Individual Peach Frangipanes

Hands up who knows what a frangipane is?

One...two...really? That it?

A couple of my friends got very excited as I told them that I had baked, and they thought I must have made cupcakes. Yay cupcakes! I had to then admit I'd made frangipanes, which are much more interesting if a little uglier (my fault). The conversation went something like this...

"What?? Where's the cupcakes?

"I didn't make cupcakes. I made frangipane."

"What's that?"

"It's like a tart with almondy stuff and peaches in it"

"Hm, okay.  Hey guys, Xinmei's brought cupcakes!"

What? Where?

Although the next day, I got a very sweet thank you message for the frangipane:

"Hey Xinmei, thanks for the pecan pie yesterday!! It was delicious!"

Hm. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

For those of you who don't know what frangipane is it is a tart with a almondy filling. Simples!

So last week I was invited to Rex London's Autumn/Winter preview of their new collection of Cool Stuff (more to come in another blog post), and I got this cute teacup and saucer from these guys which I thought would help de-uglyfy my frangipanes (I'm not selling my baking particularly well today).

Do you think it worked? 

Well, I tried.

I even tried taking them outside to see if the natural light helped. 

Not really. Ok, how about with this nice plate? No?

To be honest with you, they just came out a not as the most aesthetically pleasing of my baked goods. Firstly, I couldn't find a tart pan, so I decided to make individual tarts and use a cupcake pan. I was baking these at 1am (baking with only one eye open) so I got a teeny bit lazy with the moulding of the tart (i.e. shoving the pastry in the cupcake tin) and assembling of the peaches on top.

I call it 'rustic'.

So whilst I've spent the last 10 minutes putting you off my baking, I pinky promise that they tasted really good! 

I'm entering these into this month's Alphabakes, hosted by Caroline Makes this month. But I must also mention The More Than Occasional Baker because she is lovely and hosts it every other month (and I met both of these lovely ladies at a blogging event last week!). Anyway, frangipane this month because this the letter month is F! Woohoo!

Individual Peach Frangipanes Adapted from Country Living Makes about 12 Takes about 2 hours Sweet pastry 250g plain flour, plus extra for rolling 50g caster sugar 140g cold butter, diced 1 pinch salt 1 egg yolk 1 tbsp ice-cold water Frangipane 150g softened unsalted butter 125g caster sugar 150g ground almonds 85g plain flour 2 large eggs Filling 3-4 peaches, sliced 2-3 tbsp apricot jam or honey 1.     Sieve the flour into a bowl. Add the sugar and butter and salt and rub with your hand until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Alternatively, put in a food processor. Add the egg yolk and enough cold water to bind (I found I didn’t need any cold water). Knead for afew seconds – just long enough to bring the pastry together. Flatten into a disc, wrap and chill for min. 30 minutes. 2.     Grease the inside of a cupcake tin with butter. 3.     Lightly flour a work surface (e.g. chopping board). Roll out the pastry to about 2cm thick and use a small bowl (around the size of a large cookie cooker – some trial and error is required here) to cut around the pastry. 4.     Place the discs into the cupcake tin and press down so that the pastry is fitted in and right up to the top of the sides of each cupcake mould thing. 5.     Prick the base and chill for 30 minutes. 6.     Heat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan oven) gas mark 5. 7.     Blind bake the pastry case for about 5-10 minutes until it is a pale-straw colour. Remove from the oven and cool slightly. 8.     Meanwhile, make the frangipane filling. In a bowl, beat together the softened butter and sugar until pale and light. Add the almonds and flour. Beat together the eggs and gradually add to the mixture and beat until smooth. 9.    Cut the peaches into small slices (about 8ths should do). Spread the frangipane filling over the base of the pastry cases. 10. Put the peach slices over the frangipane. 11. Attempt to make peach slices look nice over the frangipane. Perhaps trial and error is required here also J 12. Place on a baking sheet and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 40 minutes or until the frangipane is golden. 13. Heat the jam or honey in a microwave for about 5 seconds until it is runny. Brush over frangipanes.