Pear and Almond Frangipane Tart

Dear friends of the Haus of KKW,

You are cordially invited to the third KKW High Tea event, on Sunday May 2 in the fine year 2010. The venue is the Poon Palace.

Please bring a plate of delicious food, preferably servable in cute little portions, and any tasty and/or rare teas to share.

Hope everyone can make it!! Ex oh ex oh gossip girls and guys!!

This was my contribution. It looked fairly humble next to the Earl Grey tiramisu (handmade! down to the mascarpone and sponge!), chocolate macaroons, honey and lemon semolina cake, mini quiches, polenta squares with truffle mascarpone, bacon jam and sourdough, blue cheese and onion bites, pate, mini chicken pies, pink lemonade, durian sponge cake and everything else I forgot to mention...



Pâte Sablée
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
125 g butter, very cold, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk


Poached Pears
3 ripe medium pears
3 cups water
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt


Frangipane
85g butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup almond meal
2 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 large egg plus 1 egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons almond extract




Pears: Combine the water, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon stick, vanilla, and salt in a saucepan large enough to hold all the pears and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, cut the pears in half, remove the seed core and fibrous cores at either end, then peel the pears.

Add the pear halves to the simmering syrup and reduce heat to low. Cover, and let pears poach for about 10 minutes, turning them halfway. The pears will become slightly translucent, very tender, and easily pierced with a knife or skewer.

Let the pears cool in the liquid until room temperature before using. Or, you can store them in their liquid in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.


Tart shell: Mix the flour, confectioner's sugar, and salt. Add the pieces of cold butter and use finger tips to massage the butter into the mixture. Add the egg yolk and combine until the dough starts to turn from dry to clumpy. The mixture will be clumpy, but do not overmix - when the dough pieces looks like they will stick when you press them together, stop.

Butter a tart tin with removable bottom. Turn the dough out into the tin and press into the bottom and up the sides with your fingers. If you have any leftover dough, save the extra for patching the shell after you bake it. Do not press the dough too hard or it will become tough.

Freeze the tart shell for at least 30 minutes. When you are ready to bake it, preheat the oven to 190 C.

To partially bake the tart shell, take a piece of foil and butter the shiny side, then press the buttered side tightly to the shell. You do not need pie weights. Place the tart shell on a baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes until the shell is dry and lightly colored. If any places have cracked, repair with the extra dough. Let cool on a rack until room temperature.

NOTE: I baked it for 25 minutes and it was too long; after the final baking my tart shell was overdone, so I would recommend keeping a close eye on the oven during this step.


Frangipane: Combine the butter and sugar, mixing until smooth. Add the ground almonds; then add the flour and cornstarch; and then the egg and egg white. Mix until very smooth. Add in the vanilla and almond extracts just to blend.

The frangipane can be used immediately or you can store it in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. If it becomes too firm in the fridge, let it sit at room temperature for a while to soften before using.


Assembling the tart: Preheat the oven to 175 C. Spread the frangipane evenly into the cooled tart shell.

Take the poached pears out of their liquid and drain them on paper towels. You don't want too much excess liquid or they will make the frangipane soggy. Cut each pear half crosswise into thick slices. Do not separate the pear slices yet.

Slide a spatula or other flat utensil underneath the pear so you can transfer the entire half onto the tart. Press on the pear to fan the slices toward the top narrow end of the pear.

Slide the pear half onto the frangipane carefully - you can move the pear after you place it, but not much.

Repeat with the other pear halves until there are four to six halves on the tart, evenly spaced.

Place the tart on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 45-50 minutes, until the frangipane is puffed, golden brown, and firm to the touch. Cool the tart on a wire rack.

Before serving, dust confectioner's sugar over the tart.



Adapted from Dessert First

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pillows

Yes, you are quite right - my ones look NOWHERE NEAR as attractive the ones in the original post. Um, I tried, what can I say...

This was not the most fun of recipes to make, as the oil makes the dough very greasy, and it's probably not very good for you either. We're talking heart-attack levels of sugar.

They tasted okay! And lord knows they should have, given the amount of sugar I stirred into the damn things.



The original recipe is vegan but as noted below, I used dairy milk instead of non-dairy milk in my version.

Chocolate dough:
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons milk (non-dairy milk in original recipe)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened dutch processed cocoa powder
2 tablespoons black unsweetened cocoa or more dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine oil, sugar, maple syrup, milk and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Sift in flour, cocoa powder, black cocoa if using, baking soda and salt and mix to form a moist dough.


