As I mentioned last month, I’m trying to get back in the kitchen a little bit. I’m finding I’m missing the process desperately. There’s something very therapeutic about cooking and baking – for me, even the act of chopping vegetables is somewhat soothing. Even if I hate the washing up afterwards.
Mackays preserves have been around for 76 years, taking great Scottish produce and turning it into jams and curds and recently launched a new range of hand stirred jams. To celebrate this, and that they’re now supplying Asda, they wanted a few bloggers to review and to come up with recipes for their jams.
An opportunity not to be missed. Much as I love jam on toast, this gave me the excuse to play in the kitchen and create something new (or at least new for me).
And of course, as it’s me, there’s got to be booze in this bake. I’ve used the Morello Cherry jam and paired it with Bramley apple and bourbon. You could very easily adapt this and pair the raspberry jam with apple and whisky (making it truly Scottish), or play with other flavours, perhaps matching the strawberry with Pimms?
I’ve topped the tart with an almond crumble topping. This is entirely optional, but I thought it worked nicely with a dollop of vanilla ice cream while it was still warm from the oven. You could also easily remove the almonds from the top and add in an alternative nut, or have none at all – meaning that anyone with an allergy doesn’t have to miss out.
The recipe has had a couple of run throughs to get it right. The first time there wasn’t enough bourbon, the second, too much! Hopefully this means that this version will be spot on!
Apple, Cherry and Bourbon Tart
Ingredients
For the pastry:
- 110 g Butter (diced)
- 80 g Golden caster sugar
- 1 Large beaten egg
- 225 g Plain flour
For the filling:
- 1 Large Bramley apple
- 35 ml Bourbon (I used Buffalo Trace)
- 4 tbsp Mackays Morello Cherry jam (heaped)
- splash of water to help loosen the jam
For the topping:
- 100 g Plain flour
- 50 g Butter
- 50 g Golden caster sugar
- 50 g Flaked almonds (optional)
Instructions
-
Method
Firstly, we need to make the pastry, as this wants to go into the fridge to chill. A mixer is easy, but this isn’t difficult to do by hand either. If using a machine, pop it all in, blitz until it starts to come together as a dough, you can add water or milk to help it stick, but I found the egg was binder enough.
If making by hand, crumble the butter between your fingers with the flour, until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. The same way you would if you were making a crumble topping – like this. Once it’s formed breadcrumbs, mix in the egg and this should pull it together into a ball, add a few drops of water if necessary if it’s too dry.
Once it has formed into a ball, wrap it in cling film and pop it into the fridge to rest.
While that chills, pop your jam and bourbon into a bowl or jug and stir to loosen the jam. This has lovely pieces of cherry in it, so works really nicely.
Then, peel and chop up your apple into small pieces, discarding the core. The chunks of apple should be bitesize – you want them to cook through relatively quickly as we’ll be blind baking the base first.
Place them into the bowl with the jam mixture and stir to coat. This gives the flavours a chance to get to know each other and you can pop this to one side while you return to the pastry.
Once the pastry has chilled (for around half an hour or so, enough time for the butter to solidify again), preheat your oven to 170°C/Gas Mark 3.
Roll out enough to fill a greased tart tin, leaving a little hanging over the edges of the tin. Pastry has a tendency to shrink and this will give you some leeway after it’s been in the oven.
Prick the pastry with a fork, line with baking parchment and cover with baking beans (or if you haven’t any like me, rice or lentils). Pop into the oven for 10-15 minutes, until the base just starts to crisp.
While that’s in the oven, using the ‘bread crumb’ method as for the pastry, make the crumble topping, rubbing the flour, butter and sugar between your fingers. When done, add the almonds and mix through.
When the base is done, remove the beans and parchment, and pour in the apple mixture. Pop on the crumble top and put back into the oven for 20-25 minutes or so, the filling is usually bubbling through the topping when done.
Serve with a big dollop of ice cream while still warm. Delish.
I hope you enjoy making this and, if you do, please let me know how you get on.
I’m going to have a go at the raspberry and whisky one next I think….!
Mackays supplied the jam samples for this article, but everything else was supplied by me, made by me and eaten by…. well actually some nice hospitality staff in Manchester.
