As my Mums belated birthday event, the family all got together last weekend for lovely Sunday lunch. Mum asked me to make the desert, and as I hadn't been able to make her a birthday cake due to the move to The Nest and their holiday, I decided to make a pudding using her favourite fruit, raspberries. Not very seasonal I know, but it was worth it!
I found the recipe online, and adapted it in my own way to make it special. I made my own Pate Sucree (sweet shortcrust pastry), infinitely superior to the versions you can buy in supermarkets. Six egg yolks gave it a beautiful golden colour, and when rolled out from the fridge it was a beautiful smooth silky dough to work with.
Tip: When lining the tin with the pastry, get it loosely into the correct place, then break off a spare piece of dough and use it to push the dough into the indentations on the side of the tin. If the dough cracks, don't worry, plug any gaps with spare pastry and when baked, you'll never see the difference.
When you need to trim the excess, either use your hand and the edge of the tin as the cutter to push the pastry down and away, or use a rolling pin to make a clean cut.
Some baking beans may say that you can put them straight onto the pastry, but I always line the pastry first with greaseproof paper. Not only is it less washing up, but it makes getting the little blighters out a lot easier too! Pour them into a spare baking tin to cool down completely before putting away, otherwise they may melt your container.
Once the case was baked (no need to let it cool) I spread the bottom with raspberry jam, then topped it with an almond frangipane with lemon zest, which gave a fantastic flavour to the filling, then returned the tart to the oven to bake. I was a little worried that the pastry was browning too quickly around the edges due to the high sugar content, however I was lucky that the frangipane took on its beautiful golden colour just in time to remove from the oven. Then, I left the tart to cool.
To decorate and serve, I made up a basic icing with icing sugar and water, and then decorated with beautiful fresh raspberries and toasted flaked almonds, which gave a fantastic deep nutty taste to the tart. Between seven of us we polished off a large part of it, and all agreed that it was a tasty triumph.
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