boozy tarts and other edibles

So, Jen's off to India for 10 days. While she's off sampling the delights of the Curry Mothership, I'll be consoling myself with boozy tart.


This is one I didn't make myself - our upstairs neighbor brought some down for the boy and I to check out. And let me tell you, it is pretty good. Pretty, pretty good.

I didn't ask them for the recipe yet, but I know it's got cider brandy and golden syrup in it. Can't go wrong there!  Not sure if this is exactly it, but it seems pretty close:

• 250g plain flour plus extra for dusting
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 180g caster sugar
• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• filling
• 100g cooked, peeled chestnuts, roughly chopped
• 150g hazelnuts, roughly chopped
• 150g walnuts, roughly chopped
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1tsp vanillla essence
• 100g unsalted butter, melted
• 120ml cider brandy, such as Somerset Pomona
• 220g golden syrup
• 200g soft brown sugar
• 3 medium eggs, beaten

 

1. First, make the pastry. In a food processor or by hand, cream the butter and caster sugar together until fluffy. Slowly add the beaten egg until well mixed, then fold in the flour. Mould the dough into a ball and wrap in clingfilm; chill for 30 minutes.
2. To make the filling, blitz all the ingredients, except the nuts, in a food processor until smooth. Fold in the nuts and mix well.
3. Roll the sweet pastry on a floured table to 5mm thick. It is delicate, so go carefully. Grease a large 25cm tart tin, line the tin with the pastry, trim the edges and refrigerate for about 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 5. Fill the tart with the nut mix; bake for 20–25 minutes until golden. Leave to cool before cutting.

Serve with vanilla ice cream, crème fraîche or cream.

So, how was it? Here's Jed's reaction:

 Golden Syrup is interesting stuff: it's a byproduct of sugar refining, is about the consistency of Karo, but has a more complex flavor. We have a can in the cabinet; it's potent stuff!

I used it to make this school treacle sponge:

• 6 overloaded, oozing tbsp of golden syrup
• 100g butter, plus extra for the dish
• 100g sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 100g self-raising flour
• custard, to serve 

1. Butter a 1-litre baking dish, and dollop the syrup in the bottom. Put the butter and sugar in a food processor and blitz until pale. Beat in the eggs one by one, then the vanilla. Add the flour and pulse until just mixed. Scrape into the dish, on top of the syrup.
2. Bake in the oven at 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 oven for 30 minutes until risen and golden. Serve with lashings of custard.

Not sure why "lashings" means "lots" - there's probably some interesting etymology behind why "quantity" would share a homonym with "savage beating" but that's English for you.


Chowhound has some suggestions as to where you can find Lyle's Golden Syrup in the states, or possible substitutions.

One of the comments in that Chowhound thread states that Golden Syrup is an ingredient in John Thorne's pecan pie recipe. John Thorne is one of my favorite cooking writers; if you have not read his stuff, do yourself a big favor and check it out.

• 200g/7oz full-flavoured brown sugar (eg muscovado)
• 3 eggs
• 14 teaspoon salt
• 200ml/7fl oz Tate & Lyle's Golden Syrup
• 230g/8oz broken pecan nuts
• 2 tablespoons premium dark rum
• a 23cm/9in unbaked shortcrust pie shell
• 55g/2oz butter
• whipped cream for topping

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C/Gas Mark 4. In a large saucepan, heat the sugar, golden syrup, rum and butter to boiling point. Stirring constantly and scraping back any foam that clings to the side of the pan, let this mixture boil for about a minute. Remove from the heat and let cool while you beat the eggs until creamy in a separate bowl.

When the boiled syrup has cooled, beat in the eggs, salt and the broken pecan nuts. Pour into the unbaked pie shell. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the pie comes out clean. Cool on a rack, and serve at room temperature with plenty of unsweetened whipped cream.

 Bread baking, continued:

I've been working on this sourdough ferment, and it's coming along pretty well. I add a splash or two to most breads that I make now, as well as some of the whey from this massive cheesemaking last week. I'm making a smaller loaf on a daily or every-other-day basis.

It goes a little something like this:

300g flour - I vary this up, depending on how i'm feeling.  A mix of organic plain white, strong white breadflour, whole meal, and rye flours. 

1/2 tsp yeast

1/2 tsp salt

Stir these together. Add

210 g fluid - water, whey, sourdough starter, or a combo of all three.

Stir well. it should be pretty sticky. I usually use a bench scraper to get this whole mass together, then I put a shower cap over the bowl and let sit for a couple hours. Then I use the bench scraper again to stir it up, add a dash or two of flour to get things a bit more solid, and turn it out on the counter. Knead and add flour until it's more dough-like - the final consistency should be as sticky as a post-it note. Grease the bowl with a splash of olive oil, pop the dough back in, turning it a couple times to cover the surface with a film of oil, put the shower cap back on, and wait. when it's doubled in size, you're ready to go.

At this point I would normally make loaves, but I decided to try making naan. So i put the cast iron pan on the stove, heated it up, and when that was good and toasty, i stretched out some dough and tossed it in the pan.

 It worked amazingly well. It is by no means an authentic recipe or the same as it would be if baked in a tandoori, but it's better than the premade frozen stuff and cheaper than takeout.