Apologies and a lovely Linzertorte!

My darling blog readers, what can I say? It's been 2 years and almost 3 months since my last entry. I know, I know - it sounds like a terrible confession! It has been too long and I am sorry.

Anyway, today I felt inspired to sit down and start typing again.  A quick summary of what I made today:

Breakfast crepes with lemon and sugar - at least 6 consumed by PB in as many minutes!!
Mushroom soup ready for our lunches this week
Trout en papillote with sauteed potatoes, home grown rocket and a herby crème fraîche dressing

And... a Linzertorte!

It did make me chuckle to make this tasty tart as it is surprisingly similar to a tart given to us on holiday by the lovely Italian lady who owned our villa.  At the time PB's eyed glittered with delight and he cut slice after slice until it was all gone.  It was a big hit.  As I looked outside my kitchen door whilst making the rich almond crust, the rain hammered down - what a contrast to the sunny Tuscan skies of July.

The main challenge of this recipe is the pastry - it's incredibly short making for a meltingly good texture, but very hard to make the lattice strips look clean and tidy.  I think that when I attempt this again, I will roll the strips a little thicker for better stability, but there we are!!

Ingredients:

125g plain flour
175g ground almonds
1/2 tspn cinnamon
1 pinch of cloves (I didn't have any 'ready ground' so I bashed up a whole clove with the end of my rolling pin - VERY cathartic!)
125g butter
100g caster sugar
Zest of one lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 egg yolk


125g caster sugar
375g raspberries (I'm afraid I used frozen raspberries - they were much cheaper than the fresh ones, and sadly I am finding the fresh raspberries a little watery at the moment. Of course either would be fine.)
1 egg white

Method:

Mix together the flour, almonds, cinnamon, cloves and a good pinch of salt.
In a separate bowl mix together the butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice, egg yolk - I found it best to use my hands here, but if you don't like the idea then a metal spoon would do a grand job too.
Combine the buttery mix with the floury mix until a rough dough is formed.
Rest the pastry in the fridge for as long as you can - I left it in as long as it took to make my jam, but I think longer would have been even better and would have made the pastry easier to handle.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
Put a pan on the hob with the caster sugar and raspberries and heat vigorously for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
The jam should be nice and glossy with a very mild set so that it doesn't run everywhere but not so that it is too stiff that it can't be easily poured into your pastry case.  You'll know when!

Roll out two thirds of the pastry on a floured surface (returning a third to your fridge) and line your 9 inch tart tin.  I would be surprised if you didn't have to patch a little bit, but this will not affect the overall appearance of your tart in the end.
Pour in your jam and spread evenly.
Roll out your final 3rd of pastry and cut 12 lots of 1cm strips.  Lay 6 of these over the jam, and then lay 6 more on a diagonal so as to make a pretty lattice pattern.
Quickly brush the pastry with the egg white you had saved from earlier and bake in the oven.
Check how it is cooking after 15 minutes - perhaps rotate it if your oven is a little bit angry on one side (!). Then turn the oven down to 170 degrees for a further 15 minutes until nicely golden.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool before slicing, otherwise your jam will ooze. Dust with icing sugar if you want that dreamy princess feel, but I like it simple. As it is. A little Viennese jam tart.


I hope you manage to give it a go - it's a truly delicious sweet treat.
(The picture below was PB "quality-controlling" my baking! Cheeky!!