Apple Frangipane Tart

Apple Frangipane Tart In this stunning almond tart, thinly sliced apple halves rise up through golden frangipane. Any eating apple is suitable here but raspberry-scented Discovery or strawberry-scented Worcester Pearmain are particularly good.

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Vegetarian

Preparation time : 35 minutes, plus chilling Cooking time : 45 minutes, plus resting Total time : 1 hour 20 minutes, plus chilling and resting

Serves: 6 to 8 Ingredients 200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 200g soft butter, plus extra for greasing Pinch of salt 100g caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp 2 large eggs 100g ground almonds 1 tbsp finely chopped lemon zest 4 eating apples 1 tbsp smooth apricot jam

Method 1.

Sift the flour into a bowl and dice 100g butter into it. Add the salt. Rub the butter into the flour until it

resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in 1-3 tbsp cold water until the dough seems to want to cling together. Knead lightly to make a ball, dusting with flour if it seems wet. Chill for 30 minutes. 2.

Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4.

3.

Generously butter a 24cm-diameter flan tin with a removable base and dust with flour. This makes

the tin non-stick. Roll out the pastry, line the tin, and trim the edges. Cover with foil and half-fill with dried beans. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the foil, and bake for 5 minutes more. 4.

Meanwhile, beat together 100g butter and 100g sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in one egg at a

time. Fold in the almonds and lemon zest and tip into the pastry case. Halve and peel the apples, carefully cutting out the cores. Place flat side down and slice thinly across the width. 'Plant' the apples in the tart and spread out the slices slightly. Melt a knob of butter, paint the apple halves with it and dredge with caster sugar. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the frangipane is puffy and golden and the apples just cooked. Paint the apples with the apricot jam, and leave in the warm, switched-off oven, with the door ajar, for 15 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Jamie: "This is a wicked dessert, which we made using fresh figs and cherries, though you can ring the changes and use whatever is in season. Tinned fruit works well, too. Whichever you choose, the result is lovely with a dollop of mascarpone or crème fraîche."

Serves 8 Ingredients For the pastry •

125g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing

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100g icing sugar

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A pinch of salt

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250g flour

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1 vanilla pod, scored lengthways, seeds scraped out

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Zest of ½ a lemon

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2 large egg yolks, preferably free-range or organic, beaten

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2 tbsp cold milk or water

For the frangipane •

250g blanched whole almonds

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50g plain flour

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250g unsalted butter

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250g caster sugar

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2 large eggs, free range or organic, lightly beaten

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1 vanilla pod, scored lengthways, seeds scraped out

For the filling •

6 apricots, 12 figs or 2 handfuls of cherries

Method: How to make frangipane tart 1. Grease a loose-bottomed 28cm tart tin with a small knob of butter. 2. Make the pastry: cream together the butter, icing sugar and salt, then rub in the flour, vanilla seeds, lemon zest and beaten egg yolks (you can do all this by hand or in a food processor). Once the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs, add your cold milk or water. Pat and gently work the mixture together into a dough ball, then dust it lightly with flour. (Don’t work the pastry too much or else it will become elastic and chewy, not flaky and short as you want it to be.) 3. Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and pop it in the fridge to chill. 4. After an hour, remove the pastry from the fridge, roll out to the thickness of a £1 coin*, and use to line your tart tin. Put the whole lot in the freezer for a further hour. 5. Heat the oven to 180˚C/gas 4 and bake the pastry case for around 12 minutes or until it’s lightly golden – use baking beans to stop the case from rising. Remove from the oven and turn it down to 170˚C/gas 3. 6. Get started on your frangipane. In a food processor, blitz the almonds to a powder, then transfer to a bowl with the flour. Next, blitz the butter and sugar till light and creamy. Add this to the almond mix with the eggs and the vanilla seeds and fold in until smooth. Place in the fridge for at least half an hour to firm up. 7. If using apricots, halve and stone; for figs, cut a cross in the top to a depth of halfway down the fruit; if using cherries, stone. Spoon the frangipane mix into the pastry case, then lightly push the fruit into the frangipane.

8. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the frangipane has become firm and golden on the outside but is still soft in the middle. Cool for 35–40 minutes before serving.