Caramelised Apple Tart

This utterly divine soft set tart is something you might find in Normandy. In fact, whilst the recipe doesn’t call for it, the judicious use of calvados, that divine Norman spirit, at just the right time would be a winner here. You might even consider putting some in the tart as well.

This tart will feed 8.


You will need:

(For the sweet pastry)

225g plain flour
150g unsalted butter, softened
1 level tbsp caster sugar
2 egg yolks beaten with 1 tbsp cold water
Pinch salt

(for the filling)

900g Cox or Granny Smith apples
1 cinnamon stick
50g lightly salted butter
110g granulated sugar
200ml crème fraiche
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract


You also need a deep, fluted tart tin about 23cm in diameter.

And then you need to:

First make the pastry. Chuck all the pastry ingredients into a food processor and whizz until the mixture forms crumbs. Tip out and bring it together by hand, don’t overdo it though, light touches required.

Pop the pastry into a plastic bag and chill in the fridge for 45 minutes. The pastry, not you.

Once rested roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to a circle at least 30cm diameter and carefully lift into the tart tin. Press gently into place and trim the edges.

Chill again in the fridge for a further 20mins. Heat the oven to 200C/400F

Line the pastry case with baking paper and fill with baking beans or uncooked rice, and bake blind on a baking sheet for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and the beans/rice and bake for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Meanwhile prepare the apples. Peel and core them and chop into eighths. Place half of them in a saucepan with the cinnamon and 1 tbsp of water. If you have used granny Smiths also chuck in a small tsp of sugar. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until softened.

Remove the cinnamon and beat the apples to a puree.

Then melt the salted butter in a frying pan, add the sugar and allow to bubble together to form a fudgy caramel sauce, then continue to cook it over a lowish heat until it darkens to a rich toffee colour. Add the remaining sliced apples and toss them to coat. It will go a bit messy at first but as the apples release their juices it will all go smooth again.

Cook for about 5 minutes then set to one side.

Spread the apple puree over the pastry base, then lift the apple slices out of the caramel sauce and arrange over the apple puree. In a separate bowl whisk together the crème fraîche, the egg and the vanilla extract, then add the caramel sauce. When well mixed pour over the apples in the tart.

Bake on the centre shelf of the oven for 20 to 30 minutes until the filling is softly set and golden on top. Allow to cool a little before serving.

Yummo!

Ottolenghi's Carrot Cake

Lovely Wife is a very big fan of this recipe which comes direct from the renowned delicatessen Ottolenghi’s on Ledbury Road in London’s Notting Hill. This gets the very big thumbs up from the Jumeirah Jane crowd!


You will need:

200g self raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
3 large eggs
250g sunflower oil
350g caster sugar
60g chopped walnuts
60g desiccated coconut
175g roughly grated carrot
Salt

For the frosting:

225g cream cheese
95g soft butter
50g icing sugar
1½ tbsp maple syrup
40g walnuts, chopped and lightly toasted


And then you need to:


Preheat the oven to 170C/325F and get your hands on a 24cm loosed based cake tin, lightly greased and the bottom lined with baking parchment.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarb and spices.

Separate 2 of the eggs and lightly whisk together the two yolks with the 1 whole egg. Set the 2 egg whites to one side.

Using a mixer or electric hand whisk, beat together the oil and sugar for about 1 minute. Continue to beat on a low speed and slowly add the egg yolk/egg mixture. Add the walnuts, coconut, carrot and then the sifted dry ingredients. Be careful not to over mix.

Now transfer the mixture into another large bowl. Thoroughly wash and dry the original bowl before adding the egg whites along with a pinch of salt.

Then whisk the egg whites on a high speed until they form firm peaks.

Next, gently fold the egg whites into the carrot mixture in 3 additions. Again, be careful not to over mix; it is fine to have streaks of white remaining in the mixture.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 1-11/4 hours, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre. If the cake starts going dark before the middle is cooked, cover the top of it with kitchen foil.

Let the cake cool completely, then remove from the tin. You can freeze the cake at this stage, if you like. Just wrap it in a double layer of parchment paper and put it in a polythene freezer bag.

For the frosting, beat the cream cheese in the mixer (or with the electric hand whisk) until light and smooth. Then remove it to another bowl. Beat the butter, icing sugar and maple syrup in the mixer (or with electric hand whisk) until light and airy.

