My friend Chrissy and I are also big fans of baking as a social acitivity. We often meet up and cover ourselves head to toe with flour while indulging in our second favourite social activity: gossiping.
As Chrissy gets to choose what we bake when we meet, and as my favourite crazy girl is half Austrian, we had a go at baking Linzertorte together.
Linzertorte
Almond and raspberry jam tart
Thanks to its high almond content, the pastry of this torte lends somewhere between and soft biscuit and pastry. It is absolutely divine and makes it well worth fiddling a little with the pastry (which is quite fragile). Don't be mistaken, this is not just your average jam tart. This torte is stunning.
Ingredients (serves 6 to 8)
150g caster
sugar
150g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
150g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
150g ground
almonds
good pinch
ground cinnamon
150g cold
butter, cut into cubes
1 egg,
beaten
300g good
quality raspberry jam
Method:
1/ Put the
sugar, flour, almonds and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl and stir until well
combined.
2/ Add the
cubes of butter and rub them into the flour mixture with your fingertips until
the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. It should feel quite moist.
3/ Add the egg
and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together, then knead lightly
into a ball. Weigh the dough and take a quarter away to use for the lattice
topping.
4/ Roll the rest into a ball and turn it out on to a well-floured
surface.
5/ Flatten the
ball with your hands, or a floured rolling pin, until it is about 2.5 cm thick.
6/ Place the dough in the centre of a 24cm in loose-based (I made small tarts with mini tart moulds), fluted tart
tin and press it with your fingers over the base until it is about halfway up
the sides of the tin and the tin is evenly covered.
7/ Spread the
jam over the dough as evenly as possible.
8/ Shape the
reserved dough into a fat sausage and roll it out on a well-floured surface to
make a rectangle 3mm thick – about the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut the
dough into strips.
9/ Place the strips over the jam, first in one
direction and then the other, to create a criss-cross pattern over the filling.
Press the edges to seal, pinch off the excess pastry and smooth the joins down
with your fingertips. Chill the tart in the fridge for 30–60 minutes.
9/ Preheat the
oven to 190°C. Put the tart on a baking tray and bake in the centre
of the oven for about 30 minutes or until the almond pastry is pale golden
brown.
10/ Cool in the tin for 5–10 minutes, then slide it on to a serving platter
or board.
Recipe from The Hair Bikers