Just a few days ago I was telling you how great making a simple rough puff pastry is, using spelt flour, and how it’s one of the most simple and rewarding things you can do. And the real treat comes when you cook it, as you can watch the pastry puff it’s cheeks and take on the rich, warm, golden tones that pastry develops in the oven.
And it’s extremely versatile. Once you have the base pastry mixed, you can do all sorts of things with it, sweet or savoury, individual tarts or large sharing ones. Also, don’t miss out on the opportunity to get creative and try something of your own with the spare pieces (see the box at the bottom of the page).
This tart makes a beautiful summer or autumn recipe, something that’s simple to make yet both visually stunning and amazingly tasty. It’s also a great make-ahead dish when you have guests as you can put the tarts together a couple of hours in advance and then cover and keep in the fridge until you need them, at which point put them in the oven.
Also, pastry like this is best fresh from the oven, as the ‘puff’ loses some of it’s height once it’s cooled for a while, so best to serve them whilst they’re hot hot hot!
Goat’s cheese and raspberry tarts
By Gavin Wren
Makes 4 individual tarts
Uses 1 pot
PDF recipe card to download or print
Ingredients
300g le petit oeuf’s spelt rough puff pastry
100g Goat’s cheese log, crumbled
100g Raspberries, halved
1 tablespoon chopped thyme
10 pitted black olives, roughly chopped
1 egg
A pinch of spelt flour for dusting
Directions
Clear a large space on your worktop and clean it thoroughly, also put your rolling pin in the fridge.
In a bowl, mix together the goat’s cheese, raspberries, thyme and olives with a little bit of salt and pepper
Lightly dust the worktop and then roll out your pastry into a rectangle just under A4 (21cm x 29.7cm) in size.
Using a very sharp knife or a pizza wheel, cut the pastry into four rectangular pieces, about 12cm x 8cm and place on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper (put the off cuts back in the fridge – see box below!). Score a line gently about 1.5cm in from the edge of the pastry, taking care not to cut all the way through.
Split the cheese mixture evenly between the four pieces of pastry, piling it centrally within the border you marked on the pastry. In a mug, beat the egg and then use a pastry brush to paint it outside the border you made.
Place in the oven for 25 minutes
Get creative - Sweet treats and cheesy twists!
You know those off cuts of pastry that you had left over? You can have lots of fun making cheesy twists or individual shaped palters with them.Take a piece of pastry, dust one side with cinnamon, cover in demerara sugar, making sure it’s pressed it into the pastry, then roll it up. If the roll is wider than 1cm, cut it into 1cm slices, otherwise, just make whatever shapes you can from your pieces.
Alternatively, take a piece of pastry, press parmesan cheese into one half of it, fold in half to enclose the cheese, roll it out a bit and then cut into strips and twist them up.
Put all of these on a sheet of greaseproof paper in the oven and cook until golden brown.
Or, why not try your own ideas, what about pesto, sun dried tomatoes, anchovy, chocolate, lemon zest… see what you’ve got laying around!