Rum and Raisin Tart

I've done a couple of posts recently about recipes from my mum. Today it's dad's turn. This isn't exactly a recipe from him, but a recipe for him. He's always had a bit of love of rum and raisin ice-cream but, being January, I thought it was still a little early to get the ice cream maker out. So I decided to look for a warmer recipe, where I could combine these two ingredients, and Jamie's Great Britain came to hand. I've been wanting to make his Ecclefechan Tart for ages now (a whisky pastry with a dried fruit, black treacle and sponge-type filling) and I thought it would be the perfect base to make a few rum and raison flavoured adaptations.

So, I swapped whisky for rum in the pastry and used raisins alone, instead of a mixture of dried fruits in the filling. I also removed the stem ginger from the  raisin filling and added a bit of ground cinnamon to the sponge-type top - Jamie combined his stem ginger and orange zest with the raisins, whereas I decided to mix my cinnamon and orange zest into my sponge mix. 

One thing I'm not sure about is that Jamie didn't use any flour in his sponge (that's why I keep calling it sponge-type, as I'm not really sure what it's called when you effectively make a sponge but leave out the flour), but I added a couple of tablespoons of flour to stabilise it - this may have only been necessary because I over whisked my sugar/butter/egg mix, so if your's doesn't separate, I'm sure you can leave out the flour.

Mine also looks a little different to Jamie's as I had the wrong shaped tin, so my sponge batter was too thick, not leaving enough room for the raisins to peep through. Equally, this resulted in quite a nice tri-layer tart with the rum pastry, black treacle raisins and citrus and cinnamon spiced sponge.

So after all that explaining, here's the recipe (adapted from Jamie's Great Britain):

Ingredients:

Pastry

250g plain flour

125 unsalted, cubed, cold butter

Pinch of salt

50ml rum

Filling

150g room temperature butter

150g light soft brown sugar

150ml double cream

3 large eggs

1 heaped tbsp black treacle

300g raisins

Zest of 1 orange

1tsp cinnamon

(a couple of tbsp flour - see above)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and grease a 25cm loose bottomed tart tin.
2. Rub together pastry ingredients, except rum, until they resemble fine breadcrumbs.
3. Add the rum and push it together, but don't overwork it.
4. Leave it to rest in the fridge for 15 minutes, then roll out to about 3mm thick and line the tart case with it.
5. Prick the base with a fork, and blind bake (cover with greaseproof and fill with baking beans or uncooked rice) for 10 minutes.
6. Remove parchment and beans and return to the oven for another 5 mins.
7. Spread treacle onto the base once it's out of the oven, then pour the raisins on top.
8. Make the sponge/batter by whisking together the butter and sugar, then add the eggs (I added a little flour here as mine had split, but that may not be necessary - I fear I may have over-whisked it!), finally stir the cream, zest and cinnamon through the mixture.
9. Pour this mix into the tart case (over the raisins) and shake it a little to make the layers combine a little.
10. Cook for 30 minutes until golden.

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Mum's the word... Raspberry Torte

As the wonder woman who taught me to cook, I think it's time my mum got a mention. This torte is my favourite comfort food, dinner party dessert, bring & share pud... it's pretty perfect for everything really.

What I love about this torte is the way it reflects the seasons, in summer mum fills it with raspberries for a sharp contrast to the sweet almond cake and in autumn we go out blackberry picking for something sweeter. I've seen similar recipes in Mary Berry's Cookbook and The Master Chef 1991 Cookbook (Daphne Nelson's dessert) so I'm not sure who got there first, but to me it doesn't matter - it's my most requested dessert and my thanks goes out to whomever had the idea first... but my greatest thanks goes to my mum for cooking this for me after many a busy week at work.

Mum's method's pretty simple really:
Beat together 150g each of the following:
- Margerine/Spread
- Caster Sugar
- Self Raising Flour
- Ground Almonds
With 1tsp ground cinnamon (and a couple of drops of almond extract if you want a more obvious almond flavour - more akin to a bakewell)

Spread half onto a lined spring release 22cm circular cake tin, cover with fresh/thawed berries (about 200 - 250g unfrozen) and then 'dot' the remaining mixture over the top and scatter with flaked almonds.

Cook for about 45mins at 180 degrees C until the top is golden and a skewer comes out with only slightly moist crumbs - you may need to leave it a little longer or cover the top with foil (if it browns too quickly) depending on your oven so keep checking.

Leave to firm up until cooled (warm not hot) and then remove from the tin and dust with icing sugar before serving with yoghurt creme fraiche or cream... and mum says it's great with a fruit coulis at a posher 'do'.

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