Getting back into the swing of making Jamie recipes from the book I decided to start with a dessert and bring it to a family Christmas party. Sour Cranberry Bakewell.... is your mouth watering yet? This dessert was the perfect balance of not too sweet, not too sour and not too rich. It was delish!
Mix this together until you have a ball of dough. Just make sure you don't work it too much or you're going to have a time rolling that baby out! Lightly flour and cover it with plastic wrap. Let that chill out in the fridge for 30 minutes.
While you're waiting to roll tide roll with that dough go ahead and start on the cranberry jam. Yep you heard me right, homemade sour cranberry jam. To. Die. For.
Throw 500g or like a bag and a half of fresh cranberries, sugar and the zest and juice of 1 1/2 oranges into a large sauce pan. Bring this to a boil and then reduce to a simmer over low heat and kind of break up the softened cranberries with your spoon. Let that bubble away until it's thick and jammy. Remove from the heat to cool.
While you're waiting for round #2 of the big chill you can start making the frangipane. What the crap is that you ask? Well... trusty Wiki says, "Frangipane is a filling made from or flavored with almonds." This recipe swaps out the traditional almonds and opts for hazelnuts and walnuts for a richer more praline flavor.
First order of business is blanching the hazelnuts. So I was filling a sauce pot with water to blanch the nuts and Matt comes in and says, "Don't you think you ought to google what is means to blanch nuts? Pretty sure you don't do it in water like you would veggies." So glad he walked in! Blanching nuts is another term for toasting. So blanch the hazelnuts in a warm oven until you can smell them. This will release their oils and make them even more flavorful.
Blitz the hazelnuts and walnuts until it's really fine. Tip that into a clean bowl the put butter and sugar into the food processor and whiz that up until creamed.
Add the zest of an orange and lemon and 3 eggs to the food processor and keep it running until everything is combined. Tip the nuts back in along with some flour and flip the processor back on to mix. Viola! Frangipane!!
By this time your pastry base should be ready to bang in the oven for a 12 minute blind bake with either baking beads or dried rice to weigh it down. Remove beads/rice and bake for another 5 minutes.
Spread a third of the cooled cranberry jam into the tart pan and pour the frangipane mixture on top of that.
Plop spoonfuls of the jam over the frangipane and drag a knife through it to make it look pretty. Finally it's ready to whack in the oven!
45 minutes later, you have this beauty! Golden crust on the top and gooey on the inside. Perfecto!
While this is cooling throw together a quick drizzle for the top. Just some icing sugar and juice from the zested orange and lemon.
This bakewell is a bit labor intensive but if you have the time it's well worth it! It even freezes well if you have some left over and want to save it for later!
