March 16, 2009

Fig and Raspberry Crostata

Restaurant: Rockpool (NSW)

Recipe from Chef Catherine Adams  (appears on Gourmet Traveller website)

2009 Rating: 3rd, 3 Stars

Before we went away to Queensland my mum had HEAPS of ripe juicy figs on her tree. When I was a kid I didn't quite understand the joy's of eating a perfectly sun ripened fig, now in my older age I can certainly appreciate it. So I collected a real bounty of the little parcels of softness, once I got them home I realised I needed to do something with them...and quick. And then I saw this recipe, and boy was I excited! So, following tradition, here is the recipe and of course...the results are to come.

Serves 8 

Cooking Time Prep time 20 mins, cook 50 mins (plus chilling) 

INGREDIENTS

10 figs, halved or quartered, depending on size
1 tbsp vanilla sugar (see note)
120 gm raspberries (about 1 punnet), plus extra to serve
To serve: crème fraîche

Sweet pastry

200 gm flour
150 gm cold butter, coarsely chopped
100 gm caster sugar
40 gm egg (about ¾ egg), lightly whisked

Frangipane

50 gm butter
50 gm pure icing sugar
50 gm almond meal
1 tsp plain flour
1 egg, lightly whisked
20 ml dark rum
 
METHOD

1. For sweet pastry, place flour and butter in the bowl of a food processor and freeze until well chilled (30-35 minutes). Meanwhile, combine sugar, egg and 1 tsp salt in a bowl, whisking until sugar dissolves. Refrigerate until required. Process flour and butter in a food processor until coarse crumbs form. Gradually add chilled egg mixture, pulsing to combine. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface, bring pastry together with the heel of your hand, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (1½-2 hours). Roll pastry out between 2 sheets of baking paper to a 30cm-diameter circle and place on a baking paper-lined oven tray. Refrigerate overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 170C. For frangipane, beat butter in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Combine icing sugar, almond meal and flour in a separate bowl and, with motor running, gradually add to butter until completely combined. Add egg, beating well to combine, then slowly beat in dark rum.

3. Spread frangipane over prepared pastry, leaving a 3cm border. Lay figs on top, cut-side up, fold in pastry border, pleating as you go, then scatter with vanilla sugar. Bake until light golden (25-30 minutes). Reduce oven to 160C, scatter with raspberries and bake until golden (15-20 minutes). Serve with extra raspberries and crème fraîche.

Note Vanilla sugar is available in the baking section of most supermarkets.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a good recipe. I'm jealous of your access to a fig tree. I gave my dad one for Christmas. I hope it grows quickly!

Maria@TheGourmetChallenge said...

Oh Arwen, Fig trees are a both a blessing and a curse. The fig tree is huge! It produces so many figs that the birds always get to them before we do and make a massive mess, but then again we have figs on tap for the entire duration of summer.

Anonymous said...

Lucky you! I've never had a fig tree to eat from although it's what my dreams are made of :)