flour
50g icing sugar
125g cold butter
1 egg
A splash of semi-skinned milk

Filling:
600ml milk
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 knob of butter
2 eggs
2 tbsps of cornflour
1.5 tbsps of plain flour
75g caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Caramel:
130g caster sugar
3 tbsps water

Method:
Rub cubes of butter into the flour and icing sugar until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add the egg and work together before adding a splash of milk so that the pastry forms a scruffy ball. Wrap in clingfilm and leave to chill for 2 hours.

Grease a 24cm tin and roll the pastry to 0.5 cm thickness. Put pastry into the tin and prick the base then freeze for 20 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Then fill the pastry case with baking beans on a layer of grease-proof paper. Then bake blind for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and then bake for another 10 minutes.

For the filling heat the milk with vanilla extract and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and then stir in the butter until it melts. In a bowl mix the eggs with cornflour, flour and sugar and then when the milk has cooled gradually whisk into the egg mixture. Tip back into the pan and place over a low hear until thickened, whisking constantly. Pour in to pastry case and dust with cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake for 20 minutes.

Melt the sugar in a non-stick pan with water over a medium heat until lightly golden then pour onto a sheet until it cools. Then smash the caramel into pieces and crumble over the top.

John Whaite Bakes

Tomorrow is the Great British Bake Off quarter final, it is getting serious now! *cue screams*

So in celebration of the fact it is nearly the GBBO quarter final and the woes that I can never enter, I did a selection of bakes from last years winner's book, John Whaite Bakes. 

Also apologies in advance about the picture quality, it is appalling and I don't really know why, except camera troubles. 

I started off by baking his "Simple Strawberry Tart" - as, let's face it summer is coming to a close...or is over altogether. 

The tart is a shortcrust pastry base filled with creme patisserie and then covered in strawberries. It was a sweet and delicious tart which I know that when summer returns, if summer returns, I will definitely be baking this again. It also meant I had to make creme pat for the first time, exciting!

I then attempted to create a plaited loaf. Which soon became two plaits of three strands which is slightly less impressive. For some reason, the dough was a complete and utter failure. And although it tasted ok, the strands didn't become one in the oven and the texture was a bit off. I don't like making bread!

In a quest to find a simple thing to bake I turned to his Caramel Shard Cookies which involves making a simple cookie dough and a slab of caramel, which is smashed. They are then combined, to make a rather dangerous cookie dough mixture. 

The odd thing about this recipe is that they are baked as balls, they are not shaped before they go in to the oven, but suprisingly enough they baked perfectly. 

They were fab and I was eating them for a whole week, the vision of health that I am. 

 Doesn't it look beautiful!

 John Whaite, if you are reading this, your book is gold, I love it. Everyone should buy a copy just for the recipes I have mentioned above, if nothing else.

I cannot wait for Bake Off, as sadly enough, along with Downton Abbey, it is the highlight of my television week.

And with that all that remains to be said is, on your marks, get set, bake!

Mad Hatter Jam Tarts, Brownies and Polka Dot Cookies

Last weekend it was my birthday party so I did a bit of baking in preparation and these were the result.

First, jam tarts which are names "Mad Hatter Jam Tarts" mainly due to the strange way in which the pastry is made. Two eggs are boiled the egg whites are removed and the yolks smashed up and mixed with the normal pastry ingredients. The pastry is left to chill over night and then baked with jam in it. Once out of the oven a raspberry is placed in the middle of the tart as decoration.

I then made polka dot cookies which are basically cookies with Smarties on the top, which adds colour and makes them look more appealing. They are not particularly daring as a recipe but they are chewy and cookie-y, just what they are supposed to be. 

Finally, I made chocolate brownies. This recipe was supposed to have rum and orange juice in it but I decided to leave them out as I didn't want the taste of them. However it didn't impact them that heavily, it did make them a little fudgier which is no bad thing! 

So that was my contribution to my birthday party which was lovely as the whether was so warm and sunny. Great for a barbecue and outdoor film screening.

Perfect. 

Passion fruit Cheesecake

This post marks the first cheesecake I have ever made and it was a quite an exciting cheesecake to start with. It had passion fruit on the top, PASSION FRUIT! Before this I hadn't even eaten a passion fruit before,  having done this now I can say that they are not particularly nice... oh well.

The cheesecake is not a baked one, it is put in the fridge instead. Because of this it had to have gelatin leaves put in it, which on a side note would be great for windows in a gingerbread house, they are doused in water which make them jelly-ish. Flubbery.

Anyway the gelatin is then mixed with cream cheese (as traditional) which is then poured on top of a shortcake base. My shortbread was a little too blended which meant it was very very very crunchy when fridged. Not a word. Cool.

Once this is taken out of the fridge, it is time for the passion fruit part. Passion fruits look like this, for those who don't know. 

You scoop the middle of the fruit out and then mix them with gelatin and water to create a passion fruit jelly mixture. This is then poured on top of the cheesecake (careful not to let it overflow, problems will occur). Then the whole thing is put back in to the fridge to set. 

After a few hours it is removed and it looks like this:

It is not perfect but I think it looks pretty damn good, if I say so myself! It was quite nice but to me it looked better than it tasted. I am quite proud of it to be honest. 

Next Recipe: Summer Berry Genoise

Treacle Tart

Treacle Tart is a traditional English pudding and surprisingly enough it doesn't have any actual treacle in it. 

It is a shortcrust pastry filled with a golden syrup, lemon, apple, egg and breadcrumb mixture.

There was a bit of a pastry incident... nothing a bit of first aid couldn't fix....

I had so much mixture I had to make little ones too but I have no pictures of them.

It is very sweet and perfect with cream as it takes away some of the sugary sweetness.

Next Recipe: Carrot Cake