Fold together the cheese and butter mixture. Finally, spread the frosting on top of the cake and sprinkle with the chopped, toasted walnuts.

Biscuits d’Amande a l’Orange

There is something about baking bread or making biscuits that makes me feel like I have stepped out of a Pieter Bruegel painting, all fat and jolly and covered in flour. In a way it is such a decadent indulgence when you can buy great bread very cheaply and buy very good biscotti all over Dubai but there is something incredibly satisfying about baking.

Anyway these little biscotti are divine, all orange-y, nutty and crunchy. I like to serve these at the end of a meal with a sherry glass of dessert wine into which you dunk the biscotti to soften them a little.

I learnt to cook these on a short course I attended in France a couple of years ago at this place. This recipe, with minor tweaking, is theirs.

You will need (makes about 60 biscuits)

2 oranges, zest peeled and juiced
1 tbsp cointreau or Grand Marnier
325g plain flour
300g caster sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
325g whole blanched almonds
3 large eggs.


And then you need to:

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

In a small saucepan combine orange zest, orange juice and Cointreau / Grand Marnier. Over a medium heat simmer the liquid and reduce until it is a thick syrup.

In a processor whizz up two-thirds of the almonds until pretty finely chopped. I like to have mine not too fine as I think it gives more texture to the biscuit.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and both the chopped and whole almonds. Give it very good stir.

In another bowl whisk the eggs with the orange syrup and then stir them into the dry mixture. Give it a good work out with your hands until a stiff dough forms.

Scrape out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, split into two equal portions and with each one roll it under the palm of your hands into a cylinder or log. Place onto the baking tray, flatten the top of gently and place in the oven.

Bake for about 30 mins, they should be well risen and should feel firm when pressed. Set onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

Once cooled, as carefully as you can slice the log into thin biscuits, something like ¾cm thick. Place them in a single layer back onto the baking tray and pop them back into the oven, again at 180C/350F. Bake for a further 15 or 20 mins until they are slightly toasted. Remove and once cooled store them in an airtight container.

Date and Orange Muffins

So Christmas is over and you've got one of those little packs of dates left in the fridge (you know, the Tunisian ones with the mad plastic fork in the pack) that keeps snarling at you every time you open the door. This'll teach em: chop 'em up and use 'em in this recipe. If you live in the Emirates, of course, it's date heaven. Today's little known fact is that each date palm gives 80kg of fruit and the UAE is actually the world's biggest producer. It took the Tunisians to come up with the plastic fork trick, though...

Ingredients

Dry mixture

• 200g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 175 ml date syrup
  
• 1 tsp salt
• 250g chopped, pitted dates

Wet mixture

• 1 orange, peeled and chopped
• 125ml orange juice
• 1 egg
• 125ml melted butter or margarine

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas 6 and lightly grease the muffin tin, unless you're using one of those fancy rubberised ones. Mix the dry ingredients, apart from the chopped dates, in a large bowl. Pop the chopped orange in a blender along with the orange juice, egg and melted butter and whizz. Add this to the dry mixture, along with the chopped dates. Combine the two mixtures gently, and don’t worry if there is a little flour still showing. Fill the muffin cups and bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. You can also sprinkle these with a little demerera sugar before baking, to give a lightly crisped top.

Dorset Apple Cake

One fine fresh spring day a few years ago, visiting the UK, we went walking on the cliffs in Dorset with friends Gill and Shirley and we all stopped in a tearoom for elevenses - all terribly middle class and rather fun. I had Dorset Apple cake with my tea and Shirley had a recipe for it back at home in her warm little home up in the hills above Swanage. The act of theft was as inevitable as it was blindingly fast. Serve it by itself, by all means, but it's also rather special done warm with custard...

Ingredients

• 250g wholemeal self raising flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 125g dark brown sugar
• 125g butter
• 350g cooking apples, chopped roughly
• 1 egg, beaten

Grease and line a 21cm cake tin and set the oven to 375F/Gas 5. Combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, spice and sugar. Rub the butter into this mixture until it forms fine crumbs. Stir the beaten egg and the apples into the mixture and stir it well, then spread out evenly into the cake tin. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Remove and cool before cutting.