And no the title of this blog is not a reference to my diminutive size! As you can see by the photography it refers to the blackcurrant shortcake tart I made a few weekends ago from the delicious harvest bursting forth from my Ben Lomond bush. Probably picked enough for about two puddings so sadly none to share with anyone else. Well in truth I did give a pie to my parents when they were made so I'm not being completely selfish!
If anyone remembers my 'Getting Fruity' blogs last year you will probably remember references to a Marks and Spencer's 'Pies and Flans' book written by Mary Cadogan that I've had for an eternity. Well this recipe comes from there too.
- Rub six ounces of butter into 12 ounces of self raising flour ( I used Stork margarine)
- Stir in six ounces of caster sugar
- Add a beaten egg and mix to a firm dough adding cold water if you need to.
- Roll out pastry and line your tart tin - I made one medium one and two smaller ones. I can recommend the small Lakeland pie dishes for this. The pastry is very fragile but persevere with it - it's worth it for the crumbly texture you end up with.
- Fill with eight ounces of blackcurrants and sprinkle them lightly with sugar, you don't need much, better to enjoy their tart flavour.
- With the pastry that is left over arrange strips in a lattice pattern over the tart and brush with milk.
- Bake at 170 degrees (fan oven) for 30-35 minutes.
- Enjoy with whatever you fancy - but my pick with blackcurrants is always clotted cream! or Cornish ice cream at a push.
This looks great! I'm not sure why I am not getting many blackcurrents...we have three plants but I only got about a handful
ReplyDeleteMine are Ben Lomond and have been really prolific from the start - they do recommend a good prune every year in a halo shape.i was worried that they wouldn't come back as well but we still had lots of fruit although I had very few redcurrants on my first year
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