Filling:
3/4 cup natural salted peanut butter, crunchy or creamy style
2/3 cup icing sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons milk (non-dairy milk in original recipe)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In another mixing bowl beat together peanut butter, icing sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk and vanilla extract to form a moist but firm dough. If peanut butter dough is too dry (as different natural peanut butters have different moisture content), stir in remaining tablespoon of milk. If dough is too wet, knead in a little extra powdered sugar.


Preheat oven to 190 C.

Roll peanut butter dough into 24 balls. Scoop a generous tablespoon of chocolate dough, flatten into a disc and place a peanut butter ball in the centre.

Fold the sides of the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter center and roll the chocolate ball into an smooth ball between your palms. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Place cookies on lined baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and let cookies cool for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack.


Adapted from Post Punk Kitchen

Orange & Clove Almond Cookies

I was a bit sad my parents weren't able to sample any of my brioche tart, so I decided to bake them some cookies instead!

I made two batches (next post will be the chocolate and peanut butter pillows) and I think this one was the more successful. These are quite dry and light, rather like Greek almond cookies, and go very well with a cup of tea.





230g butter, room temperature
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp orange zest
1/3 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup ground almonds/almond flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup icing sugar, plus extra, for dusting


Preheat oven to 175 C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and confectioners sugar. Beat in orange zest, ground cloves, ground almonds, cornstarch and salt.

Slowly blend in the flour until all of the flour has been incorporated and the dough comes together.

Shape dough into small balls and place on prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the edges of the cookies just start to brown.

Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes.

Sift 1/2 cup icing sugar onto a plate. Dip the bottom of each cookie into the sugar, then place on a wire rack. Dust tops of cookies thoroughly with remaining sugar. Or if you're me, just roll them around a bit.

Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes about 25 cookies.


From Baking Bites

Persimmon, Cinnamon and Yogurt Brioche Tart

When I saw Lemon Pi's post for the Persimmon, Cinnamon and Yogurt Brioche Tart, I thought I HAVE TO MAKE THAT.

As Lemon Pi doesn't specify a brioche recipe, I started fossicking around on the internet and found that this is not a dough that people recommend making by hand. A hand mixer won't do the job either, as the dough is so thick that it will break most hand mixers - apparently only a stand mixer with a dough hook will do!

... of course I have nothing of the kind.

Unable to lay my hands on a stand mixer in time, and not willing to wait to borrow one, I decided to just take the plunge and do it by hand. Despite almost psyching myself out of it - "omg I will never finish kneading this stupid dough!" - in the end the process was a lot more fun than I'd expected.

The brioche recipe below, sourced from The Madison Bistro, makes about 1kg of dough (twice as much as you need for the tart) so I also made a batch of mini brioche loaves which I served up with Maggie Beer's pheasant pate.

The two brioche dishes, plus Chengy's Pear Pudding, and delicious Milky Oolong Tea from Zensation, made for a chilled out public holiday afternoon tea.



Brioche

This is more of a bread than a cake, so you need to set aside the time to make the dough and then let it prove overnight. On the day of baking you'll again need to wait for this to prove for at least a couple of hours - this is not a recipe to be done on the spur of a moment!

Below is the recipe for mixing by hand, but you can find the stand mixer instructions at the original post. Again, note that this will make twice as much dough as you require for the tart.

1/3 cup warm water (about 40 C)
1 package yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
6 large eggs (room temperature)
4 cups bread flour, divided
2 tsp salt
230g unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 large egg (for egg wash)


In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, and sugar. Mix with fingers and let sit for 10 minutes. The mixture should be foamy - if not, start over with fresh yeast.

Add six eggs and mix with a hand mixer or wooden spoon until well blended. Add two cups flour and mix on low for about five minutes.

Switch to a workboard. Add remaining 2 cups of flour and salt and work the dough by hand until it starts coming off the surface of your workboard. It will be really sticky and it's going to be sticky for a long time, so make sure you've got a long playlist on your music player going BEFORE you get to this stage. Or be prepared to get dough all over your ipod.

Stretch the dough out and add 1 tablespoon of butter at a time, folding the dough over and working to incorporate. Repeat until all butter is added, and the dough pulls away from workboard and looks kind of shiny. The original recipe says this will take about 25 minutes - I was quite a bit slower! More like 35 minutes.

Refrigerate the dough overnight in large buttered bowl covered in plastic wrap.

The next day, bring the dough to room temperature (about 1-2 hours). If you went by the measurements above, you should have about 1kg of dough.

500g is enough for the tart - see below for assembly and custard instructions.

You can freeze the remaining 500g of dough for later, or bake it in a loaf pan (instructions), or, as I did, make mini brioche rolls.

