Far Breton Tart

This is my twist on a traditional Far Breton which is a dessert from Brittany, especially as this recipe is gluten free. It is a dense but delicious dessert baked with prunes or raisins, normally it would not have a pastry case and it would be served in its baking dish. Personally, I love the extra texture that the pastry adds. If you wish to omit the pastry, lightly brush an ovenproof dish with salted butter. layer the prune on the base and follow the rest of the recipe. This dessert can be served warm or cold.

This recipe also works perfectly with normal flour as well as gluten free flour, leave out the xanthan gum if using normal flour.

Far Breton Tart

Servings: 8-10 portions

Temperature: 180°C Fan

Chilling Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 45-50 minutes

200g Water

150g Golden Caster Sugar

½ Vanilla Pod and seeds scraped

50g Spiced Rum (Captain Morgan’s)

250g Soft Prunes, Pitted

Method:

1. Make a syrup with the water, sugar and vanilla. Bring to the boil and leave to cool until room temperature.

2. Add the rum and prunes. Leave prunes to soak for at least 2 hours.

3. Remove prunes from syrup and reserve syrup for soaking Far Breton.

Gluten Free Pastry

230g Gluten Free Plain Flour (Dove's Farm)

8g Xanthan Gum (Dove’s Farm)

70g Caster Sugar

130g Cold Butter, diced

1 Egg Yolk

1 tbsp Cold water

Method:

1. In a stand mixer, with a paddle attachment, mix the flour, xanthan gum and caster sugar together.

2. Add the cold diced butter, continuing to mix with the paddle attachment until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

3. Mix the cold water with the egg yolk and add to the breadcrumb mix, mixing until comes together. There is no gluten to develop. If the dough isn't coming together, you can add a few more drops of water until dough forms.

4. Immediately after the dough comes together, roll the pastry out between two sheets of baking parchment larger than the tin you will be using approx. Chill for 30 minutes.

5. Lightly butter the tin. Peel off one of the sheets of baking parchment and use the side with the paper to help work the pastry into all the edges.

Far Breton

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C Fan.

2. Whisk together milk, vanilla seeds and whole eggs.

3. Add in melted butter. Whisk in the flour and sugar and mix until the batter is smooth.

To assemble the tart:

1. Take the chilled lined tart out of the fridge. Remove the soaked prunes from the syrup.

2. Cover the base of the lined tart with the soaked prunes.

3. Put the lined tart on a flat based tray. Pour the batter until fills just below the top of the tart tin.

4. Bake for 45-50 minutes until the filling is golden and puffy. There will be little caramelized spots on top.

5. Let tart cool in the tin. Gently brush the vanilla and rum syrup over the top until the whole tart is glossy and evenly covered.

Tip: The flat tray under the tart tin makes transferring the filled tart to and from the oven a lot easier, avoiding any tart disasters or spillages.

For extra indulgence:

Instead of adding sugar to cream for a Chantilly cream, whisk in some vanilla and rum syrup into the cream into soft peaks to have alongside the Far Breton Tart.