A cherry & strawberry crostata with black sesame praline
and a little apology...
Firstly I want to apologise for the pause since my last recipe post. When I started this, my hope was to share recipes fortnightly, but life and work got in the way and things haven’t quite gone to plan.
Posts will continue to be sporadic as my schedule is a bit bonkers, so recipes will remain free while there’s no option to contribute per post.
I do think Substack should offer the option for readers to contribute on a per-post basis, rather than only through ongoing subscriptions? To benefit readers who can’t commit to regular payments as well as writers who can’t commit to regular posting (hello, hi!). I imagine there are technical reasons why this wouldn’t be simple to implement, but still, I’m putting it out there...
That said, I’m extremely grateful to those who’ve already chosen to become paid subscribers. You help keep my tiny test kitchen ticking along behind the scenes!
This week, I’m sharing a recipe built around a pastry I’m quite proud of. I’ve actually been working on it for years and it’s been through many iterations. It started it’s life as a butternut galette I developed for FLAVOUR, morphed into a spelt and chipotle pastry in MEZCLA and finally, we’re here...
This version is made with nutty wholemeal spelt flour, ground almonds and polenta (as well as butter, olive oil, tangerine zest, brown sugar, urfa chilli). It’s crunchy, crispy and also a little bit flakey. I wouldn’t say it’s like a rough puff or a shortcrust, mainly because I don’t actually know how to make those and also because it’s its own thing.
Today, this pastry is the canvas for a Cherry & strawberry crostata featuring:
- A ricotta crema (ricotta whisked with egg yolk, honey, vanilla and tangerine zest)
- Swoops of black sesame praline (made with maple syrup and brown rice miso, I guarantee you’ll be eating this by the spoon)
- Strawberries and cherries macerated in honey and Belazu pomegranate molasses.
The whole thing is baked, and once cooled, it’s topped with more of the macerated fruit (this time fresh) because I love the contrast of roasted and fresh fruit. It’s served with spoonfuls of crème fraîche which serve as delicious craters to fill with more black sesame praline and very good extra virgin olive oil. I recently got some wonderful oil from Citizens of Soil, thank you so much!
Now, this is just one way you can make it. I very much encourage you to switch up the fruits.
- Choose a seasonal fruit (or a combination) and make sure they’re ripe and soft (but not mushy).
- Chop or slice the fruit and macerate, which basically just means ‘to soften and infuse with flavour’.
- For fruits like apricot, peach, nectarine, melon, white grapes, I would macerate in honey, vanilla paste, citrus juice (I like a combination of lime/lemon + tangerine) and perhaps a spice like cinnamon and some ancho or urfa chilli flakes.
- For berries and darker fruits like plum or red grapes, I very much encourage you to also add a splash of pomegranate molasses. Belazu makes an exceptional version that’s not only delicious but also a strikingly vibrant crimson red, unlike most, which tend to be more brown.
Musings on desserts…
- I hate the word pudding, I really really do.
- I need my desserts to be very salty and not too sweet. I actually find it quite painful when desserts lack salt, and this one has saltiness in spades, from the well salted pastry to the black sesame praline made with brown rice miso.
- I find white sugar (caster, powdered etc) to be boring and one dimensional, which is you’ll find sweetness coming from lots of varied, more exciting and flavourful sources in my desserts. Here: brown sugar in the pastry, pomegranate molasses in the fruits, honey in the ricotta and maple syrup in the black sesame praline. This may seem like overkill and you may ask yourself why you can’t just use caster sugar throughout? You can if you like, I just think the results will be less interesting.
A few tips about this pastry.
- Don’t be afraid of the butter - you want the pastry to look like a dappled, butter flecked moon once you’ve rolled it out. You might think these pats of butter will melt into pools within the pastry but trust me they won’t.
- Make sure you roll your pastry out onto non-stick parchment, as you’ll use the parchment to help you fold over the pastry edges.
- This is a rustic dessert, do not attempt to be neat. You don’t need to roll the pastry out into a perfect circle or oval, and you don’t need to crimp the pastry in a concentric pattern.
