It’s Sunday again and no matter how much I have going on I can always manage to squeeze in a bit of baking during the day. Having Ash has meant that we’ve had an abundance of visitors scheduling in to see him and today was a busy one. I had an hour to make something and as usual, music (Kate Bush) and reading about food had inspired yet again.
Kate Bush is a massive inspiration to me, and not just because I like to listen to her music but in the way that when I listen to her gorgeous words, they appear as photographs in my mind. They play out stories that are so immensely creative and interesting, that at first you have no idea what she’s going on about- then you just, ‘get it’. Her music always comes together better with time. A bit like pastry really…
So that was my train of thought this morning. Kate bush and pastry, a winning combination I feel.
Her song ‘Sunset’ from Aerial begins with these beautiful lyrics.
‘Could be honeycomb
In a sea of honey
A sky of honey
Whose shadow, long and low
Is slipping out of wet clothes?
And changes into
The most beautiful
Iridescent blue’
Imagine a sea of honey? Mmm. Obviously that would be a mean feat of a task, so I opted for honey, apples and pastry.
‘In a sea of honey’ and apple tartlets
(with a dark, olive oil and buckwheat tart crust)
[Substitution notes: For the pastry I would most likely substitute the buckwheat for more of the gluten free flour blend, or brown rice flour. If you want to cut out some of the sugar in the filling, do replace with agave nectar or maple syrup.]
Dark Olive oil and buckwheat tart crust
Makes 4 tartlets
60g 1/2 + 2 tbsp all purpose gluten free flour blend (with x gum in)
60g 1/2 a cup of buckwheat flour
Teaspoon of cinnamon
80g butter
(15ml) 1 tbsp olive oil
(45ml ) 3 tbsp water
14g brown fine sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Honey and Apple filling
3 Green Apples
50g of brown sugar
Tablespoon of water
Teaspoon of cinnamon
4 dollops of honey
Vanilla extract
Crumble top
Some gluten free oats, sliced almonds and a bit of flour mixed into some caster sugar
Instructions:
In a medium saucepan, combine all tart ingredients except flour over low heat.
Cook for 15-20 minutes, allowing the mixture to simmer and cook, until butter mixture begins to brown slightly.
Pop in the dry ingredients all together at once and stir very quickly until all of the dough comes together while removing from the heat.
Take the dough out and let it cool for 5-10 minutes.
Press into the tart tin/tartlet tins you wish to use and pop in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to cool.
Preheat oven to 200c
Prick the bottom of the tartlets/tart all over with a fork.
Bake for 10 minutes and press down if the tart base puffs up.
Take the tarts out of the oven and set aside.
Make your apple filling. Core peel and cut the apples and place over a medium heat with the rest of the filling mixture.
Simmer until the mixture is glossy and the apples are soft.
Put the apple filling into the tart cases.
Top with the crumble and bake for 15 minutes more until brown.
Serve warm with mascarpone or double cream.
