I love long sunday lunches, for me the planning and cooking are just as fun as the eating.
Yesterday was a perfect sunday lunch day. We spent the morning at the Parsons Green Farmers Market buying lots of wonderful fruit and veg. Then came home to cook. Rich made roast chicken with lots of trimmings while I baked a fig tart.
Our siblings arrived at one to help us eat the feast ... It was great fun ... thought I still can’t quite believe that eight of us managed to eat 24 Yorkshire puddings.
My brother in law wanted the recipe ... the batter in my Toad in the Hole recipe will make 24 yorkshire puddings.
Use a 12 hole muffin tray ... if you make them please let me know how you get on.
FIG TART - Serves 8
Ingredients
320g Pre-rolled short crust pastry, 300ml Double cream, 250ml Mascarpone, 20g Icing Sugar, 1 Lemon, 1 Large teaspoon of Vanilla bean paste, 4 Figs, 50g Caster Sugar
Equipment
23cm Flan Tin
- Unroll the pastry and line the flan tin. Trim off any excess pastry from the top of the tin so that the sides of the tart are all the same height. If there are any holes in the pastry patch them up with any excess that you have trimmed off the top.
- Place the tart in the fridge for 20-30 minutes so that the pastry can set. Once set you are going to blind bake the pastry.
- While the tart is in the fridge make the filling. Whisk the double cream slightly till it just starts to thicken then mix in the icing sugar, mascarpone, rind and juice of quarter of a lemon and then vanilla bean paste. Cover the mixture and place in the fridge
- Cut each of the figs into eight and place in a bowl. Put 50g of caster sugar and 50ml of water in a saucepan on a medium heat and stir until all the sugar has dissolved and it starts to boil. Once boiling remove form heat and pour over the figs. Set the figs aside while you blind bake the pastry
- To blind bake the pastry, take a piece of baking paper slightly larger than the tin and scrunch it up, then unscrunch it and line the tin with it. Fill the tin with baking beans or dried beans and ‘blind bake’ in the oven at 180 for 20–25 minutes until the tart crust has gone golden.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool
- Once cool remove the tart from the tin and fill it with the cream. Drain any excess liquid from the figs and place them over the tart and serve
Cooking notes
If I am running short on time I use jusrol pastry as it is stocked in my local shop. If I have more time I will make it from scratch. I will post my recipe for home made pastry shortly.
I make a sugar syrup for the figs as I think it enhances their flavour. If your figs are very sweet you may not need to use it.
A little tip ... don't over whisk the cream as you don't want the filling to get to thick. Whisk it until it looks like thin runny custard then add in mascarpone and other ingredients ... if you are unsure hold back 50ml of cream and add it at the end this will loosen the mixture if it has got to thick.
Adapting
If you don’t like figs then use another fruit ... raspberries would be wonderful, I would not use the sugar syrup though, add them straight onto the top of the tart.
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