#AutumnWarmers
I love Autumn and i sure am not the only foodie blogger who relishes in comforting pantry ingredients this time of year, in fact i know some that actually prefer the cold to the warm!
Even though i feel a sense of abruptness this year in terms of the garden (i thought i’d get another batch of September strawberries or more courgettes) – perhaps i’ve just not had much luck, there is much to love about a break from the outside to focus on the inside.
So when Waitrose approached me to participate in their #AutumnWarmers campaign i thought it would be the perfect start to the season on the blog. I was asked to create a recipe that represents my region (the west country), so after thinking up rather elaborate connections i settled for something traditional with a twist. We all know Bristol and as the west country is fuelled on cider & apples so i thought, i’ll just pop it all in a tart!
As you know my favourite type of cooking is making use of what you have in the cupboard, so i pulled out some Black Treacle that my dad gave me last Christmas, luckily it was still in date. Did you know that Black Treacle is prone to exploding if you open it past it’s sell by date? I don’t want to imagine the mess…
Gluten free of course, and delicious. This tart is perfect with a rich custard or heated up with a huge dollop of clotted cream- keeping it west country of course!
Gluten free Spiced Cider Apple Treacle Tart
Filling
150ml cider (I used Chaplin & Corks Somerset Reserve)
1/2 a Cinnamon stick
8 cloves
3 medium apples. 21/2 grated finely. 1/2 sliced for decoration at the end.
420g golden syrup
3 tablespoons black treacle
Teaspoon of cinammon
Teaspoon of mixed spice
Grated nutmeg
225g fine gluten free white/ brown breadcrumbs ( I used Genius bread)
2 medium eggs
Drop of cream
Pastry
I used The Pastry Room mix, but Genius Shortcrust would work well or my pasteasy recipe works well too.
Make your gluten free shortcrust pastry, roll out to 3mm and grease a 9 inch tart tin with butter before lining with the pastry. Use a fork to put some holes in the pastry and place in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (Fan)
Meanwhile make your cider apples and filling.
In a saucepan slowly heat up the cider, cinnamon stick and cloves together and add in the grated apple until it reduces slightly. Take off the heat and let it sit until cool, separate the apples from the syrup as much as you can and put into a bowl. Keep the cider syrup aside for later.
Blind bake your pastry by placing parchment paper over and filling with any kind of dried pulse for some weight. Put in the oven for 10 minutes then remove the paper and pulses and put back in the oven for a further 5 mins until just firm. Remove from the oven ready to add your filling…
Warm up the syrup and treacle in a pan just so it softens and then take off the heat. Add in the ground spices, breadcrumbs and grated apples and give it a good stir. In a separate bowl whisk up the eggs just to break them up and then add this to the mixture.
Pour the filling into the the blind baked pastry case and lay a few slices of apple around the centre for decoration. Grab the cider syrup from earlier and give the entire top a glaze over with a brush.
Pop in the oven for 25-30 mins until the filling is set and the pastry is golden.
