Prune, amaretti and apple tart — a Rowley Leigh recipe

When I started taking my career as a chef seriously — some time at the end of the 1970s — I bought five Filofax folders in which to collect and organise my recipes. The books were colour coded, just like the chopping boards that became standard issue in commercial kitchens a few years later: green for vegetables, blue for fish, red for meat and so on.

Back then, my yellow Filofax was dedicated, rather obviously in my view, to the world of cream, eggs and butter, the building blocks of the patissier’s art. I so filled that little yellow book that it had to be replaced with a larger, more capacious volume and, solecisms of solecisms, it was red. I have it still.

The other volumes, written neatly but indecipherably in a variant of recipe shorthand, sit unregarded on my shelves. But pastry is different. No matter how many times I may have made these things, I still need my recipe when I come to make a frangipane for a tart or the sponge for a cake. Some are a little dated. I rarely make a Bavarois these days, a mixture of fruit purée, custard, whipped cream and gelatin that seemed the base of many of the desserts of the time. But I still like to make a tart.

The king of modern pastry was and perhaps still is Yves Thuries, who, back then, was just starting out on his monumental 12 volumes of pastry recipes, Le livre de recettes d’un Compagnon du Tour de France. Tarts featured strongly in the first volume: most of the recipes are somewhat complicated but this relatively simple offering caught my eye all those years ago and merits reviving.

Prune, amaretti and apple tart

Serves eight

The prunes will benefit from being prepared the day before. They are very good for breakfast.

1. Cream the butter and sugar really well until light and fluffy. Break in the egg and incorporate thoroughly before adding the flour with a pinch of salt. Knead this mixture until it forms a thick paste and turn out on to a floured sheet of greaseproof paper. Form into a thick disc. Chill for 30 minutes.

2. Rinse the prunes, put in a bowl with the tea bags, pour over a full kettle of boiling water and leave to swell. Peel the apples and cut into six segments, removing the core. Heat the two tablespoons of butter in a frying pan and add the apples and two tablespoons of sugar. Cook over a high heat so that the apples caramelise and are just cooked before turning out on to a plate to cool.

3. Roll out the pastry on its greaseproof paper, turning once or twice to form an even disc of 30cm diameter. Using a 24cm tart tin with a removable base, place the base over the centre of the disc and, with the greaseproof paper still attached, invert the pastry into the tart tin. Fill the cavity with baking beans and bake in a moderately hot oven (190C) for 20 minutes.

4. Remove the beans and gently pull off the greaseproof paper and put back in the oven to cook the base. Remove and turn the oven up to a high heat (240˚C).

5. Arrange the drained prunes and apples alternately in circles over the base of the tart. Crush the amaretti with a rolling pin to a powder. Whisk the eggs and sugar until white and fluffy before adding the butter in a thin stream. Add the crushed amaretti and pour over the apples and prunes. Bake one more time until golden brown (10-15 minutes) and allow to cool.

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