Apple & Blackberry Crumble Tartlets
A definitive guide on how to - and how not to - bake with blackberries.
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Welcome to my favourite month of the year - October! Or as I shall be calling it - Tartober.
I hadn’t made a tart in a little while and was experiencing withdrawal. So, this month is going to be all about the tart. There’ll be experiments in tart baking techniques, flavours and decoration.
As some of you may recall, last week, I struggled with blackberries. So, this week is a deep dive into all things blackberry. And, to fit with our theme of the month, a recipe for Apple & Blackberry Crumble Tartlets.
Inspired by a note from
(thanks love!), the fruit is infused with cardamom, and the crumble spiked with orange and vanilla. Perfectly warming and rustic.However, for our starter this week, here is my Baking Book of the Month… it is, of course, tart themed.
Little Tarts, by Meike Schaling of Petit Gateau.
Petit Gateau, a patisserie based in Amsterdam, is run by patisserie chef Meike Schaling. Famed for their ‘miniminis’ - teeny, tiny 6cm tartlets.
This warm-hearted book has only one pastry recipe, but pages upon pages of ideas for fillings. What I love about it, is the encouragement for experimentation.
There are few ‘full’ recipes, but instead chapters on creams, jams, curds and meringue with guidance on how to put it all together. The rest is up to you, even including a diagram for you to come up with your own creations.
If you like to be creative in the kitchen, and love your pastry, this is an absolute must have. This book has helped form the basis for our recipes for the next fortnight, with a few experiments (ahem, ok, a lot) and adaptations from my good self.
Blackberries - the definitive guide.
There is nothing more British than picking blackberries. According to English Food, A People’s History and the Royal Horticultural Society, during the World Wars, country children were given time off school to gather blackberries and make jams. Which were sent to hungry city folk and soldiers on the front line.
I have fond memories of blackberry picking with my grandmother, and her having to drag my six-year-old self out of the brambles, as they scratched my skin and pulled my hair. Her Crumble when we got home was worth it though.
There is a great deal of wonderful folklore around blackberries. From fairies sheltering in blackberry patches (along with little ginger girls), to a curse from Lucifer meaning it's inadvisable to eat them after Michaelmas; the 10th-11th of October.
My favourite is a story from Skye Alexander, author of The Kitchen Witch. Apparently blackberry tea is considered an aphrodisiac, and you can win a prospective lover’s heart with a blackberry pie. If I had known this, 25-year-old me would have looked quite something wandering around London bars with a crust of pie and steaming hot blackberry tea.
Joking aside, there may be some scientific truth in this. Blackberries and their seeds contain Vitamin C and E, which can boost sex drive. And phytochemicals that enhance, er, stamina.
Tricky to Bake
Blackberries are potentially seedy in texture. And if shop-bought, harbour quite a subtle, sweet flavour. However, if picked from the bramble, they can be supremely sharp. This means they can be tricky to bake with.
In the interests of helping others learn from my failures, here are some examples of how not to bake with blackberries;
Blackberry ganache with white chocolate. Gosh, this did not work. It was grainy and sickly sweet. According to The Flavour Thesaurus, blackberries and white chocolate should work together. They don’t in this ganache. The white chocolate completely overpowered the blackberry.
With almond extract. Again, blackberries and almonds should be a stellar combo. Not where almond extract is concerned. Even a few drops are just too strong and completely overpower the delicate blackberry. Stick with almond flakes or a frangipane.
As a jam in a cookie. While my kids loved this, anyone over the age of ten is going to feel smacked in the face with sugar. The jam risks the cookie over caramelising while baking, so must be used very sparingly. As a ripple at absolute most.
As a chunky puree in a mini Bundt cake. See above with the over caramelisation and sickly sweetness. Also, the seediness of the blackberries did not have a nice mouthfeel in the cake.
Phew. So, now we have learnt four ways to not bake with blackberries… how should we?
Let us turn to a dessert synonymous with blackberries, that British Chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall called a “national institution.” The Crumble.
There is some debate as to whether the crumble is actually British. In her book Completely Perfect, food writer Felicity Cloake reports that The Oxford Companion to Food suggests Crumble originated in Britain during World War Two. As the crumble top could use whatever fat was available at the time, it made a good alternative to apple pie.
However, she admits in her Word of Mouth blog that the earliest recipe she can find is in an American publication.
Whatever the Crumbles origin, Niki Signit makes an excellent point in her beloved book, The Flavour Thesaurus. That apple and blackberry go so well together, they could almost be monogamous. (Although I would argue that apple is the less faithful of the pair.)
So, to the recipe!
