Hazelnut Tarts (and the French)

As usual, there's a story attached to this. A few years ago, in the early days of meeting an amazing woman, she presented a Hazelnut Tart for us to munch on as a mid-afternoon snack on a freaky October afternoon in Edinburgh. It was the "most wonderful" Hazelnut tart she had EVER TASTED, she said. Even though it was a pre-packaged job, I have to admit that the pastry was great, the filling moist and the result sumptuous. And then the killer. The tart had been acquired whilst on a trip to see a Frenchman. Pathetic, I know, but then the distance between food and sex, as far as I can see, is about the width of my little toe. I was most perturbed.

Since then, I've been on a mission to bake the ultimate Hazelnut Tart so that I may no longer be defeated by some suspicious, foreign effort. I would parade my creation down the Champs-Elysees shouting "la vie longue la tarte Galloise" in triumph. This would then go down in the annuls of history as the most important victory over the French since the Duke of Wellington spanked Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

If only it were that simple, however. Baking, I would admit, is not my first love. I'm certainly a highly competent pastry chef, but it doesn't come naturally to me in the way that say, a brothel is natural to a Parisian. But my time at Ballymaloe certainly provided me with some excellent ground rules, like ensuring all of your ingredients are chilled before making pastry, or the importance of blind baking. Baking, and dessert-making in general, is much more technically challenging than putting a stew or soup together. When a bread recipe calls for half a teaspoon of baking soda - that's what you use - any more and you'll end up with soapy yellow blotches through your end product. Such precision can feel stifling but it's further evidence that cooking is not all about "passion" or an innate "feel" for what flavour combinations work well. You must also have a level of technical skill to be a complete cook.

It's also important to be humble. You can't re-invent the wheel. And it seems to me that a confident cook will do very little to the ingredients that he is given, and let the ingredients speak for themselves. One such cook, whom I hugely admire is Skye Gyngell, head chef at Petersham Nurseries and this is her recipe (re-written by me) for a lovely Hazelnut Tart.

Hazlenut Tart
Serves 8-10

Ingredients (for the pastry):

250g Plain Flour
125g Unsalted Butter, grated
30g Caster Sugar
1 free-range Egg
1 free-range Egg Yolk
Zest of a Lemon
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Ingredients (for the filling):

300g Shelled Hazelnuts
300g Caster Sugar
3 Whole Eggs
Zest of a Lemon
300g Unsalted Butter

Method (NB: this is my method):

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees centigrade, then toast your hazelnuts.
2. While they're toasting, make your pastry. Put all the WELL CHILLED ingredients into a food processor. Pulse, and eventually everything will come together to form a ball. If not add some ice-cold water, very sparingly. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge.
3. Meanwhile, make the filling. Put the nuts in a blender and pulse - keep them coarse, you want your end result to have some texture. Then add all your other ingredients and pulse until combined.
4. Now remove your pastry and roll on a lightly floured surface. Look for a thickness of about 3-4 mm.
5. Roll onto your pin and drape it over a ten-inch tin. Gently press into the sides. I leave pastry draping over the edge as it will shrink during cooking and you can trim it up afterwards.
6. Blind-bake for 15 minutes, or until almost cooked through. Remove and cool.
7. Finally, add your hazelnut filling, spreading it evenly. Bake for about 35 minutes, until golden and just firm to the touch.
8. Allow to cool and serve with fresh cream and raspberries.