Monday, June 25, 2012

Flamusse Bressanne (best apple tart ever)






This is my favourite apple tart recipe. What I love is the balance between the sweetness of the apples and sugar balanced by the freshness of the wine (if using) and the creme fraiche. The crumbly base, firm cooked apples and creamy set custard make for some wonderful textures, too.


 There's a short version and a long version of for the method - depending on how many instructions you like. The short version goes a little something like this:

1. Knead together pastry ingredients into a dough, cool 1 hour+ then roll out and to fit tart dish and blind bake.

2. Glaze pastry to seal. When set fill with apples. Mix up custard ingredients and pour over. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake centre of 180-200 degree preheated oven for 20-30 or until set.

3. Optional pretty finishing: Sprinkle with caster/powdered sugar and grill to caramelise top. Cover pastry bits w aluminium foil to prevent it burning.



 It was shared with me by a Matthias, a lovely German guy who passed on this French style tart they called 'Flamusse Bressanne' or in German 'Burgunder Apfelkuchen'. I looked up 'Flamusse Bressanne' online to see how common it was and it seems that this is usually made without a pastry - instead making a custard with a bit of flour that sets into a nice mould for the apples. So up to you. I'm sharing with the pastry steps as it is the version I know and it's handy to have a recipe for shortcrust pastry anyhow.




SWEET SHORTCRUST PASTRY

250g (1 2/3 cups) flour

75g (1/3 cup) sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 -2 T almond meal (optional)

125g (generous 1/2 cup) room temperature unsalted butter

1 large egg

1 shot dry white wine (optional)


GLAZE

1/4 cup apricot jam

1/2 T water or spirit like Rum, Cognac or Calvados


APPLES

500-680g apples (3 large or 4 small apples / about 1 1/2 pounds) You can use any firm textured apple. Granny Smith apples are very nice.

2 - 4 T (25 - 50 grams) sugar to caramelise (optional, depending on sweetness of apples)

2 T (26 grams) unsalted butter


CUSTARD

200ml (generous 3/4 c) creme fraiche

75g (1/3 c) sugar

2 eggs

1/2 t vanilla paste / pure vanilla extract


CINNAMON SUGAR (optional)

1 T (15g) sugar

1/4 -1/2 t cinnamon


Method

Pastry
(If you don't have a mixer you can use clean hands and just make sure you chill it well before baking as pastry should be cold going into oven).
Place the butter in your mixer and beat until softened. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually add the egg and wine, beating just until incorporated. (Don't over mix or the butter will separate and lighten in colour.) Add flour, almond meal and salt and mix just until it forms a ball. (Don't overwork or pastry will be hard when baked.) Flatten dough into disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate about one hour or until firm.
Have ready an 20-25cm (8 - 9 inch) tart pan (preferably with removable bottom). On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry into a 30cm (11 - 12 inch) circle that is about 3mm (1/8 inch) thick. To prevent the pastry from sticking to the counter and to ensure uniform thickness, keep lifting up and turning the pastry a quarter turn as you roll (always roll from the centre of the pastry outwards to get uniform thickness). 
When the pastry is the desired size, lightly roll pastry around your rolling pin, dusting off any excess flour as you roll. Unroll onto top of tart pan. Never pull pastry or you will get shrinkage (shrinkage is caused by too much pulling of the pastry when placing it in the pan). Gently lay in pan and with a small floured piece of pastry, lightly press pastry into bottom and up sides of pan. Roll your rolling pin over top of pan to get rid of excess pastry. With a thumb up movement, again press dough into pan. Prick bottom of dough (this will prevent the dough from puffing up as it bakes). Cover and refrigerate for about 20 minutes to chill the butter and to rest the gluten.
Preheat oven to 205 degrees C (400 degrees F) and place rack in centre of oven. Line the unbaked pastry shell with parchment paper or aluminium foil. Fill tart pan with pie weights or beans, making sure the weights are to the top of the pan and evenly distributed over the entire surface.  Bake crust for 20 to 25 minutes until crust is dry and lightly browned. Remove weights and cool crust on wire rack. 

When cool, spread a thin layer of warm apricot glaze over the bottom and sides of the tart to seal the crust and prevent it from getting soggy. Let the glaze dry between 20 - 30 minutes.

Glaze:
In a small saucepan heat the apricot preserves until boiling. Remove from heat and strain to get rid of lumps. Add the Cognac or water.  


Apples:
Peel, core, and slice the apples into 1/4 inch thick slices. Melt the 2 tablespoons (26 grams) butter in a large frying pan over medium heat and stir in the 2 - 4 tablespoons (25 - 50 grams) sugar. Add the apples and saute until they begin to soften, approximately 5 - 10 minutes. Set the cooked apples aside.

Custard:
In a separate bowl, put creme fraiche, eggs, sugar, vanilla paste/extract and mix well.


