After watching one of the latest Masterclass episodes on MasterChef, we were tempted by the raspberry tart made on the show, and the extremely easy method of making shortcrust pastry. They used a food processor to make the pastry and it looked a lot easier than my very recent experiment with making pastry by scratch in my first Daring Bakers Challenge of the Bakewell Tart.
As they didn’t have the video or recipe for the raspberry tart up on the MasterChef website at the time we made it (that night I believe), we had to search for a similar recipe. This one is adapted from one of Jamie Oliver’s recipes and it turned out great. Nick made up the rest of the recipe, using up some of our apples in the fridge and making it into a tart crossed with a pie, naming it Nick’s Apple Parcels.
Nick’s Apple Parcels
Recipe for sweet shortcrust pastry adapted from Jamie Oliver’s recipe
Serves: 2 (with some pastry left over, which can be rolled and made into biscuits or used to cover the top of a small pie)
250g organic plain flour, plus extra for dusting
50g icing sugar, sifted
125g good-quality cold butter, cut into small cubes
1 egg, beaten
A splash of milk
Flour, for dusting
2-3 Pink Lady (or other) apples, peeled and diced
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon caster sugar
Icing sugar, for dusting
Place flour, sugar and butter in a food processor and pulse until it turns into fine breadcrumbs. Add egg and pulse until mixture comes together and forms a nice dough. Add a little milk if necessary and process. Knead until smooth, cover and refrigerate for 30m minutes (we used ours straight away as we couldn’t wait).
Mix apples, cinnamon, vanilla essence and caster sugar in a bowl and set aside.
Roll out dough and cut into large squares (12 x 12cm), 2 for each parcel. Place some of the apple and cinnamon mixture on top of one square of pastry and place another on top. Seal edges and cut slices on top layer. Place on a baking tray and bake for 20minutes, until pastry golden and cooked. Dust with icing sugar and serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