- In hot weather the pastry will become sticky and tricky to handle. At whatever stage it’s at, whether that’s in the initial mixing and forming, or later once you’ve rolled it out, you can always stick it in the fridge for 10 mins or more, to let it cool down and make it easier to handle.
Cherry & strawberry crostata with black sesame praline
Serves 6
(see below method for process pics)
Pastry
110g unsalted butter, chopped into 2½ cm pieces
85g water
20g olive oil
140g wholemeal spelt flour
60g soft light brown sugar
25g polenta
25g ground almonds
Zest of 1 tangerine
½ tsp urfa chilli flakes
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp fine sea salt
Ricotta crema
180g full-fat ricotta
2 egg yolks
40g runny honey
Zest of 1 tangerine
½ tsp vanilla bean paste
Black sesame praline
100g black sesame seeds, very well toasted
100g maple syrup
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp brown rice miso
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Macerated fruit
350g black cherries
350g strawberries
30g runny honey
20g Belazu pomegranate molasses
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Everything else
1 egg, whisked (for the egg wash)
20g demerara sugar
1 tsp urfa chilli
180g creme fraiche, to serve
Start the pastry. Add the butter, water and oil to a small bowl and place in the freezer for 30 mins.
Add all the remaining pastry ingredients to a large bowl. Once chilled, add the ice-cold butter/water/oil to the bowl.
Use a spatula to bring everything together into a rough mix.
Dust your work surface with flour. Tip the dough out onto it and dust all over with flour. Bring together into a compact mass.
Dust the surface, pastry and rolling pin again and roll into a 28 x 22cm rectangle.
Fold the shorter ends of the dough into the middle, then turn the dough 90 degrees.
Repeat the process of rolling, folding and turning about 4 more times, dusting the surface, dough and rolling pin as needed so the dough doesn’t stick to your surface too much (it will a little, this is inevitable). This process creates flakey and crunchy layers in the pastry and also softens the butter into the pastry. The butter will be chunky and hard to work with at the beginning but it will soften and get easier as you fold the dough.
Shape the dough into a smooth round circle, approx 12cm. Cover tightly with cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 mins and up to 3 days.
Whisk all the ricotta crema ingredients together until smooth. Keep refrigerated.
Add all the praline ingredients to the small bowl of a food processor and blitz to a paste. Scrape down the sides and add a splash more maple syrup if you’re having trouble blending.
No more than 1 hour before you’re going to go bake the crostata, macerate the fruits (or they’ll soften too much). Roughly chop the strawberries. Halve the cherries and remove the pits. Mix the fruits with the honey, pomegranate molasses and vanilla. Keep refrigerated.
Place a large piece of parchment paper on your surface and lightly dust with flour.
Place the dough on the paper and roll out into an oval that’s about 36 cm-long and 33cm-wide, dusting your rolling pin as needed.
Transfer to a large, flat baking tray that fits in the fridge, then refrigerate for 30 mins.
Preheat the oven to 200C fan.
Remove the pastry from the fridge and spread over the ricotta crema, leaving a 5cm rim around the edge.
Top the ricotta crema with half of the macerated fruits, spread out. Use a slotted spoon/your hands for this, as you want to avoid the liquid.
Fold the edges up and over the edges of the fruit. Brush the exposed pastry with egg.
Mix the demerara sugar with the urfa chilli and sprinkle all over the upturned edges of the crostata.
Bake for 30 minutes, rotating the tray half way, until crisp and browned.
Leave to cool completely, then finish with the remaining macerated fruit. Top with spoonfuls of creme fraiche, creating a little dip in each spoonful to add the black sesame praline.
Drizzle with olive oil and serve.
Process pics…
This crostata has basically been years in the developing. I hope you love it as much as I do x
This sounds simply terrific Ixta! Such a no doubt delicious combination of flavours and textures and I love how it uses plenty of modern pantry staples like miso, sesame oil, pomegranate molasses, urfa chili etc.
The sight of that pastry lured me in! I love pastries with different kinds of grains and sugars (and nuts whenever possible). Last week I made a gf pastry for a frangipane tart with buckwheat, oat flour, almonds and bog standard gf flour mix and it was pretty good. But now I want to try your pastry!