Late for the first challenge!

I recently signed up to an online community of bakers. The idea is that every month a baking (or cooking, depending on which you choose) challenge is set by a member of the community and all participating bloggers must complete the challenge (in secrecy) and post their results on a designated day (the 27th). Which I have managed to miss!

So, this is my late entry, and I'm hoping I remember next month as you can't miss more than two in a row or they boot you out!

This month's challenge was set by Simona (http://briciole.typepad.com/blog/) and it was to bake crostata, an Italian dessert. The base of a crostata is pasta frolla (or pastafrolla), sweet short crust pastry (or sweet tart dough) made of flour, sugar, butter and eggs. Being a vegan baker I was allowed to alter the recipes she gave, as normally you have to stick to the ingredients as instructed. And so here is the recipe I used…

PastaFrolla

250g flour
100g margarine
100g sugar
a small glass of oat milk (to add as needed)
a pinch of salt
grated rind of 2 lemons

Place all ingredients, except for the milk, in a large bowl and gently work with your fingertips (or whiz with a hand mixer) until the ingredients come together in a sand like texture.

Tip out the mixture onto a clean surface and create a well in the centre. Pour the milk, (a little at a time until you have a soft dough), into the well you have created. Using a fork gently fold all the ingredients in together.

You will need to start using your hands to bring the dough together, it will be soft and easy to work, but be careful not to overwork it as this will make the dough elastic.

Wrap the dough in clingfilm and allow it to rest for at least an hour.

Assembling the Crostata

I decided to make a wintery, comforting filling for my crostata, spiced apple and pecan with a crumble topping :)

I collected cooking apples from my garden, peeled and finely sliced them and then mixed them up in a bowl with cinnamon, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla sugar and a tiny pinch of crushed cloves.

The pastafrolla was rolled out to about 2mm thickness, and then placed into individual greased tartlet pans. Prick the bottom of the tarts and be sure that there are no nasty air bubbles lurking there.

When you roll out the dough keep it on the clingfilm, you can then easily flip the dough into the pans without having to try and unstick it from your work surface!

I then arranged my fillings inside the tartlet pans, apple then chopped pecans then a sweet crumble topping with poppy seeds.

They were baked for around 25 minutes at 175 c. (Depending on your oven type and temperature this may vary)

The pastafrolla was buttery and biscuity, the filling was warming and christmassy and the crumble was nice and crunchy :) Not too bad!

Next time I will be a little more experimental with the filling instead of going for the safe and easy option! I'm looking forward to trying out the pastafrolla (minus the sugar) in a savoury recipe, a nice vegan quiche!

Easy vegan tarts, and they definitely kept the fella happy :)

Bisous bisous xxx