There isn’t always time to make the pastry case for a tart; to tenderly rub the cubes of butter into the flour with your fingers, to roll the dough into a smooth sheet then persuade it into the crinkles and corners of the tart tin. Neither is there the chance to cover the pastry with parchment and baking beans to keep it from shrinking as it bakes or to rescue runaway baking beans from the floor where a few inevitably end up as you lift them out. But sometimes, you just want a slice of tart.
Of course, there are occasions when there simply has to be a pastry case. To hold a soothing balm of lemon curd for instance, or secure the raspberry jam and almond cream layers of a Bakewell pudding. (Blackcurrant jam is much better by the way.) You need deep, biscuit-crisp edges, too, for a treacle tart or a lemon meringue or for a nutmeg-freckled custard tart.
Mostly, I need only a crisp and crumbly base on which to pile a layer of cream or cream cheese and another of seasonal fruit. Which is exactly what I did this week, folding flaked almonds, poppy seeds and pine nuts into a shortbread dough on which we placed ricotta cream and slices of Italian oranges, the fruit’s glowing flesh blushed with scarlet. As a glaze, I used a fragrant syrup of warm honey and thyme.
I also put together a batch of pancakes this week. Soft cakes no bigger than a digestive biscuit, made with coconut milk and crushed bananas, on which we laid baked rhubarb to balance the bananas’ sweetness. Little clouds of dough to hold a seasonal treat.
Three-nut shortbread with orange, honey and thyme
Serves 6
For the base:
butter 150g
icing sugar 60g
ground almonds 80g
plain flour 75g
skinned hazelnuts 50g
pine kernels 40g
poppy seeds 10g
sesame seeds 10g
flaked almonds 30g
shelled pistachios 40g
lemon 1, small
oranges 4
double cream 150ml
ricotta 200g
For the syrup:
orange the juice of 1
honey 3 tbsp
thyme leaves 2 tsp
Set the oven at 160C/gas mark 3. Using a food mixer with a flat beater, cream the butter and icing sugar together. Fold in the ground almonds and plain flour. Chop the hazelnuts in half, then mix with the pine kernels, poppy and sesame seeds, flaked almonds and pistachios. Finely grate the zest from the lemon then fold, together with the seeds and nuts, into the shortbread dough.
Bring the mixture together with floured hands, put on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then lightly pat into a rectangle roughly 22 x 24 cm. Bake for 20-25 minutes until pale biscuit-coloured. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes, then slide carefully on to a cooling rack and leave until cold.
Remove the peel from three of the oranges with a sharp knife then slice the fruit thinly and place in a small bowl. Put the cream in a mixing bowl and beat until thick, but not so firm it will stand in peaks. Fold in the ricotta and refrigerate.
Put the juice of the orange, the honey and thyme leaves into a small pan and warm over a low heat until the honey has melted. Slide the shortbread on to a serving plate or board, spoon the chilled ricotta cream over the surface then cover with the sliced oranges. Spoon over the orange and thyme syrup and serve.
Banana pancakes with rhubarb
Makes 8, serves 4
rhubarb 300g
orange 1
maple syrup 3 tbsp
For the pancakes:
butter 20g
plain flour 100g
baking powder 1 lightly heaped tsp
soft brown sugar 1 tbsp
banana 1, medium
lemon juice of 1
egg 1, large
coconut milk 125ml
vanilla extract
groundnut or vegetable oil a little
dried coconut a little
Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Cut the rhubarb into pieces the size of a wine cork. Put them in a baking dish, add the finely grated zest of the orange and squeeze its juice over the rhubarb. Trickle the maple syrup over then bake for about 20 minutes until soft.
To make the pancakes: melt the butter in a small pan and set aside. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar.
Peel the banana and mash it to a thick purée with a fork, then stir in the lemon juice. Separate the egg, fold the yolk into the banana with the melted butter, coconut milk and a tiny pinch of salt. Beat the egg white until stiff then fold gently but thoroughly into the banana mixture.
Warm a thin film of oil in a shallow, nonstick pan. Take 2 generously heaped tbsp of the batter and lower into the pan, pulling the mixture into a round as you go. Continue with another three then cook over a medium heat for 4-5 minutes until lightly browned on the underside. Using a palette knife, flip the pancake over and lightly colour the other side.
Remove the pancake and place on a plate, then continue with the remaining mixture. Serve immediately with the rhubarb and cooking syrup. Add pieces of semi-dried coconut to each one.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @NigelSlater
