This year I'm on a mission to reduce our family's food wastage, not that we do waste much actually, but we can always improve. So with that in mind this tart came about after a last minute call from friends to come over for dinner on New Year's day, and me offering to bring a pud. It was my challenge to create a dessert from ingredients I had in the house. Nigel Slater always finds something interesting in his fridge (always beautifully wrapped in brown paper) to create a delicious supper so I thought I'd give it a go too.
I had some ready-rolled puff pastry in the freezer, a few apples and half a jar of Tiptree blackberry jelly (bought on visit to the Tiptree Jam tearooms in Tiptree, Essex, earlier in the year). I wanted to add a frangipane layer (almond, egg and sugar mixture) but didn't have enough almonds so mixed in some coconut to make up the quantity. And the result was, as Nige would say, rather good! We enjoyed it with creme friache but a scoop of ice cream or lashings of custard would also go down well.
Serves 6
Takes 35-40 mins
50g butter, softened
50g golden caster sugar
1 egg
25g ground almonds
25g desiccated coconut
1tbsp plain flour
320g sheet ready-rolled puff pastry
3tbsp blackberry jelly
3 eating apples, such as Cox's, cored and sliced
2tbsp flaked almonds
1 Preheat the oven to 200C, Fan 180C, Gas 6. Beat together the butter and sugar until soft and creamy. Beat in the egg then stir in the ground almonds, coconut and flour.
2 Unroll the sheet of pastry onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Spread the blackberry jelly over the pastry allowing a 1cm border around the edges.
3 Place the almond mixture, in spoonfuls, over the jelly and spread out lightly. Arrange the apple slices over the almond mixture and sprinkle over the flaked almonds. Fold the pastry border over to make an edge.
4 Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins until the topping is golden, the apples are tender and the pastry is cooked. Cut into squares and serve warm or cold.
