Saturday, June 27, 2009

Bakewell.....indeed.

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England. (Check out Jasmine's blog and read all about the tart/pudding's 200 year history.) After the history lesson, the hosts set us free to create our own version. We were required to use the provided recipes for a shortbread pastry crust and for the frangipane filling (an almond egg mixture). We could use any jam or flavor for the filling. Making homemade jam or preserves was strongly encouraged!
A few days before the challenge was announced, I had made my first batch of jam in more than twenty years. I found someone locally on craigslist to trade their organic kumquats for marmalade. I had never made marmalade before. It was so easy, so delicious and so beautiful.
I was inspired by others at the Daring Kitchen forums to make mini-tarts. As I didn't own any small tart pans, I improvised with my muffin tin. My family loved the tarts. The almond frangipane goes well with almost any jam flavor. I was less than thrilled with the pastry dough recipe which I found too rich and too buttery. The tart has a wonderful rich filling (butter, eggs and almond flour). The tart crust was too rich for me. I was also disappointed when two different attempts with the mini-tarts ended with cracked tops.
I decided to give it another try with my new 9" tart pan. A batch of just finished homemade peach preserves was sitting in the kitchen. I was really looking forward to the peach and almond combination. I followed all the suggestions on the forums for getting the crust just right: chilled all the ingredients, froze the butter, then grated it. The crust was blind baked in an attempt to prevent it from being soggy. After all that, I'm still not impressed with that crust. It's still too oily and not crisp enough. The tart, however, was wonderful. Peach and frangipane is a divine combination.
Many thanks to the hosts for the delicious challenge. I know frangipane will have many uses in other desserts for me. I'm still in search of the perfect tart crust though. Feel free to make suggestions. You can find the entire challenge recipe here

8 comments:

  1. Fantastic photos! Tart looks delicious ........:-)

    Regards
    Kris

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  2. Gorgeous tart and tartelettes! Love the kumquat preserves and the tartelettes look like perfect, little mini-muffins! Well done!

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  3. OMG! Beautiful looking tart and your little ones are sooo yummy! Love your photos :) Cheers.

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  4. Delicious looking tart and the jam filing looks absolutely tasty.

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  5. Beautiful tart and tartelettes! I love your kumquat filling. Great job!

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  6. Great job on the tarts. Funny you didn't like the crust because I thought it was one of my favorites.

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  7. I absolutely love the photo of the jam.. looks like something that came out of a food magazine. Your tart look fabulous. Shame that you don't like the crust.

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  8. Sorry you didn't like the crust :( They still look wonderful though!

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