Assemble Tart:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (about 350 degrees F) and place rack in the middle of the oven. Arrange the apple wedges in concentric circles on top of the cooled and glazed tart shell. Carefully pour the custard over the apples to just below the top of the tart pan (do not fill all the way or the custard will drip between the crust and the pan).  Sprinkle lightly with the Cinnamon Sugar.
Place tart pan on a larger baking sheet to make it easier to remove from oven and bake for about 20-30 minutes or until the custard has set.
Let the tart cool on wire rack, then lightly sieve powdered sugar over the top. Place the tart under the broiler in the oven just long enough to caramelise the sugar on the apples.  To prevent the edges of the tart shell from over-browning, you can cover them with a thin piece of aluminium foil. Be careful not to over brown.
To remove the tart from the fluted sides of the pan, place your hand under the pan, touching only the removable bottom not the sides. Gently push the tart straight up, away from the sides. The fluted tart ring will fall away and slide down your arm. If you want to remove the bottom of the pan, run a knife or thin metal spatula between the crust and metal bottom, then slide the tart onto a cardboard cake round or platter.  (NB when I made the tart shown in photo I had already packed up my pie dish so had to make do with what I could find - this pan with no handles. I just let it cool in pan and cut slices directly from that with a cake slice)





Serve with softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Remember to share! It is very rich and deliciously unsuitable for diets.

Makes 1 x 20-25cm (8 or 9 inch) tart. (That's about 8-10 slices)

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Mrs Doubtfire (Recut trailer)

A creepy premise, Mrs Doubtfire. This recut gives it a more fitting genre....

Plot Synopsis: An unemployed actor undergoes a drastic transformation in a twisted attempt to regain the trust of his estranged family.

Mrs. Doubtfire (Recut) from Peter Javidpour on Vimeo.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Jaeyeol Han Portraits




Jaeyeol Han is an artist I met doing a life drawing class in Seoul years ago. Needless to say it was intimidating being surrounded by animators and young artist students like him, with his incredible drawing skills. While I was struggling to get anything even in proportion let alone with any flair, in the seconds we had for each pose he would be churning out both realistic and muscular stylised figures.

After majoring in painting, he's been working a lot on portraits - also my favourite subject matter. These portraits have a sense of urgency about them but are delivered from eyes trained to observe acute and subtle emotions caught in a moment. Some I have more of an immediate connection with than others and several I would like to purchase (you can arrange to buy by emailing him - after spending some time living in Ireland, where he had his last show, his English is pretty good). His next show, in Seoul, is in September and details are on his website:

Jaeyeol Han's website

Check out his website for his virtual gallery of more portraits in this series.

 



Here is the video these stills are captured from:




Thursday, June 21, 2012

Camélia Jordana - Non non non non

In honour of the Fete de la Musique, held all over France, and at our local bowling club (where the Frenchies play les boules), here is a French pop song that's been stuck in my head lately. The singer was on the French idol/talent/star quest show when she was just a geek-chic bespectacled 16 year old and she's all of 19 now.

First just the tune was catchy, but paying attention to the (simple) lyrics and then the cheesy 'Glee' kinda music video I liked it even more; it reminded me not so much of post break-up cheer-up attempts by friends but more of that feeling of just being in the wrong mood at a woo-hoo!-fun party - everyone else all chipper (Did I mention there's a funeral home called 'Chipper Funerals' here?) and me just being unable to get in that dancey mood. A song like this might have changed all that.





in case you feel the need to sing too -



Camélia Jordana - No no no (listening to Barbara)

How many times shall I
Courteously tell you
I don't wanna go out to the Baron club

No, no, no, no
I don't wanna get some fresh air
No, no, no, no
I don't wanna have a drink
No, no, no, no
I don't wanna forget about him
No, no, no, no
I don't wanna do without him

I only wanna
Feel bad and there's nothing wrong in that
Hanging around, eating nothing at all
Listening to Barbara
Maybe he will come back

No, I don't wanna take a turn
What's the need to take a turn
No, I don't wanna get rid
Of this so beautiful hell
That I'm starting to like
I don't wanna leave my lounge

No, no, no, no
I don't wanna get some fresh air
No, no, no, no
I don't wanna have a drink
No, no, no, no
I don't wanna forget about him
No, no, no, no
I don't wanna do without him

I only wanna
Feel bad and there's nothing wrong in that
Hanging around, eating nothing at all
Listening to Barbara
Maybe he will come back

No , I don't wanna feel better
What's the need to feel better
No, I don't wanna get dressed
Don't wanna put make-up on
Let me be bored
Stop your questions

No, no, no, no
I don't wanna get some fresh air
No, no, no, no
I don't wanna have a drink
No, no, no, no
I don't wanna forget about him
No, no, no, no
I don't wanna do without him

I only wanna
Feel bad and there's nothing wrong in that
Hanging around, eating nothing at all
Listening to Barbara
Maybe he will come back


.