Pastafrola
A soft biscuit-dough tart with a lattice on top, where the dough is handled as little as possible and the jam is boiled down first.
Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk).
Ingredients
For the dough
- 400 g plain flour
- 200 g butter, cold and diced
- 150 g caster sugar
- 2 eggs plus 1 yolk
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
For the filling
- 450 g quince, apricot or sour cherry jam
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
To glaze
- 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon milk
Method
- THE JAM IS BOILED DOWN BEFORE IT GOES IN. Jam straight from the jar is far looser than it looks and it boils in the oven, climbing over the lattice and welding the tart to the tin. Five minutes in a pan with a squeeze of lemon takes it to something that holds its shape on a cold spoon, and it stays where it is put.
- THE DOUGH IS HANDLED AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE AND IS MEANT TO BE SOFT. It is closer to a thick biscuit dough than a pastry and it will feel too sticky to roll. It is. The answer is cold, not flour: half an hour in the fridge and it rolls between two sheets of paper.
- Flour, sugar, baking powder and zest in a bowl. Cold butter rubbed in to coarse crumbs.
- Eggs, yolk and vanilla added and brought together WITH THE FINGERTIPS until it just coheres. Worked further it goes tough.
- Two thirds shaped into a disc, the rest into another. Both wrapped and chilled 30 minutes.
- Jam and lemon juice simmered 5 minutes in a small pan until thickened. Cooled.
- The larger disc rolled between two sheets of paper to fit a 24 cm tin, lifted in with the paper and pressed up the sides. Patch any tears with offcuts -- it is forgiving.
- Jam spread over, leaving a 1 cm border.
- The smaller disc rolled and cut into strips about 1.5 cm wide. Laid in a lattice, pressed into the border, and the border folded in over the strip ends.
- Chilled a further 15 minutes. A warm lattice spreads and loses its pattern.
- Glazed with the yolk and milk, and baked at 175C for 35 to 40 minutes until evenly golden.
- Cooled completely in the tin. Cut warm, the jam runs; cold, it slices cleanly. It keeps five days.
Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.
Filed under Greece · All recipes