I love reading food magazines. However in the recent months, the few that I subscribe prove to be a stack of disappointment. They no longer inspire me or make me dashed into kitchen to get cooking. All the recipes seem repetitive and pretty much similar to what they have already published in the past. In short, I find them boring *yawn*. Quite frankly, I am comtemplating to discontinue some of them.
Just when I almost lost interest in food magazines, I found the UK food magazines such as Olive and BBC Good Food at Borders. Boy are they interesting and my desire to cook has been resuscitated! How did they escape my radar for so long?! The recipes and pictures are refreshing. Admittedly, there are certain ingredients that may not be readily available in the US, but their food photography and the recipes are amazing. Suddenly, I have many ideas to try out. Along with a few recipes I bookmarked from the magazines.
One of them is this Plum, Hazelnut and Chocolate Tart from September issue of BBC Good Food.
I am sold when the ingredient list consist of chocolate and hazelnut. It's one of my favorite flavor combinations.(Nutella, anyone?)The recipe also features plum, which is abundant at the moment. The recipe just sounds too interesting to be missed.
I substituted the self raising flour that I don't keep with all purpose flour and some baking powder; and the muscavado sugar with brown sugar. The end result tastes more like a cake than a tart, but is delicious nonetheless. It is not as sweet as the desserts we are accustomed to, perhap because I have omitted the glaze suggested. But I think it works well as a morning treat or as a tea cake in the afternoon. I would probaby drizzle some melted chocolate on top the next time I make it. Or you could brush the tart with the suggested jelly in the recipe. Either way, a delicious treat is promised.
Plum, Hazelnut & Chocolate Tart
adapted from Sept 2008 BBC Good Food magazine
175g butter , plus extra for greasing
500g plums
175g light muscovado sugar ( I used light brown sugar)
175g all purpose flour
175g ground hazelnuts
3 large eggs
1.5 tsp baking powder
50g bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp hazelnuts
2 tbsp redcurrant, damson or plum jelly
Heat oven to 350F (180C). Butter and line the base of a round 8 inch cake pan. Halve and stone 4 plums, set aside for later, then roughly chop the remaining plums.
Put the sugar, butter, flour, ground hazelnuts, eggs and baking powder into a large bowl and beat with a wooden spoon or electric hand mixer for 1-2 mins, until smooth and light. Stir in the chopped plums and chocolate, then tip into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top.
Arrange the halved plums over the top of the mixture, pressing them down lightly, then scatter over hazelnuts. Bake for 40-50 mins until the top is golden and the cake feels firm to the touch. Cool in the pan for 10 mins, then turn out, remove the paper and cool on a wire rack. Heat the jelly, then brush over the top of the cake before serving.
18 comments:
wow, hazelnut chocolate tart. Looks so yummy and delicious.
Looks delicious...I wonder if you can substitute another fruit for the plums. A good food mag that I recently discovered is Cuisine at Home...I really enjoy it!
What a delicious combo of flavors! And that looks of that tart is quite something, too.
I really like some of the British and Aussie magazines. They are great sources of inspiration. I can't find them here, but luckily there's plenty of material online.
I only subscribe to 2 food magazines - I look through the rest at the grocery store, and if they interest me, I'll buy them. But I hear you - I haven't bought one in quite some time!! But with recipes like this one, I'll have to check out the others at the bookstore that I've never looked through!
this looks great. i love chocolate and hazelnuts. (I m mad about nutella) Quite an interesting recipe with the plums. Yummy :)
This looks really good. How is the plum chocolate flavor?
I, too, have been bored and uninspired with my mags. Bon Appetit is going away, but I've put a subscription to Fine Cooking on my Christmas list - it's awesome!
Your cake/ tart looks wonderful. I'll have to look for that magazine next.
Gorgeous one!
I love chocolate and hazelnut anything! And to throw in some plums...even better!! I want to try this one. I might drizzle nutella on top!! My mouth is watering now!
BBC Good Food magazine was one of my favorites when I first came to Holland, because they allowed me to get my hands on new recipes every month in English! Even though I speak and read Dutch now, I'm still a huge fan of Good Food (and Olive).
This looks great. I feel very much like you, as far as food magazines. Lately, the most interesting recipes I've found have been in British and Canadian magazines. I love spending a rainy day at Barnes & Noble in the magazine section!
Oh, my goodness -- that's a delicious sounding combination, and what a beautiful photograph of the tart.
Yep, I'm also sold to chocolate and hazelnut together!
Yum! I love how you have lots of recipes for plums.
I am so glad you discovered Olive and Good Food! I especially love that they have nutrition info for most of the dishes. Though it is very much harder to find, do try Australian Gourmet Traveler, Delicious, and Dish, from Australia and New Zealand. I don't think you will ever be disappointed. (I so agree with you on the American magazines of late!)
This cake is so yummy. Thanks for sharing this beautiful recipe. Will try it out soon.
Cheers
Olivia
Hello ... I have a question regarding this recipe. I weighed the 5 plums that are sitting in my fridge and they already exceeded 500g, but there are only 5 of them. Are these regular red / black plums or Italian plums that are sometimes known as Italian prunes? Also, about how high does this tart rise? I have an 8 inch pan but it is only 1.5 inches high, do you think that would work?
-fay
fay,
I use regular red/black plums. I think you can use any numbers of plums as long as the total weights is 500g. The tart rises quite a bit when I made it. Definitely higher than 1.5 inch.You may want to use a higher pan.
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