Apple and Blackberry Frangipane

Summer is definitely over. Last I checked I was dusting summer berries with icing sugar, drinking ice cool lemonades on the porch and doing all manners of warm weather things... Aaaahhhh...

No wait, wait..

That was my imaginary summer. Because unlike the rest of the world it seems, Ireland has one long season that flitters between cold and rain, warm and rain... Oh! And breezy/windy/gale-y. In Ireland we have become very adept at mimicking summer behaviours, in our temperamental temperate climate. (stupid climate.. grumble grumble!!) But now that the months have changed to Autumn, the weather has become seasonally appropriate. The cool air feels right for this time of year, the days are shorter and the Autumn fruits are plentiful. 

This week on The Great British Bake Off, the bakers had to tackle pastry. Frangipane is one of those wonderfully versatile bakes, easy to whip together and customize to your liking. Here- I decided to get fruity, using my two favourites from this weeks garden harvest, Apples and Blackberries.

I had notions of cosy evenings by a roaring log fire, curled up with a good book, strong cup of tea and a warm slice of frangipane. Still in my head of course... But perfectly reasonable and perfectly seasonal.

All Butter Short Crust

240g plain flour
50g icing sugar
150g diced cold butter (+ a little extra for greasing)
1 large egg

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F or Gas Mark 4.
Put the flour, butter and icing sugar into a food processor and blitz until looks like breadcrumbs.
Crack in the egg and bring together until a soft ball forms.
Wrap in clingfilm, pat down and leave in fridge for 30 mins.
Grease up a 8 inch round loose bottom pie tin with butter.
after 30 minutes in the fridge, take it out and roll it out thin, to fit your tin. 

Blind bake your pastry case bottom, using pastry beads for about 15 minutes. remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Make the filling, while you are blind baking your pastry.

Almond Cream Filling

150g softened butter
150g caster sugar
150g ground almonds
50g self raising flour
3 large eggs
125g blackberries

Cream together the butter and the sugar.
Dry mix the almonds and the self raising flour and add to the mix.
Add the eggs and mix thoroughly until all of the ingredients have been combined.
Fold in the blackberries.
Set the bowl to one side.

Once the pastry has cooled, tip the filling into the pastry case and smooth out the top.

Apple Topping

350-400g apples of your choice (about 4 medium apples)
90ml (about 6 tablespoons) honey

Peel and core the apples and then as evenly as possible, slice them thinly so that you can arrange them neatly in on top of your Almond Cream Filling. Drizzle over the honey.

I went with the obvious choice, rose pattern below. It works out nice and bakes well. Feel free to choose whatever pattern you like. Or just dump the apples on. There are no hard and fast rules 'round here!

Bake the frangipane at 180C, 350F or Gas Mark 4 for 40-50 minutes until the top is browning.
It will look like it's almost about to burn when it's done.
The center will be soft and moist and the apples will be juicy.

Be sure to swing by the other GBBO Bloggers bakes when you pop over to the lovely Stacey's Blog, who happens to be our host for this week. She, along with Jenny and all the other bloggers have been baking their socks off!