Saturday, June 27, 2009

June DB Challenge: Is it a Tart or a Pudding??

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.

Now for the review.  I thought this came together beautifully and fairly easily.  There was some math/conversion research involved.  I don't have a scale, so I couldn't use the metric measurements.  And I don't have committed to memory how many cups of flour equals 4 ounces by weight.  But the information is widely available online, so no worries there.  I do want a scale, so this recipe gave me some incentive to finally get one....but I still haven't bit the bullet.  I'm not sure which to get. Maybe you guys can give me some recommendations.  I also need to get a 9" tart pan.  I only have an 11".  So my frangipane layer is a bit thinner than it should've been and the tart only took about 20-22 minutes, rather than the 30-35 called for in the recipe. 

Other changes: I didn't make homemade jam or curd.  I did cook down a 12 oz bag of frozen cherries into a sort of pie filling.  So my "jam" layer is a bit thicker than called for I believe and makes this dessert a bit more substantial.  I think it worked out well.  I had commercial black cherry jam I could've used.  However, I wasn't sure how sweet the frangipane layer would be and I was concerned if I used the jam the entire dessert would be too sweet.  As much as we like dessert here, we don't like an overly sweet one.  I thought a tart cherry filling would be nice against the sweet frangipane.  And it is.  I also blind baked the tart crust for about 15 minutes, just to get it set and hopefully ward off any sogginess.  It worked.  Although, it may not have gotten soggy in the first place.  Better safe, right?!

This is a keeper kids.  It's versatile....you can change the flavor of the jam/curd layer with just about anything you can imagine that will go with almond.  I wonder if you can make this savory somehow.  The frangipane does have a cup of powdered sugar.  But I wonder if you spiced it up somehow you could have a savory filling.  Hmm, I'll have to file that idea away.....


6 comments:

Anna said...

Nice, big, beautiful tart! I'm sure it was delicious :)

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous tart - perfectly executed..and yummy looking!

Dragon said...

The cherry fillng was a great choice for this tart! Great job on this month's challenge.

Amy J. said...

Yum - great job!

ice tea: sugar high said...

Great job, the tart look fantastic

David J Barnes said...

Your blog makes me hungry.