The start of a new academic year has also seen our little baking club turn 3 years old! We’re now at our 17th Let’s Bake Inverness event and this one was a great one. I had anticipated that most people would bring along sweet pies or tarts, so I looked around for some savoury recipes that were a bit different.
It was when I was in Café Artysans with a bowl of Cullen Skink (think a creamy fish chowder) that I wondered if anyone had attempted to make a tart with similar flavours, and after a bit of googling various recipes, I settled on this recipe from Figs & Pigs (which is a beautiful blog by the way, the photography is stunning!). I had a practice run, as there’s a few stages to go through; poaching the fish, lightly sautéing the veg and potatoes, and of course making the pastry.
Pastry making is not my forte, especially rolling it out to a perfect circle, but I just took my time and tried to enjoy the process. A stressed out baker never produces good results (at least that’s my experience)!
Not content with that, I also fancied making some jam tarts (with this recipe from Paul Hollywood’s mum!) as I had all three ingredients needed (flour, butter and jam!). I had a slight panic after I had put the tarts in the oven… as I had used plain flour and the recipe listed self-raising flour. After a quick comparison of other jam tart recipes I relaxed as every other recipe I looked at used plain, so I was confident that they would still turn out ok. And they did! I used pineapple and blackcurrant jams as a twist on the usual berry tarts you might normally have.
I was delighted with how these turned out, and even more pleased with my photos! I’m finally getting to grips with my 50mm lens.
Fab photos Susan and I’ve got to make that Cullen Skink tart as I’m definitely more savoury. Love your honesty as like you I’m not the most confident when it comes to making pastry – my hands are far too warm which is not ideal! But you’re right a stressed out baker never produces the goods (I’m now remembering my lemon & poppy seed muffins – I picked up black mustard seeds by mistake!)