GONE NUTS OVER THE WEEKEND

I have been reading about a group of bloggers baking the Italian Almond Tart.   Reading the recipe, I found myself thinking... "this is my type of tart....must make this". There are at least 3 parts of doing this tart.  First prepare the almond paste -mixing grounded almonds with egg white and icing sugar to form a dough which  is later incorporated into the batter. Then to prepare a sweet tart pastry and blind-baking this beforehand. Finally the filing itself.  The reviews of this tart were very promising ie easy to assembly and from the photos also looked very tempting. Check out the post by Kitchen Flavours.  

  

And I remember another tart which I have bookmarked- Bakewell Tart- a tart which is very popular in United Kingdom.  This is similar to the Italian Almond Tart except there is no need for any almond paste.  I follow the recipe taken from The BBC Good Food Mazagine June 2013.  It is a lighter and healthy version of the original recipe. 

Ingredients: 50 gm ground almonds, 50 gm cornmeal(yes, can finally make use of  the corn flour), 50gm golden caster sugar (I use brown sugar); 1/2 teasp baking powder, 2 eggs, 100 gm yogurt; 2 tablesp rapeseed oil (I used corn oil) and almond extract (I used vanilla extract). The jam is for spreading on the pastry base of the tart.  

    The recipe use shop bought short crust pastry.   I decided to make the pate brisee- sweet pastry. Pulse together in the food processor 200 gm flour, 90 gm sugar, 1/4 tsp salt and 125 gm cold butter.  Slowly add in 1 egg yolk, 2 tbsp iced water and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Gather up the dough and chill for around 30 minutes.

 I used an 8inch pie pan with removable base.  Roll out pastry  and carefully mould into the pan.  Prick base with fork and place to chill for another 15 minutes.

Blind-bake the the tart shell at 180C for around 15 minutes. This is my "weights" whenever  blind-baking is require- unused very old rice.

Remove the parchment paper with the weights and bake for further 15 minutes till golden brown. Cool and spread pastry base with jam  (which I have forgotten to do so, but it still taste good).  

Prepare the filling: Mix almonds, cornmeal, sugar  and baking powder together. Mix the yogurt with eggs and vanilla extract.  Tip egg mixture into the dry ingredients and gently stir together till everything is combined- don't overmix. 

Pour almond filling into pastry and sprinkle some flake almonds on top (next time must toss more- it gives a nice cruchy bite).  

Bake at 180C for 25-30 minutes till top is golden brown. 

The recipe states to bruch the top with glaze -icing sugar with water which I omitted.

Cool completely before cutting... it is delicious! Defnitely I will make this again.

I decided to make an apple galette with the remaining pastry. 

I used 1 Granny Smith and 1 Fuji apple for this small galette.  Peel, core and slice thinly.  Squeeze of lemon juice and toss in some cinnamon powder, brown sugar and cornstarch.     

 Roll out the leftover pastry on the foil and arrange the apple slices around the pastry leaving an inch margin.  Fold in the pastry towards to centre to enclose the apples as shown above. Brush with beated egg and bake at 200C for around 25-30 minutes.  

 Rustic, hot,  aromatic and yummy apple galette.  I will keep this for myself .....

 I found 3 small packets of walnuts in the freezer. So it got to be Walnut Coffee Cupcakes.  Nice moist crumbs and intense coffee flavour.  As I have reduced the sugar dramatically and as I did not topped it with any frosting, it tasted a slightly  bitter.  A coffee lover would  not find any fault with these but children  may find it too strong coffee taste, best to frost it with a coffee buttercream for them.
  

Last but not least, how about this jar of Almonds Cookies?   Just tested this cookie for the coming Chinese New Year.  Recipe again taken from the Bake Along group.   I added 2 tablespoons of almonds nibs as well as a teaspoon of vanilla essence to the dough before shaping.  Next time, I would shape the cookie thinly and maybe add almond extract instead but it certainly has a nice crunch and nutty flavour.  

Have a great week.