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Monday, 10th October 2016

GBBO Strawberry Tart

This week on Gorenje’s Big Bake Off it’s Tudor Week! No Tudor banquet, or our very own afternoon tea, would be complete without a scrumptious strawberry tart on the menu. Beautiful to look at and easy to make, the family will go crazy for this one as the layer of pastry cream snuggles beneath a blanket of fresh strawberries.

Who doesn’t love strawberries? Adored for centuries, the tart is clearly a timeless dessert. In the 1500s, there were no list of ingredients or measurements used in recipes, so the Tudors had to rely purely on culinary skill, and a bit of old fashioned luck for their bake offs! If you’re up for a challenge, have a go at translating the Tudor recipe for this tempting treat.

Tudor Recipe

To make a tarte of strawberyes	To make short paest for tarte
Take and strayne theym wyth the yolkes of foure egges, and a lyttle whyte breade grated.	Take fyne floure and a cursey of fayre water and a dysche of swete butter and a lyttel saffron, and the yolckes of two egges and make it thynne and as tender as ye maye.
Season it up wyth suger and swete butter and so bake it.

For those of you who just can’t wait to sink your teeth into your very own strawberry tart, here’s how you can create this timeless sensation, 21st century style!

21st Century Recipe

For the fruit filling	For the pastry	To garnish
500g strawberries	300g plain flour	1 sliced banana
4 egg yolks	150g wholemeal flour	200g extra sliced strawberries
2 slices of bread, grated to make breadcrumbs	200g butter, softened
150g brown sugar (demerara)	2 egg yolks
100g unsalted butter (melted)	2 tbsp. water (warm)
	2 strands of saffron

Method

To make the pastry:

In a small bowl add 2 tablespoons of warm water and the strands of saffron to infuse for five minutes.
Make the pastry by sifting together the plain and wholemeal flour into a bowl. Dice the softened butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips to make a ‘breadcrumb’ consistency.
Beat the egg yolks and add them to the flour with the saffron infused water.
Use a wooden spoon to make a soft, silky pastry, incorporating everything together – if the pastry is a little wet, then add a spoonful or two of extra plain flour to help bind it.
Take the pastry into your hands and gently knead it for a minute to make sure everything is combined fully, then cover it in cling film and pop it in the fridge for twenty minutes to firm up.
Grease individual tart tins and preheat the oven to 180C. After twenty minutes, take the pastry from the fridge and roll it out on a floured work surface, line the tart tins with the pastry, work it into the tins then trim off the edges.
We now need to ‘blind bake’ the pastry cases, or as the manuscript from 1557 has it, “the coffyn must be fyrste hardened in the oven”.
Cover the pastry bases in the tins with some baking paper and then spread some baking beans or some loose metal change (coins) so that it fills each case. Prick the bases with a fork to avoid soggy bottoms!
Pop the pastry cases in the oven to blind bake for about ten minutes, or until golden brown. The coins or baking beans are essential to weigh the pastry down as it bakes.

To make the fruit filling

Wash, destalk and hull the strawberries (cut out a V shaped part of the stalk-heart out of the top of the strawberry) and add to a mixing bowl.
Add the brown sugar, the breadcrumbs and melted butter. Beat the 4 egg yolks and add them too.
Then, using a potato masher, gently mash and mix all this fruit filling together. You want to keep the strawberries semi-whole, but make sure everything is mixed.
Finish by using a spoon to mix thoroughly and coat everything in the butter, egg, sugar and strawberry juice.
When the pastry cases have turned golden brown, take them out of the oven, remove the baking beans and baking paper and fill each case with the fruit filling.
Sprinkle over some extra sugar and bake in the oven for about twenty to thirty minutes.
You can, if you wish, use any extra pastry to make a pastry lattice shape over the top of the tarts.
Remove the strawberry tarts from the oven. Let them cool before serving.
Lastly, finely slice the extra strawberries to garnish your tarts for that scrumptious finish.

It’s as simple as that! We’d love to see your tasty Tudor creations, so if you have been inspired, tweet us your creations, @Gorenje_UK, or post them on our Facebook page!