The Bake Off’s Ugne popped in to RLD HQ last week and imparted her baking wisdom as well as giving us some of her recipes. It’s National Baking Week next week (17th – 23rd October) and we’ve got one of Ugne’s recipes for you to try!

If you are looking to make a sweet treat but are not sure what to bake, why not try Ugne’s Cardamon, Rosemary Plum Frangipane Tart.

To bake this tart you need these ingredients:

Short crust pastry:

250g plain flour
125g cold butter
A pinch of salt
100g powdered sugar
4 tbsp cold water
2 egg yolks

Almond cream:

100g room temperature butter
100g powdered sugar
100g ground almonds
10g corn starch
1 tbsp calvados
6 pods of cardamon

Filling:

Around 10 plums cut in thirds
150g soft demerara sugar
100g honey
3 sprigs of rosemary
1 star anise

METHOD:

First prepare your pastry by sifting the flour and salt (if using powdered sugar, also add now) in a large bowl.
Add very cold butter (diced in small cubes) and rub between your fingers and the palms of the hands until the mix resembles a fine breadcrumb texture.
Add all liquids – beaten egg yolks and water.
Bring everything together gently. Don’t start kneading or working the dough hard as it will lose its texture and become brittle and crumbly when baked.
Slightly flour a surface and roll out the dough into a circle (bigger than the tin). Aim for a thickness of 2 – 3 mm for the dough.
Leave excess dough over the edge of the tin and put it in the fridge for between 30 minutes and an hour. When ready to bake, remove from the fridge, prick the base of the dough with a fork and take away the excess dough.
Neatly press the edges against the sides of the tin but make sure there is still a bit over the top, as the dough will shrink as it bakes.
Put in parchment paper and baking beans and bake in the oven at 180 degrees C for 20 minutes.
Prepare the plums whilst waiting by cutting them in half, de-stoning them and cutting each half into a further three pieces. Put the pieces in an oven safe dish and scatter the sugar, honey, rosemary sprigs and star anise over them. Toss them around to cover the pieces well.
Take the pastry out of the oven and increase the oven temperature to 200 degrees C. Remove the paper and beans and let the shell cool completely.

Put the dish with plums into the oven and roast for 20 minutes. Then put the contents into a strainer over a saucepan and let the juices run into the saucepan. Remove the rosemary and star anise and add them to the saucepan with juices.
Place the saucepan over a medium heat and reduce the liquids until they caramelise. With a pastry brush, brush the caremelised liquid over the cooled pastry case.
Prepare the almond cream at room temperature. Add room temperature butter to a mixing bowl, add the other ingredients and beat until nice and fluffy.
Spread the almond cream over the jam-filled pastry shell, spreading it evenly and place the plums in the mixture.
Put the dish containing the tart into the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for 30 minutes.
Take out the tart, scatter flaked almonds on the top and replace in the oven for a further 10 minutes.
Once cooked, let the whole thing cool down slightly before dusting with powdered sugar to finish.

UGNE’S TOP TIPS:

Gently handle the pastry and do not over work it! Shape the ball, wrap it in cling film, pat it to make it thinner and place in the fridge to rest for at least an hour.
Pack the dough into the baking tin by using another piece of dough. Bare fingers can damage or tear the shell of the pastry and this method prevents that!