Apple berry almond tart, baking failures and "Munich"

I’ve trashed Steven Spielberg once or twice already (despite loving “Jaws” and the Indiana Jones trilogy), but last week I saw an excellent movie directed by him: “Munich”. It’s a very long movie (almost 3 hours long), but it keeps you hooked every step of the way – it’s like those books you feel like taking to the shower with you because you can’t put them down. The cast is packed with favorites of mine (Bana, Craig, and the glorious Hinds and Rush), and I was surprised by a wonderful Mathieu Kassovitz , whom I’d always associated to the beautiful “Amélie” – because of his powerful performance in “Munich” I’ve added “La Haine” to my “to watch” list.
I might find some of Spielberg’s movies quite cheesy – “Hook”, anyone? – but I must admit that very few directors know how to perfectly place the camera and move it around like he does; he should stick to adult movies (and stop ruining them at the end, like he did with “Schindler’s List”).

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Dan Lepard’s recipes have become my go-to strategy when I want to avoid baking failures – after making one of Lisa Yockelson’s cakes and throwing it in the garbage (her cake recipes are always so great, I do not know what happened there), I felt like making something different; I decided for a tart and went straight for one of Lepard’s recipes – better safe than sorry, right? ;)
The tart turned out delicious and the combination of apples, almonds and berry preserves was a match made in heaven.

Apple berry almond tart
from Lepard’s column at the Guardian, and also from his absolutely great cookbook (one of my all time favorites)

¾ cup (105g) all purpose flour
2 ½ tablespoons (25g) corn starch, packed
pinch of salt
½ cup + 1 tablespoon (127g) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon (78g) granulated sugar
1 egg, separated
½ cup (50g) ground almonds
1 tablespoon Amaretto (or brandy)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large Granny Smith apple
125g any dark berry preserves – I used blackcurrant
3 tablespoons flaked almonds

Combine the flour, corn starch and salt into a large bowl with 75g of the butter and 2 tablespoons of the sugar. Rub together just until the lumps of butter disappear, add the egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of ice water, and work to a smooth, soft dough. Wrap, chill for 1 hour, then roll out and line a lightly buttered 20cm fluted tart pan with a removable bottom*. Prick the dough all over with a fork and freeze for 40 minutes. – in the meantime, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
Line the pastry with baking paper and cover with dried beans/baking weights. Bake for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the paper and beans/weights and bake for 10 minutes longer. Keep the oven on.

Beat the remaining 50g of butter, the ground almonds and remaining sugar with the egg white and the Amaretto and vanilla until smooth. Peel, core and finely dice the apple, and stir it through the almond cream. Spread the jam over the base of the tart case, cover with almond cream and sprinkle with the flaked almonds. Bake for 40 minutes or until the filling is nicely puffed and golden.

* I made the exact recipe above using a 30x10cm (12x4in) tart pan

Serves 6-8

Vanilla cupcakes with blackcurrant preserves icing

Looking for a recipe to use up the jam left in the jar after making this cake, I found an old magazine scrap with a recipe for apple cupcakes with blackcurrant icing; I thought it sounded delicious but did not have any apples around (I’d devoured them in crumble form a couple of hours before, mea culpa). Then I thought that a neutral flavor, like vanilla, would be a good substitute for the apple since it would let the icing shine – that was how these tender, simple yet flavorsome cupcakes were created.

Vanilla cupcakes with blackcurrant preserves icing
adapted from the wonderful Gourmet Today: More than 1000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen + an old magazine scrap

Cupcakes:
¾ cup (105g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
¾ stick (85g) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons (90g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon whole milk, room temperature

Icing:
½ cup (70g) icing sugar
100g blackcurrant preserves
2-3 teaspoons lemon juice

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a twelve-cavity muffin pan (1/3 cup capacity each cavity) with paper liners.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add egg and beat until just combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl, then beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and milk mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour and mixing until just combined.
Divide batter among muffin cups, filling them two-thirds full, and bake until tops are pale golden and a wooden pick or skewer inserted in centers comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then carefully remove and transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely.
Make the icing: sift the icing sugar into a medium bowl. Add the preserves and mix well. Gradually add the lemon juice, mixing until desired consistency. Pour over the cooled cupcakes and set aside to set, about 30 minutes.

Makes 12

Blackcurrant-sour cream coffee cake

I have just watched "The Amazing Spider-Man" and even though I think that the "amazing" of that title is a bit too presumptuous I liked the movie: it's a really good cast, far better than the first Spider-Man movie directed by Sam Raimi. But Raimi had Willem Dafoe as the villain, and Willem Dafoe as the villain is just perfection; actually, Dafoe as anything is perfection. :)
In a perfect world, Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man would be directed by Sam Raimi.

Well, the world is not perfect but this cake is: the batter is delicious and the sour cream makes the cake extremely tender; I used blackcurrant preserves here because I'd bought a jar of it on a whim but any flavor will do: use your favorite.

Blackcurrant-sour cream coffee cake
slightly adapted from the wonderful Food & Wine

2 cups (280g) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks/226g) unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups (300g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup sour cream*
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
¾ cup blackcurrant preserves
confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter and flour a 25cm (10in) Bundt pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping the sides of the bowl. Add the sour cream and vanilla. On low speed, beat in the dry ingredients just until incorporated – batter will be thick.
Spread all but ½ cup of the batter into the prepared pan. Using the back of a spoon, make a trough in the batter, all the way around the pan. Mix the preserves with the reserved batter and spoon it into the trough.
Bake the cake for about 1 hour, or until it begins to pull away from the pan and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto a wire rack, remove the pan and let cool completely.
Sift with the confectioners' sugar and serve.

* homemade sour cream: to make 1 cup of sour cream, mix 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream with 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice in a bowl. Whisk until it starts to thicken. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 1 hour or until thicker (I usually leave mine on the counter overnight – except on very warm nights – and it turns out thick and silky in the following morning; refrigerate for a creamier texture)

Serves 8-10