cupcakes: Gluten-Free Frangipane with Figs, Pears, and Ginger | pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

This week’s bake off baking went a bit differently in our kitchen. I went through my usual phase of reading eleventy million recipes before coming up with my happy medium somewhere in the middle, with notes on the back of an envelope, because it’s not like I have a single sheet of useable paper in this house. Made a shopping list. Then we went out for one of those family Sundays wherein you try to take part in as many free local events as physically possible (classic boat display with jazz band, Discover Viet Nam festival with children’s crafts and water puppetry, harvest festival at a royal orchard, and still home by 3!) and The Boy volunteered to go get the items on the shopping list while I took a very sleepy Wonder Boy home. Excellent! And then after dinner, The Boy volunteered to prep my pastry. Even better! And after that, he just kept emerging from the kitchen to ask what was next, until he had made the entire dish.

Is this what head chefs do? Shout the recipe out to the next room, then get to eat the first slice without having to actually slave over the hot oven or clean everything up? Because I now see that is a pretty awesome set up. I tip my hat to you all. And to The Boy, because I say without any doubt that this dish was nothing short of epic and the pastry had the perfect finish on the bottom. I’m not even saying that just because he managed to do all of this and leave the kitchen cleaner than he found it. This was just way better than it would have been if I made it.

The trick to the balanced flavour is the layers, I think. The fruit on the top is glazed and sweet (well, sweet for fresh figs, not like candy or anything), the frangipane is like amaretto without the sharpness, and the ginger layer gives it some heat to keep things interesting. I’m so glad they featured this on pastry week this season as it’s never something I would have planned to bake otherwise. Or planned to have someone else bake, for that matter.

For the pastry:
50g finely ground almonds
40g oat flour
60g rice flour
45g sorghum flour
40g sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
70g unsalted butter – cold, and chopped into small pieces

For the ginger glaze:
100g fresh ginger
25g sugar
25ml water

For the filling:
50g unsalted butter
70g sugar
3 eggs
80g finely ground almonds
30g oat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 fresh figs
1 pear
Honey and maple syrup – roughly a tablespoon each

For the whipped cream:
150ml whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180C. Prep tart pan with parchment paper in the bottom and butter on the edges.

To make the crust, mix all the dry ingredients in a blender or food processor, then add the butter and pulse until it forms a dough. Press into the prepped tart pan, covering the bottom and all four sides. Use a fork to perf the base every few inches. Bake at 180C for 10-14 minutes, until golden brown. We didn’t bake with weights, but did press the crust with the back of a spoon as soon as it came out of the oven to mould it to the shape of the pan a bit better.

To make the ginger glaze, peel the ginger and chop into fine slices. Simmer with the sugar and water until the ginger is soft and the water starts to become a syrup, either in a saucepan or in the microwave. Place on top of the pastry, so the end result will have a thin layer of sweet ginger between the pastry and the frangipane.

To make the frangipane filling, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, then stir in the eggs one at a time. Add the dry ingredients (almonds, oat flour, baking powder, ground ginger) and mix until well incorporated. The batter will be thicker than a sponge cake but more liquid than cookie dough. Spoon into the pastry case and even out to fill.

Slice the figs into thin rounds with the skin intact. Peel and slice the pear into even segments. Arrange the fruit on top of batter in the pastry case.

Cover the exposed pastry with a strip of aluminium foil, and bake at 180C for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the fruit is all cooked.

Once out of the oven, transfer to a wire rack and brush on a glaze of equal parts honey and maple syrup.

We served with ginger whipped cream, which is the only part I actually made with my own two hands this week. Whipping cream, sugar, vanilla, and ground ginger simply whisked until thick and fluffy!

Now you just need to find someone to volunteer to do all the shopping, baking, and cleaning, and you are set!

As always, if you’ve come to this recipe because it’s free of one thing or another, please know your own tolerances and read your labels.

Great Bloggers Bake Off is organised by Jenny at Mummy Mishaps. See more bloggers’ breads this week at participating blog, Nobody Said It Was Easy. Please no spoilers from the actual show in the comments, for those who watch later than the original broadcast! Thanks.

Read more about:

14 September 2015

Next post: Quidditch Cake, or How the Bake Off is for Muggles
Previous post: Apple Raspberry Honey Cake, inspired by the Bake Off