BLACKCURRANT CROSTADA
Blackcurrants, blackcurrants, blackcurrants, anyone following our social media will know that gardeners and chefs at Thyme are battling their way through a glorious glut of this soft fruit. We are preserving like mad, jams, jellies, pickles, using them in cordials & cocktails and every summer dessert imaginable. This lovely crostada is a beautiful summery way to finish your dinner party.
The quantity of pastry in this recipe will actually line a 28cm flan tin, but for our class we cut the dough in half for a 20cm tin. You can freeze the other half for use another day.
Ingredients
Serves 4
For the pastry:
250g plain flour, sifted
125g cold unsalted butter, diced
30g caster sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
Zest 1 lemon, finely grated
½tsp vanilla extract
All ingredients well chilled
For the tart:
Pastry
Flour, for dusting
125g icing sugar, sifted
2 eggs
75g ground almonds
Grated zest and juice of ½ lemon
1 punnet blackcurrants, topped and tailed
1tbsp flaked almonds
Oven : 180ºC fan/350ºF/gas 4
Method
For the pastry, tip the flour, butter, sugar, whole egg, egg yolk, lemon zest and vanilla extract into a food processor. Switch on the machine until the mixture resembles wet sand, and eventually comes together in a ball. Remove the dough, wrap it in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for 1hr.
Roll the pastry out to fit a flan tin with a removable base, and press it into the edges and bottom of the tin. Trim the excess pastry from the edges. Prick the base with a fork and place in the fridge for 20mins.
Blind bake the pastry for 15mins. Remove the beans and the paper and return to the oven for another 5mins. Remove and allow to cool.
Beat together the eggs with the icing sugar, ground almonds, lemon zest and juice until it forms a smooth batter.
Pour the batter onto the pastry case and scatter over the currants.
Top with the flaked almonds and bake for 30mins or until golden.
