Food writer, stylist and author of A Lot On Her Plate, Rosie Birkett loves testing out new recipe ideas and having the right kit to hand fuels her culinary creativity. Each week, Rosie will share an inspiring recipe that can be made quickly and easily using Cuisinart products. Here, Rosie shows you how to create a simple, quick and delicious pear and hazelnut frangipane tart, using the Cuisinart Easy Prep Pro.
Rosie Birkett
As a food stylist, cooking for the camera often on location or in hired studio spaces, time is of the essence, so it’s vital that I keep a very tidy, organised kitchen. It’s just as important when I’m cooking for pleasure at home, or excitedly testing out a recipe idea I’ve just had.
I find particularly that baking can result in the kitchen becoming chaotic, especially if you’re working in a small space. When I was writing my cookbook, A Lot On Her Plate, my boyfriend would come home from work - he later told me - dreading the days that I was working on the dessert chapter, for fear of what my ambitious pastry plans might have in store for our dinky cupboard of a kitchen that evening.
During this time, one thing helped considerably: finding a high performance yet compact food processor, which would free up much-needed space in my kitchen. Enter the Cuisinart Easy Prep Pro, a must-have processor which can be used to make recipes in their entirety.
This processor is a brilliant tool for budding chefs and bakers because its two fully sealed bowls and different blades can be used for every stage of the food prep, simplifying recipes and keeping mess contained to its easily cleaned fixtures.
Time consuming, everyday preparation tasks can be taken care of easily. In addition, this sleek kitchen processor helps you to be creative, taking your food to the next level.
Its slicer blades, for example, make it super-quick to finely slice fruit or veg, making short work of potato dauphinoise, celeriac gratin or tarte tatin. In particular, I love that I can use it to create the entirety of my pear and hazelnut frangipane recipe, using the slicer for the pears, small bowl for the frangipane and larger bowl for the pastry.
Pear and hazelnut frangipane tart recipe
Ingredients (serves 12)
For the sweet pastry
- 250g plain flour
- 125g unsalted butter, chilled
- 60g caster sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 egg, beaten
Hazelnut frangipane
- 130g skinned, roasted hazelnuts
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 80g golden caster sugar
- 15g spelt flour
- 80g unsalted butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- ½ tsp almond essence
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
For the pears
- 2 firm pears, cored
- 200g smooth apricot conserve
- 1 cardamom pod, bruised
- 1 clove
Method:
For the pastry: preheat the oven to 180C (fan). Fit the large bowl of your food processor with the large metal blade.
Place the flour, salt, and sugar into the bowl and process for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the egg through the feed tube until the dough holds. Don’t process for more than 30 seconds. Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and chill while you prepare the other stages.
For the frangipane: fit the small bowl with the small blade. Pulse the hazelnuts until coarsely ground, remove a quarter and set aside.
Add the flour, sugar and ginger and pulse to combine. Add the butter, sugar and essences, pulsing to a cream. Add the eggs and pulse until mixed. Add remaining hazelnuts and pulse.
For the pear: fit the large bowl with the 4mm slicing disc. Turn the processor on to low and feed the pear halves through the feed tube. Set aside the slices.
Take your pastry out of the fridge, and line a greased 24cm pie dish or fluted tart tin. Line the pastry with baking parchment, fill with baking beans and blind bake for 10-15 minutes, until the edges are golden.
While the pastry is cooking, heat the apricot conserve with two tablespoons of water, the clove and cardamom, until melted into a syrup, add in the sliced pear. Drain through a sieve, conserving the syrup.
Once blind baked, allow the pastry to cool, remove the baking beans and then spread the nut filling all over the inside of the pastry case.
Lay the sliced pears evenly over the top. Turn the oven down to 150C and bake for 50 minutes or until the frangipane is puffed and golden brown.
Remove it from the oven and brush the top of the tart with the syrup. Allow the tart to cool for about 30 minutes, slice and serve at room temperature.
This week: Rosie Birkett shows you how to make a parsley risotto with wild mushrooms using the Cuisinart Soup Maker Plus.
Rosie Birkett is a food writer, stylist, and author of A Lot On Her Plate (Hardie Grant). rosiebirkett.com; Twitter: @rosiefoodie
Buy Cuisinart products at John Lewis and Lakeland
