Every year, I tend to make the same old Christmas bakes with the same old Christmas ingredients. But this year, try going for something a little different.
1 hour
45 minutes
Medium
9
Scorn the stodgy pudding and miss out the mincemeat. Instead, British pears store brilliantly through the winter, so give these a go instead. Now, by today everything should be winding down (or up) a bit in preparation for the big day, so don’t worry about things like making your own pastry – though the instructions are below if you’re a purist. Frangipane isn’t something to be scared of – it’s just cake mix, but with ground almonds instead of flour. If you place this on top of your pastry, with a thin layer of jam in between. With a little effort in slicing your pears into eighths or even sixteenths, you can lay them like mine in a fan-shape, and with the glaze of just a little more jam, you’ve got a stunning pink and shiny finish.
This tart will last a good while without getting any worse. So, if you’re after an alternative Christmas centrepiece this year, make this one a couple of days in advance and store in the fridge to take the stress out of the big day.
First, make your pastry, if you’ve not bought it. Into a large bowl, weigh your flour and your cold butter, chopped into cubes. Rub your flour into your butter using your fingers (or a food processor) until you’ve got a mixture that looks like breadcrumbs.
Add your water, and use a knife to bring your mixture together into clumps, then use your hands to bring it together into a dough. Don’t add any more water – work it a little if need be. Wrap your dough in cling film and place it in the fridge for at least 15 minutes, or up to 2 days.
Now, preheat your oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4. Grease a large (10-12 inch) loose-bottomed tart tin with plenty of butter.
Unwrap your pastry onto a floured surface, sprinkle with more flour and roll out until it’s the thickness of a £1 coin. Keep it moving and add more flour to stop it sticking. Place this in your tart tin, and tuck it into the corners but don’t trim around the edges – leave at least 1cm hanging over the edge.
Make the frangipane – mix your eggs, caster sugar, soft butter and ground almonds together until smooth. It’s that simple. Spread your pastry with a few tablespoons of jam, then softly spread your frangipane mix on top.
Slice your pears lengthways into 8, removing any pips or hard corey bits. Place these in a spiral around your tart, as prettily as you can manage. Dust your tart with a really good coating of icing sugar, and then place it in the oven.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until your pears are a little shrunken and your frangipane is a golden-brown colour. If in doubt, give it an extra 5 minutes. It should be springy and firm when pressed. Once done, remove your tart from the oven and leave to cool as you prepare your glaze.
Place 2-3 tablespoons of jam in a saucepan with a teaspoon of water, and mix these together over a medium heat. Heat until the jam just starts to bubble. To finish your tart, brush your pears with your jam for a beautiful pink hue.
This is an all-in-one style tart. This means that you don’t have to ‘blind bake’ the pastry first, before adding the filling. However, this style of baking can give you a soggy bottom if you aren’t careful, so bake until you think it’s done and then for a good 5-10 minutes longer.
Enjoy!
For the pastry base (or use shop-bought):
For the frangipane filling:
For the rest:
This recipe isn’t a compromise; it is something that is better gluten-free than it could ever be with flour. The heavenly, crumbly, rich texture of this zesty cake isn’t held together by the intermolecular shackle that is gluten.
This pudding’s better than any you’ll find in the shops; tinned or otherwise. And you don’t need any special equipment – find any old dishes made of probably – ovenproof material, grease ‘em up and hey: a handy pudding mould.
Remember those days when you had to choose between chocolate or cheesecake? Flora Shedden and quark have just put a stop to them.
