This simple and comforting dessert recipe by The Quality Chop House’s Shaun Searley, taken from the restaurant’s new book, is a crowd-pleasing classic
IMAGE: ANDREW MONTGOMERY
Over the past 150 years, The Quality Chop House has been a working man’s ‘eating house’, a ’90s celebrity magnet and, most recently, one of the city’s best-known and best-loved restaurants. Bar a few elaborate recipes here and there, their new book – The Quality Chop House: Modern Recipes and Stories from a London Classic – is aimed at amateur cooks and, here, we share chef Shaun Searley’s wonderful recipe for Raspberry and Almond Tart with crème fraîche.
Raspberry and Almond Tart
Ingredients
FRANGIPANE
- 225 g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 225 g caster sugar
- 3 free-range organic eggs
- 50 g plain flour
- 225 g ground almonds pinch of salt
- 1 blind-baked tart case if making your own, see below for recipe
- 50 g raspberry jam if making your own, see below for recipe
- 200 g raspberries
- 70 g flaked almonds
- crème fraîche to serve
Instructions
- First, make the frangipane. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and almost white in colour. Beat in the eggs one at a time – if the mixture looks like it is going to separate, add a little flour. Fold in the rest of the flour along with the almonds and salt, then store in the fridge for up to a week. Allow it to come to room temperature before using.
- Preheat the oven to 170°C. Gently spread the jam over the bottom of the tart case. Fill a piping bag with the frangipane (you’ll need about 350g for this recipe) and pipe it over the jam, up to the pastry lip. Push the raspberries into the frangipane.
- Bake in the oven for 8 minutes, then sprinkle over the flaked almonds and bake for another 20 minutes. Use a skewer to check the centre of the tart – if it comes out clean it’s cooked, otherwise give it another 5 minutes. Leave to rest for at least 1 hour before serving with crème fraîche.
Sweet Pastry Tart Case
Ingredients
- 250 g butter at room temperature
- 180 g caster sugar
- 1 vanilla pod split lengthways and seeds scraped out
- 2 free-range organic eggs
- 500 g plain flour beaten egg yolk to glaze
Instructions
- Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla seeds until light and fluffy and almost white in colour.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time – if the mixture looks like it is going to separate, add a little flour. Fold in the rest of the flour in 3 batches and bring it together to form a dough. Divide the dough into 3 pieces, then wrap in cling film and store in the fridge or freezer until you need it.
- To make a blind-baked tart case, take a piece of dough and roll out to a 25cm circle, 3mm thick. Use it to line a 20cm fluted loose-bottomed tart case. Leave to rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 170°C. Lay out 2 sheets of cling film to really get into the grooves of the tart case, one on top of the other, and press into the lined tart case. Fill with baking beans or dried haricot beans and bake for 15–20 minutes. Carefully remove the beans and continue to bake for another 5–10 minutes. The pastry should be a pale golden colour and firm to the touch – if the centre is still a little soft give it another minute or two in the oven.
- Once it’s definitely baked, make sure there are no holes (you can patch them up with a little leftover pastry), then brush with a little egg yolk to glaze.
Raspberry Jam
Instructions
- Combine 1kg raspberries, 500g granulated sugar, 450g jam sugar and 150ml lemon juice in a large heavy-based saucepan and gently heat to gently dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved, bring to a simmer and cook for an hour or so. When the jam hits a temperature of 105°C, leave to cool slightly and transfer into sterilised jam jars.
Extract taken from THE QUALITY CHOP HOUSE: Modern Recipes and Stories from a London Classic by William Lander, Daniel Morgenthau & Shaun Searley (Quadrille, £30) Photography: Andrew Montgomery
If you like the look of this, you’ll love Shaun’s Bell Honey Custard Tart and his Malted Chocolate Ganache, Sour Cherry Jam and Truffled White Chocolate recipes. Or discover more dessert recipes on The Home Page here.
