Ruby Red Amaretti Crumble

Quite a fancy name for a crumble, but then it is a Nigella recipe and she is famed for her choices of phrase: chocolate digestives are crushed ‘until they look like dark Mexican mud’, chocolate cake is ‘a confection to exult in, not to regret’ and about peanut butter she says ‘Why, I feel the urge to just rub it all over my body!’ So in retrospect, she went pretty easy on this dish. Plus, this is so good it deserves a glamorous title. In essence, its a Plum, Orange and Amaretti Crumble but its probably the best crumble I’ve ever tried. Apple Crumble is good, the deep purple of Apple and Blackberry even better. Peach is nice in the summer and Pineapple for something a little bit different. But trust me, none are as good as this!The changes that make it stand out are small but effective. The plums are cooked lightly first in a bit of sugar, orange juice and zest to give it a little brightness, make the whole thing smell gorgeous and infuse it with orange. Crushed amaretti crumbs are sprinkled over the plums once they’re in the dish, and then a whole heap more are stirred into the crumble mixture. The combination works so well and smells absolutely intoxicating! We made another one for a friend shortly after ours was all gone, and it proved very tricky to give it away without diving in. With heaps of cream, a rainy evening and the finale of Downton Abbey this crumble made the perfect Sunday night. You can find the recipe here (as well as watch Nigella make it in her classic style) – try it and you might become like my family, planning to add amaretti to every single crumble in the future. Enjoy!

Plum Frangipane Tart

I love making tarts. The whole system just seems to fit together well – the pastry making, the making of the filling whilst the pastry is in the fridge, the making of any topping whilst the first part is in the oven. Tarts take a while and often have lots of different stages and bowls needed, but I find it quite therapeutic. I also like baking pastry blind – one of the first things I learnt to make was Lemon Meringue Pie with my sister and the pastry was always my job. However, this tart was completely new to me in that it skipped that step altogether.I always presumed that you always needed to blind bake a pastry case before the filling went in. Logistically, I just figured that pouring a wet filling onto raw pastry would equal disaster and ‘soggy bottoms’. Whilst this is true for many tarts, not so with this one! The pastry is rolled out and shaped exactly to the tin (there’s also no need to leave excess pastry on in case of shrinkage with this recipe) and then on goes the frangipane filling. Top that with slices of raw plums, pop in the oven and thirty minutes later a delicious tart is cooling and awaiting plates and forks! The almond filling for this tart stays rather soft and does not fully set into a sponge. This contrasts nicely with the crisp pastry – the pastry was crisper then any I have made before, even without blind baking! Depending on which plum variety you use, the fruit can add extra sweetness or a bit of sharpness on top. The recipe is an Angela Hartnett, and she suggests making the recipe into mini tarts. Whilst I know these would look really pretty, I wanted to keep this one large tart so that I could cut a little sliver every time I went past ;) Hope you enjoy!

Plum and Marzipan Galette

I made this galette a good few weeks ago now – just as the weather changed from Summer to Autumn. Now, we are deep in Winter but the galette has still been made repeatedly. The first time, the galette was a chance to begin making good use of the fabulous Autumn produce that Britain does so well: plums, apples, pears – our climate is so much more suited to these than endless supplies of summer berries. Since then, I have made it simply because I loved it and it is so easy! Just 4 ingredients: puff pastry, plums, marzipan, sugar. Easy as pie…The key ingredient in the galette is the marzipan. Other than Christmas cake every year and the odd new recipe, marzipan’s presence in my kitchen is rare…mainly because I know I will just eat it all. :) The plums I used here aren’t very sweet – instead quite sharp and therefore the marzipan combination doesn’t become too sickly. The marzipan also soaks up the plum juices and ensures the pastry stays crisp. Plus, the demerara sugar sprinkled on top balances out the melting marzipan and soft juicy plums. Tempted yet? I didn’t use a specific recipe each time to make this, it can be easily scaled up or down depending on the ingredients you have to hand, the fruit you have and the amount of people you have to serve. For around 6-8 people, these amounts will do…

Ingredients: 500g plums
450g puff pastry
400g marzipan
2 tablespoons milk
4-5 tablespoons demerara sugar

1. Roll the puff pastry out until it is a large circle and around 3mm thick. Place onto a large baking tray that has been lined with parchment paper.
2. Roll the marzipan to a circle which is 5mm thick, or 1cm smaller than the pastry. Gently lay this on top of the pastry.
3. Halve and stone the plums. Cut each half into four slices, and carefully arrange on top of the marzipan.
4. Bring up the excess pastry from the edges and fold over the marzipan and plums. Sprinkle the plums with some of the demerara sugar. Brush the pastry with the milk, and sprinkle with the remaining sugar.
5. Bake in a 170’C/Gas Mark 3/325’F oven for 20 minutes until the pastry is risen and golden and the plums are soft. Enjoy whilst warm!