California Prune & Passion Fruit Bakewell Tart with California Prune Juice Caramel Custard

Prune It is a healthy eating campaign designed to educate consumers to understand the role that California Prunes can play in helping to help reduce the fat and sugar content across a wide range of recipes.  When blended into a puree, prunes offer a useful fat replacer in cooking by adding fat-like (but fat-free) characteristics that also work to enhance the flavours in both sweet and savoury dishes.

In addition, the naturally occurring sugars present in California Prunes can also be used to provide a natural replacement for some of the processed sugars that traditionally feature in sweet recipes.  And because of their high fibre content and ability to add bulk to dishes, California Prunes also have a role to play in reducing portion size without compromising on filling power or taste.

Makes: 12Prep Time: 30 minutesCook Time: 50 minutes

INGREDIENTS

  •  
  • For the pastry:
  • 150g flour (half plain, half wholemeal)
  • 75g very cold butter, cut into cubes
  • 2-3 tbsp tbsp cold water
  • For the jam:
  • 150g California Prunes
  • 50g California Prune Juice
  • 2 passion fruit
  • For the sponge:
  • 125g butter
  • 125g golden sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 100g ground almonds
  • 30g self raising flour
  • 1 handful flaked almonds
  • 1 passion fruit
  • To serve:
  • 500ml tub of your favourite custard
  • 100ml California Prune juice

DIRECTIONS

  1. Heat the oven to 160°C.
  2. Put the California Prune juice and chopped up California Prunes in a pan on a medium heat. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
  3. Blitz the California Prunes to a smooth jam.
  4. Scoop out the passion fruit pulp and seeds, and stir them through the California Prune jam. Put to one side to cool.
  5. In a separate bowl rub the flour and butter together to form a breadcrumb type texture. Add the cold water to bring the pastry together.
  6. Knead for a minute to form a ball of pastry. Wrap and leave the pastry to rest in the fridge.
  7. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
  8. Add in the eggs a little at a time and beat until fully incorporated.
  9. Fold in the almonds and flour, being careful not to knock out all the air that has been beaten into the mixture.
  10. Roll out the pastry and line a 20cm tin.
  11. Spoon the California Prune jam into the lined pastry case and spread evenly. The mixture should be about 1cm thick.
  12. Top the pastry case with the almond sponge mixture and spread it out evenly.
  13. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160°C fan for 40-50 minutes. To check if its cooked press the middle gently and if it springs back then you can take it out of the oven to cool.
  14. Take the last passion fruit and scoop out the juice and seeds. Drizzle the fruit over the top of the sponge as it cools so that the sponge is infused with fragrant passion fruit flavours.
  15. To serve boil the California Prune juice and reduce to 25ml so that it is sweet and sticky. Stir through your favourite custard and gently warm through.

AUTHOR

Peter Sidwell

Peter Sidwell

California Prune Board Ambassador Peter Sidwell, is a chef, baker, TV presenter, author, and innovator of all things food related. Peter has been a chef all his working life and over the years has developed a simple, fresh and innovative way of cooking which focuses on the importance of fine ingredients and technical know-how to ensure the best results. Peter has travelled the world cooking, talking and demonstrating his approach and explaining how and why it works so well for all manner of food offerings. Peter works both with chefs, consumers, food producers and retailers to innovate, create process or refine procurement. Working from his new innovation centre in England's beautiful Lake District, Peter and his team create exciting, attractive and mouth-watering new recipes with digital content, showcasing the delicious flavour and versatility of California Prunes.