Cruise & Travel

GRAPEFRUIT TREACLE TART

SERVES 12

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I adore treacle tart.At lunch before my wedding, I had 24 oysters followed by a bowl of treacle tart and custard. Bliss. But I do recognise that most treacle tarts are too sweet, so I devised this variation in which grapefruit cuts through the sweetness of the syrup. Serve it with ice cream, cream, or good old-fashioned custard, homemade or shop-bought.” Prue

INGREDIENT­S

3 pink grapefruit­s 3 large eggs 450g golden syrup 50ml double cream 100g coarse fresh white breadcrumb­s 2 tbsp caster sugar

FORTHE PASTRY

140g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes 250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting a pinch of salt 2 large egg yolks 2–3 tbsp iced water

l To make the pastry, put the butter, flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and rub the butter into the flour lightly using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumb­s. Use a butter knife to mix in the egg yolks and enough water to bring it together to a crumbly dough – it should only just hold together.Wrap the dough in cling film, and chill it in the fridge for at least 1 hour, until firm.

l Finely grate the zest of one grapefruit. Cut the fruit in half and extract the juice. Put the grapefruit juice into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil rapidly until the juice has reduced by about two thirds and has become syrupy. Peel and segment the other two grapefruit­s, removing all pith.

l To make the filling, whisk the eggs in a medium bowl until yolks and whites are smoothly combined, then add the golden syrup, cream, reduced grapefruit juice and zest, and the breadcrumb­s. Stir vigorously to combine.

l Heat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C/

Gas Mark 5. Place a baking sheet in the oven to heat up. Grease a 24cm (9½in) loose-bottomed flan tin.

l Unwrap the pastry and roll it out as thinly as you can on a dusted surface, ideally to 1mm thickness. Line the greased tin with the pastry, then chill in the freezer for 20 minutes.

l Trim the excess pastry from the top of the pastry case, then fill with the treacle mixture.

Put it directly onto the pre-heated baking sheet in the oven. Bake in the middle of the oven for 40–50 minutes, covering it with foil towards the end of cooking if it is browning too much on top. l While the tart is baking, dry the grapefruit segments on a piece of kitchen paper, then place them on a sturdy metal baking tray and sprinkle caster sugar over them. Use a kitchen blowtorch to caramelise the sugar. l Remove the tart from the oven and allow it to cool until it is just lukewarm, not hot. Arrange the caramelise­d grapefruit segments on top of the warm tart.

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