Week six on the bake off was pastry week! It started off with the signature dish, a frangipane tart, packed with delicious flavour combinations and a few soggy bottoms…
Followed by a cypriot ‘flaouna’ for the technical challenge, a cheese & raisin filled pastry covered in sesame seeds, interesting? The recipe calls for mahlepi and mastic powder, two ingredients which aren’t that easy to find – we won’t be doing that. Then the episode ended with the show stopper where the contestants baked two flavours of vol-au-vents, a high contester for our bake this week.
In the end we went for the frangipane signature challenge. We have chosen to do a fig tart as we wanted to pick something different that wasn’t used in the bake off. With the cold september month coming in (unfortunately) we thought this recipe would be quite suitable, to accompany the figs we have chosen a warming ginger & honey flavour in our frangipane.
Our frangipane has a thin layer of shortcrust pastry which we have flavoured with a hint of ground ginger, topped with a ginger frangipane, halved figs & a honey glaze.
Ain’t no soggy bottoms up in here Mary & Paul!
- 200g plain flour
- 100g butter, chilled
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- 2 tbsp cold water
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 100g ground almonds, plus 2 tbsp extra
- 100g butter, softened
- 100g caster sugar
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- drop almond extract (optional)
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 2 eggs
- 3 fresh figs
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 2 tbsp honey
- In a food processor blitz together the flour, ginger sugar & butter to create a crumb texture. Mix together the egg, water & lemon juice & gradually add the liquid till the dough starts to form into a ball (you may need to add more water if it’s looking a little dry).
- Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface till about 3mm thick and line a 23cm round tin (we used a rectangle one if you have it), using your fingers to push the pastry into the ridges around the edge, leave excess pastry hanging over the top & prick the bottom with a fork. Refrigerate for 15-30mins.
- Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans or rice, you now want to bake your pastry blind at 200C for 12mins, remove the paper and beans and bake for another 5 minutes to brown the pastry slightly. Reduce heat to 180C and remove from the oven to cool.
- Beat together the butter & sugar till fluffy to begin the frangipane. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, leaving the extra almonds out.
- Halve the figs lengthways and dust with the caster sugar, set aside.
- Sprinkle the cooled pastry case with the extra ground almonds, this should help prevent a soggy bottom. Spoon over the frangipane mixture and smooth out pushing to the edges.
- Push the fig halves into the frangipane flesh side up. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the filling is golden brown & a skewer comes out clean.
- Using a sharp knife, carefully cut around the edges to achieve a neat pastry case.
- Warm your honey & brush over the figs and the rest of your tart to give it a shiny glaze.
- The lemon juices acidity in the pastry which will help relax the gluten to aid a crisp short pastry
We chose not to include the almond extract in our frangipane because we wanted the ginger to really come through in this tart. You can also use fresh ginger if you want it to have that extra sharp taste.
