Autumnal blackberry, apple and hazelnut tart

​Our communal village orchard is heavy with wonderful produce right now. The plums, mulberries and greengages are over, but now the apples, pears, quince and medlars now have their chance to shine. Even the hedgerows enclosing the old orchard are bearing blackberries and nuts to gather.
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With my basket laden, I set about baking something to use the village bounty. The nuts are, as yet, too young and fresh to grind down to a useful flour, so I used ground almonds – but if you have your own hazelnuts, do use once they’re dried. Just grind them down to a fine meal. The young cob nuts will be fine for the crumble topping.

.​Makes one large tart or 3-4 individual tarts
 

Ingredients:
 
For the pastry:
300g plain flour
75g cold butter, cubed or grated
75g lard (or equivalent white, vegetable fat), cubed
75g cold water
 

For the frangipane filling:
120g ground  hazelnuts (or almonds)
120g caster sugar
120g softened, salted butter
120g eggs (2 large)
 

For the fruit filling:
3 medium cooking apples
Two generous handfuls of foraged blackberries
2 tbsp sugar
 
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For the crumble topping:
50g plain flour
50g cold butter, cubed
60 sugar
30g jumbo (or regular) oats
30g hazelnuts (or use your favourite nut), coarsely chopped

Method

First make your pastry by rubbing together your plain flour and your fat. If you struggle with getting your fat* evenly rubbed in, try grating your cold butter instead of cubing it. You want your handling to be as light as possible at this stage, so just use your fingertips to rub in until you have a breadcrumb-like mixture. At this stage, there should be no lumps of fat remaining as these will stay un-combined when you make your dough and spoil your pastry crust.

​Now add the very cold water to your ‘breadcrumb’ mixture, reserving a little. Hydrated flour will create gluten naturally, which means chewy pastry instead of a light, crisp crumb. Adding as little water as possible will reduce the amount of gluten that forms. Now combine, first with a knife, then your hands. Add all the water only if needed. Work into a ball, handling for the minimum amount of time possible before you have a cohesive, homogenous dough. Wrap and set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest (up to 3 days in fridge or freeze at this stage).

​Now prepare your fruit: peel and core your apples, then dice into medium-sized chunks, add the washed blackberries and sugar and cook over a low to medium heat until nicely softened. No ‘al dente’ here!
Set aside to cool.

​When the dough is rested, dust your board and rolling pin with flour and roll the pastry to the thickness of a pound coin (no more than 3mm). Grease your large tin (25 - 30cm diameter) or smaller tartlet tins (3 or 4, depending upon depth). Line your tin(s) with the pastry, leaving a little over to trim after baking and keep a little raw dough back to make any repairs half way through your blind bake.. Prick the base with a fork and chill once more for at least half an hour. Preheat your oven to 180C (160C fan).

When rested, remove pastry case from the fridge, line with baking paper and weigh down with baking beans (substitute with pennies or dried beans, if necessary). Now we’re going to bake the case before we put our jammy fruit in, to avoid a soggy bottom. Nobody likes a soggy bottom. Blind baking keeps your case crisp when using a wet filling.

Bake a large case for 20-25 minutes, the smaller ones for 15 mins. Now remove the paper and use any left-over raw pastry dough to patch and repair, if necessary, before returning to the oven for another 10 minutes or so. The bottom of your pastry case should be completely dry and baked, if it is a light golden brown, take a small bow. Trim off any excess pastry and set aside until your cooked fruit is cool.
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​While your pastry case is baking, make your frangipane and crumble mixture.

​For the frangipane, simply beat your softened butter and sugar together. They should be soft and well combined, but do not need to be ‘creamed’ together. Now add the large eggs and combine. If you only have medium eggs, use 2 ½ (you will need about 120g). Finally mix in your ground nuts. Mix well – you are not using any gluten here so you can be reasonably vigorous when combining your ingredients. The key is ensuring you start with well-softened butter to make life easy. Set aside until ready (or keep in fridge for 24 hours).

For the crumble topping, lightly rub together your flour and butter, stir in sugar and coarsely chopped hazelnuts and oats. Unlike your pastry, odd lumps of butter in your crumble are fine. Any left over mixture can be frozen in an airtight container and used for muffins etc.
 
When ready, place a layer of the mixed fruit over the base of your pastry case, then cover with the frangipane. Finally scatter your crumble topping and bake in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes for a large tart, a little less for the smaller tarts. When ready, the frangipane will be risen, cake-like and golden brown.

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Eat with pleasure. You have spent time making a thing of beauty from things you have foraged. Take your time to savour. Enjoy.