Apple & Blackberry Crumble Tartlets
All the components of this recipe can be made in advance, so if you are entertaining, it’s a case of whipping it all together and getting it in the oven. It is best served warm, and will need something creamy alongside. Some vanilla ice cream perfectly hits the spot. Or, on a particularly cold, rainy day, warm vanilla custard.
Level: Intermediate
Serves: Makes approx. 8-10 tartlets
Time: 3 hrs, including pastry resting time
Equipment: 10 6cm perforated tart rings. A silicone mat. A mixer is useful, although not an absolute necessity.
Ingredients
For the pastry
120g plain flour
50g icing sugar
20g ground almonds
75g cold salted butter
1 egg yolk, whisked
For the fruit puree
2x apples, peeled and chopped into 1 cm pieces (400g)
200g blackberries (fresh or frozen)
Generous squeeze of lemon juice
2x cardamom pods, split, seeds removed and crushed.
60g golden caster sugar
For the crumble
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
40g plain flour
20g light muscovado sugar
20g Demerara sugar, plus extra for sprinkles
40g cold salted butter, cut into cubes
40g ground almonds, plus extra to line the tart bases
Method
Start your pastry by roasting your ground almonds in the oven for ten minutes at 180°C/160°C fan/356°F/Gas Mark 4.
Set the almonds aside to cool.
I use a mixer to make my pastry, for two reasons; first, the more you keep those hot hands away from your pastry, the better. Second, I am lazy. However, with a batch as small as this, you can easily make it without a mixer.
Place your flour, icing sugar and (once cool) ground almonds into your mixer and, with a paddle attachment, combine on a low setting.
Add your butter cubes and combine again on a low setting. Once the mixture looks like sandy breadcrumbs, it is ready. If you don't have a mixer, rub the butter in with your fingers.
Add the egg yolk. I know it doesn't seem like much liquid, but this is honestly all you need.
Mix until the mixture becomes like a dough. This won't take long, a minute or two at most.
If you don't have a mixer, do this with a wooden spoon and then bring the dough together with your hands.
Bring the dough together and place on some cling film. As advised by the pastry master that is Julie Jones, I avoid rolling my pastry into a ball, and roll it out to about 5mm thick. The idea behind this is you won't have to roll it as much when it is rested. Wrap in film and place in the fridge.
Rest for at least an hour, while you get on with the other components.
The Fruit
Place the apple cubes, blackberries, squeeze of lemon juice, golden caster sugar and crushed cardamom seeds in a small pan.
Gently stew on a medium heat until it resembles a thick, chunky jam. This should only take around 20 minutes, although longer if you have used frozen blackberries.
Set aside to cool, and then cover and place in the fridge until needed.
The Crumble
Place the vanilla paste, orange extract, flour, muscovado and Demerara sugar and ground almonds in a bowl and mix together.
Cut your cold butter into cubes and rub into your flour and sugar mixture until you have a nice, chunky crumble dough.
Cover and place in the fridge until needed.
Returning to your pastry
Once your pastry is rested, pull it out of the fridge and set aside until it has come to room temperature.
Butter and flour your tartlet rings and place on a silicone mat on a baking sheet.
You can roll your pastry on a floured work surface. But my preferred method is to roll between two sheets of baking paper, no extra flour needed.
You can roll to 2mm, but I would advise 3mm. This will give you slightly more stability and make it easier to remove your tartlet from the cases.
There are two ways to line your tartlets. Either by using a large cookie cutter to cut out your circles and place gently in the tart rings, cutting off any excess dough. Or the strip method, which I will take you through next week.
Reroll any leftover dough and keep cutting your circles until you have lined all your tarts.
Prick the base of the tartlets with a fork and place back in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
The Bake
Now all your components are ready, we have come to the easy bit.
Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C fan/356°F/Gas Mark 4.
Scatter a small sprinkling of ground almonds to the base of your tartlets. This is a little trick often used with fruit tarts, to ensure the fruit doesn't soak into the base and make it soggy.
Place in a small spoonful of fruit puree, filling your tart to about 90%.
Cover with a generous sprinkle of crumble and then, a little extra sprinkle of Demerara sugar.
Place in the oven for 25 minutes, until golden.
Take out and leave on a cooling rack for five minutes.
The tartlets might be tricky to remove from the tartlet rings. Once the tartlets have cooled a little, use a small palette or sharp knife, gently wedge it between the case and the tartlet from underneath. Slowly run it around the tart and then gently push them up. If you have well buttered and floured your tartlet rings, they should pop out no problem and you can all breathe a sigh of relief.
Enjoy!
something so precious about a tartlet...it says "all for me."
Yay for Tartober!!