strawberry polenta tart.

June 2nd, 2011.

I got the recipe from Masterchef Australia season 2, it supposed to be a Frangipane Tart. But since i'm having trouble finding almond meal in Jakarta, so i'm using polenta instead. The result is a bit grainy in your mouth, since polenta is made from cornmeal. I don't know if it's right to cook polenta as a dessert, but i googled and did a little research, they said that polenta is one of the subtitute for almond meal.

You will need ...

flour, for dusting

¼ cup strawberry jam, heated
1 punnet strawberries
whipped cream, to serve

375g plain flour
50g icing sugar
200g butter
1 egg

polenta
125g butter, diced
125g icing sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
125g almond meal (or polenta, as said before)
25ml dark rum

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line the base of a 18cm loose bottomed tart tin.

Step 2: To make the pastry, add the flour, icing sugar and butter to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the egg and pulse again until the dough comes together. Wrap in cling wrap, then rest in the fridge for about 1 hour.

Step 3: On a lightly floured surface, roll out half of the pastry until 3-4mm thick. (you can freeze the remaining pastry for up to 4 weeks). Line the tart tin with pastry, then rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Step 4: For the filling, cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time until incorporated in the mixture. Fold in the polenta and dark rum.

Step 5: Remove the tart tin from the fridge. Brush half of the strawberry jam over the bottom of the tart, then spread the frangipane on top. Scatter over half of the berries, pressing lightly into the mixture. Bake in the oven for 30-35 until golden and cooked through. Remove from the oven and brush lightly with remaining strawberry jam. Serve with whipped cream and remaining berries.