To make the mini rolls, divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. For each roll, stretch the dough slightly and tuck ends under to form ball. Place seam side down in a greased or non-stick muffin pan, cover with kitchen towel and let rise for 2 hours. Brush each with egg wash and bake at 180C for about 18-20 minutes, until golden-brown.




Tart

500g brioche dough
5-6 ripe persimmons
120g Greek yogurt
60g caster sugar
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornflour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


Grease a 28 cm fluted tart tin. Roll the brioche dough out to a rough circle that is large enough to fit the tin and line the tin with the dough.

Lightly press the edges up against the sides of the tin (this, I found hard to do - my 'edge' was almost non-existent!). Cover with clingfilm and allow to prove until double.

Slice the persimmons as thinly as possible and arrange them, slightly overlapping, on the dough.

To make the custard: whisk together the yogurt, sugar, egg yolks, cinnamon, cornflour and vanilla extract. Pour the custard over the persimmon slices (here I failed a bit - I had too much custard for my tart, and so my tart looks a bit drowned in custard, as in the photo below!).

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 180 C, then reduce the temperature to 150 C and continue baking for an additional 25 to 30 minutes or until the brioche is golden brown.

Allow the tart to cool until just warm before serving. This tart is best eaten on the day it is made. It's not too sweet and quite light, so it's a good tart to have with tea or coffee.



Adapted from Lemon Pi and The Madison Bistro.

Bitter Chocolate Tart With Bailey's

I baked this for a dinner party with friends. They made polite impressed sounds, and then we eated it all up. Om nom.



Pastry

75g butter
75g caster sugar
75g ground almonds
125g plain flour
A pinch of salt
2 tbsp iced water, or more as needed

Start by sifting the flour and salt into a large bowl. I used wholemeal flour which is ridiculous to sift because you end up with beautifully sifted flour but a sieve full of hard bits - just tip the hard bits back into the bowl and stir it all around. No one will notice.

Take your room temperature butter (because you totally remembered to take it out of the fridge an hour ago, right?) and chop it up into little blocks. Add it to the bowl. Using your fingertips, massage the butter into the flour until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. The aim is to avoid melting the butter so don't use the palms of your hands, as they will be too hot.

Stir in the sugar and the ground almonds, then dig a little well in the centre of the mix and pour in some of the ice water. Take a knife and mix the whole thing together by cutting the mixture back and forth, rather than stirring it round and round. If it's not coming together, add a little more water, but don't over-mix or add too much water. It should look crumbly rather than being a smooth dough.

Gently knead the dough into a ball and cover it with plastic wrap. Put your dough into the fridge and leave it for 20 to 30 minutes. You can use this time to check your email or make a sandwich.

Take your dough and put it into the centre of your favourite tart tin. Gently push the dough down and outwards from the centre so it covers the entire tin base and up the sides. Using a 23 cm non-stick tart tin, this recipe made juuuust enough to cover the base and make a small (like, 1.5 cm high) edge. If you use a 20 cm tin, you could probably get more of an edge. Try and make it tidy and pretty-looking, and then put the tin and dough back in the fridge for another 20 to 30 minutes. Make another sandwich.

Pre-heat oven to 180 C and get your tart out of the fridge. Line the base of the tart case with baking paper and baking weights (for example, rice grains or dried beans – though you can also purchase fancy ceramic weights from home ware stores) and put it in the oven for 15 minutes. This is to make sure the tart keeps its shape and has a nice texture. Then remove the weights and baking paper before baking the tart for a further 5 to 10 minutes or until it looks golden and delicious. There. You have a tart case. Leave it in the tin and let it cool.


Filling

300ml thickened or whipping cream
200g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa), finely chopped
50g butter, chopped
2 or 3 tbsp Bailey's Irish Cream

When the tart case is almost or completely cool, you can start on the filling. Don't do this too early because you don't want to pour this into a hot tart case or to have it sitting around for ages either.

Start by pouring the cream into a saucepan and heat it until just before boiling point – so it 'trembles' but doesn't bubble.

Put the chopped chocolate into a heatproof bowl and pour in the heated cream. Let it sit for 1 minute and then mix with a spatula, working from the centre outwards.

Add the butter, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Last of all, add the Bailey's and stir again - you're almost done!

Pour the chocolate mixture into the tart case and leave in a level place to cool. Put it back into the fridge for at least 3 hours before serving.

This tart is rich enough to be eaten on its own but you might like to put some berries or cream on the side, or perhaps a few leaves of fresh mint.


Adapted from a recipe by Jill Dupleix