Pastry week was week 5 and a very short week for me as I left my city to visit family. So this meant that I only had time to make a bakewell tart. I need work on rolling my pastry out but the tart turned out quite well. Shortcrust pastry can be quite forgiving at times. There can be cracks but you can stick them back together or even re-roll it.
The bakewell tart and and extra banana bread
On top of my pastry I used a store bought raspberry jam since I’m not a jam fan. I also thought making jam would be left to learn another time. Next was a layer of frangipane and it was so good. I could eat this on its own. Also if there is a candle that smells like that send me a link.
Once the tart was baked and left to cool I added the icing which could have been better. The frangipane sunk a bit in the centre which made the icing uneven. When completing the feather pattern I’ll need to remember not to let the first layer of icing set too much as it can affect the pattern.
Overall I was happy with the bake and it tasted nice enough for me. My other half really enjoyed it and made him think of the bakes he got when he was younger. You can’t beat that sometimes.
I do really want to try to make some danish pastries but that week there was no time. It’ll need to be part of the post bake of catch up challenge.
fougasse
Week 6 was different, it was a Botanical week. Thankfully I didn’t have to try a rose flavored bake as I have read that can be a difficult balance to find. I did keep this week quite simple and I made a lemon meringue pie and the fougasse loaf.
The fougasse started with worry it was a very wet dough. It just seemed to not take in all the water at first but I left it in the mixer and after the set period it came out well. It had a nice rise and making the lines was easy when you knew what it was supposed to look like. I didn’t bake mine with steam but it didn’t need it. It was a lovely bread and it didn’t last long.
The lemon meringue pie was a bit of a challenge for me. Even though I got another chance at pastry I’m still very much an amateur. The lemon curd took two attempts but then went through a few cracks and wet the outside of the pastry. The meringue was lovely and I licked the the spatula clean. In the oven it baked well but a bit much at the edges. I think that’s because the curd got around the pastry and I didn’t seal the tart with the meringue enough which resulted in it being ‘puffed up’ at the bottom. I’ll need to look into this more to see if this is true. The pie may not have looked great but it tasted good enough.
The next episode of Bake Off is on tonight and from the sneak peak last week I know I am looking forward to making a roulade. I just need to make sure I make the time to complete everything this week.