Peach pavlova

I can't stop going to the fridge and eating small slices of this.  I know I shouldn't because it has a lot of calories and now the Tour de France has started, I'll watch it everyday and be so enthused to get on by bike and return to my youthful fitness. 

When it all goes 'peach shape', or I do,  I'll blame my husband for letting me eat it and not taking an active interest in my fitness but still I will return to the fridge for just one more slice.    So don't make this pavlova. 

or maybe just once

Ingredients


4 egg whites
200g sugar
1 teaspoon cornflour
1/2 teaspoon vinegar
3-4 ripe peaches
500ml whipping cream
2 tablespoons of icing sugar




How to go about it

Preheat oven to 120°c

Whip egg whites until stiff, then add sugar tablespoon at a time, whip between tablespoons, it should be nice and glossy and stiff.  Add cornflour then vinegar, mix.  Line a baking tray with silicone paper and mark a large circle of 25cm diameter.  Spoon half of the egg whites on to circle, spreading out.  Place the rest of the egg whites into a piping bag with a large star nozzle and pipe a boarder, building up the sides until all used up.  Bake in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes until firm.  Let cool in the oven.  When you are ready to fill meringue, whip cream and add icing sugar to taste.  Stone peaches and slice.  Fill with cream and arrange peaches on top.

Peach and frangipani tart

There's one thing I have an almost unlimited supply of in my garden and that is almonds.  We have about 5 large productive trees, that give us about 70 kilos plus of almonds, still in there shells, per year.  Minus the loads that my Labrador eats!

So being of tight nature I am determined to use them.  This week the peaches have finally started to  ripen.  I have been squeezing them everyday to check and in the last couple of days they have been falling off the tree in heavy ripeness.  So I decided to marry them together to make this unctuous tart.

I asked my husband what he thought of this tart and he said that he needed to eat more of it, until he felt he could comment.  What does that mean? 

Makes a 23cm flan dish


Ingredients


For the paté sucre


200g plain flour
100g unsalted butter
50g ground almonds
50g sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons cold water
grated zest of a lemon


Filling


6-8 peaches, depending on size
100g ground almonds
100g unsalted butter
100g sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon plain flour
2 tablespoons kirsch or eau de vie or rum
2 tablespoons of red currant jam or quince jelly


Preperation time 20 minutes


Cooking time 40minutes


How to go about it


Preheat oven to 200° c, put in baking tray in middle of oven.


Make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour.  Add sugar, almonds and lemon zest, mix.  Mix in egg yolk and cold water.  Knead for a few seconds.  Wrap in cling film and refrigerate.


To make the filling whizz all ingredients together except the jam.


Cut peaches in half, twist and cut out stone and slice into large wedges.  Reserve on a plate. 


Butter flan dish, roll out pastry and line dish.  Put in frangipani and arrange peach slices in decreasing circle, pushing them into mixture.  Place in oven on preheated oven tray and cook for 10 minutes on 200°c.  Turn oven down to 175°c and cook for a further 30 minutes.  Cool. 


Mix jam and water and heat up and then paint over flan.

Apricot tart

I always think that apricots come into there own when cooked, it brings out the best in them and what better way to enjoy them than a simple tart.

For the paté sucre

200g plain flour

130g butter

25g sugar

1 egg yolk

pinch of salt

Filling

800g apricots, halved and stoned

150g double cream

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

80g sugar

How to go about it

Make sweet pastry by rubbing in butter into flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Add sugar, salt and vanilla, mix in egg yolk and enough cold water to bind.  Gentle knead for few seconds and wrap in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Butter a flan dish, roll out the pastry and line the dish, put in apricots cut- sides up.  Lightly beat egg into cream and add sugar then pour around the apricots.  Bake in a preheated oven at 180c° for 40 minutes.  Serve at room temperature.





Served with a small glass of quince liqueur

  

Cherry yoghurt

It has been full on cherry preserving time and still it goes on. This is one of the things I did at the start of the harvest.



First pick the cherries, being careful not to upset the cockerel!

He looks innocent enough you might think but I don't go down the garden without a stick to protect myself.


Ingredients

a litre of milk
a tablespoon of bought yoghurt
cherries
sugar to taste


Method

Bring a litre of milk to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.  Let cool till the temperature is between 47° c and 49°c ( more or less hand hot).  Pour into sterilised jars with a tablespoon of yoghurt in each.  Mix well, put on lid and put in thermal bag and leave undisturbed for at least 12 hours until set.  Then store in the fridge until needed.

Cherries - stone the cherries and put into a saucepan with a splash of water and sugar to taste.  Cook for a few minutes, cool and serve with yoghurt.

Cherry clafoutis

For me there is only one thing to do when cherries are first in season and that is to make a clafoutis.

I think if I was honest I would have to say that cherries are my favourite fruit, there is something 'knacky' about them.  It is when you bite into them, they sort of 'knack' as they break open in the mouth, just like those german sausages, called knackwurst, whose skin cracks open when bitten.

Unfortunately they are also the favourite fruit of the birds, so it is a constant race to see who can be the first to get to the ripe fruit.

But my biggest culprit though  is my 40 kg labrador, Toby.  Never to miss out on an opportunity, he soon found out that if he climbed onto the walls by the tree, he could eat them straight off the tree!

First pick cherries and collect the eggs

Clafoutis aux cerises


Ingredients

100g flour
80g caster sugar
1/2 liter milk
5 eggs
few drops of vanilla essence
700g of cherries
pinch of salt
butter for greasing dish

How to go about it

Mix the flour, sugar, salt and mix in the eggs.  Then slowly mix in the milk, add vanilla.  Butter a dish and put in the cherries, I leave mine unstoned but that is a matter of choice, and then pour the batter over them.  Cook in a preheated oven at 210° for 35 - 40 minutes.  Sprinkle with caster sugar.

Serve