Nectarine frangipane flan with verjuice glaze
Beautiful and tasty nectarine and frangipane flan
Masterchef Australia by itself is responsible for me producing a whole lot of recipes that I watched on the show. This delicious nectarine frangipane flan is one of those. Original recipe is from Maggie Beer.
While Tom and I watch episode after episode of season 1 of masterchef Australia, dish after dish is whipped up and even the ones that get bad reviews are probably all dishes I would not be able to make myself. So I’m always pretty impressed with what they make. Granted there are always people that tell me that the people on masterchef cannot cook. That it’s all child’s play. Child’s play?? Are you serious? Sure there is an element of show in there that’s just part of the tv series and that’s fine, but I refuse to believe that the top 24 of masterchef cannot cook. That’s just a ridiculous assumption.
I think they’re all brilliant. Some more then others (we all have our favorites) but I totally love watching the show and I do get inspired by it a great deal. I would not have made a chocolate mousse with olive oil if it wasn’t for George Calombaris and now this dessert. I think it was actually from season 3 that they showed this dish… I’m starting to wonder about the season now… (the reason being that they started season 3, while season 1 was still running. Very nice if the first episode shows you the winner of season 1. That was a total bummer…)
Delicious small flan with nectarine and verjus glaze
It was part of a 3 item dessert that Maggie Beer (what a lovely lady!!) presented to the contestants and they had to reproduce. This flan caught my eye and I just had to make it. Luckily the recipe was on the website of Maggie so that was easily fixed. However; one of the ingredients that was needed for this was verjuice glaze… What?? I never heard of verjuice (or verjus as we call it here) before so it took some tweeting around before I had the answer. It’s essentially the juice of unripe grapes and ofcourse, not something you can buy in a supermarket.
With a little taste of summer; nectarine flan
Luckily Hans Klomp, who is the (head?)chef at Vineyard Catering where I did a few foodshoots a couple of months back, tweeted to me that it was sold at Vanilla Venture. They responded via twitter quite quickly and while they normally don’t deliver to consumers they kindly agreed that I could buy a bottle. It was delivered to a restaurant here in Almere where I could pick it up. So fantastic service by Vanilla Venture! I was really happy with that.
So I had a bottle of verjuice but now I still needed to make the dessert. And that is what I did today. I loved the taste of the dessert; the sweetness of the frangipane and the slightly sour taste of the verjuice went brilliantly together. I did make a few mistakes when baking so it could have looked better, but this was my first time with this dough (never my strongest point) so all things considering; I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!
Nectarine frangipane flan with verjuice glazen
Yield: 2
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 1 hr
It's summery, it's fruity, it's not as complicated as you might think and well, simply delicious!
Ingredients:
SOUR CREAM PASTRY
- 75 gr flour
- 60 gr cold, unsalted butter, in cubes
- 40 gr sourcreaM
FRANGIPANE
- 60 gr butter, soft at roomtemperature
- 75 gr caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp grand marnier
- zest 1/4 lime
- 100 gr almond flour
- 10 gr all purpose flour
VERJUICE GLAZE
- 1/2 cup Brix verjus red (mix of red and white grapes)
- 1/4 cup castor sugar
- 2 nectarines, halved, deseeded and sliced thinly
Directions:
- Place flour and butter in a kitchen machine or stickblender and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Add sour cream and pulse until pastry just starts to come together. Remove, divide in half and press into two discs. Cover with cling wrap and place in a refrigerator to chill for 10 minutes.
- Preheat a fan forced oven to 175 C. For the frangipane, place butter and castor sugar into kitchen machine or stick blender and process until light and creamy.
- Add egg and process for 1 minute. Add the Grand Marnier and lemon zest and process for 30 seconds before adding the flour and almond meal. Process to combine.
- Set aside until ready to use.
- Remove from heat and set aside. Place pastry between two sheets of baking paper and roll out to 3 mm thick.
- Roughly cut two 6 cm x 9 cm rectangles, transfer to a baking paper lined oven tray.
- Make a slight insertion, only half way through the pastry, 3 mm from the edge, down both sides and at either ends. Prick the centre cut section with a fork. Place onto a baking paper lined oven tray and bake for 15 minutes. Just to be clear here; you remove the puffed up part of the centre piece, so not the entire middle part as that will leave you with just the edges. What you need is like a little basket where you can put the frangipane in. In the oven the middle part will have puffed up a bit, you take that top layer of.
- Remove from oven and remove the centre piece of the pastry, leaving you with a small case. Fill centre with 1 tbsp of frangipane.
- Top frangipane with 5-6 slices of nectarine and brush with verjuice syrup.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, remove from oven and brush with verjuice syrup and set aside to cool.
Depending on your oven the baking times might be longer. I found that mine were not browning yet after 15 minutes in the oven, but I didn't know how much more they would brown in the 2nd part so I took them out which was a mistake looking back. They can be a bit brown when you start on the second process. If it is still too raw it will not cook properly.
The part where it says to remove the middle section can be a little confusing. I know I was confused initially. What you need to do is you remove the top layer of the middle section but you leave the bottom in as that will have to support your frangipane.
RECIPE by Maggi Beer
If you’re also curious to find out how the former contestants and winner of the first season of Masterchef Australia are doing? I know I was, so I looked up the websites of my favorites. So have a look if you want!
Julie Goodwin – Julie is on her second cookbook now which is about to be released soon.
Justine Schofield – Justine has started her own catering company
Poh Ling Yeow (with her artwork) – and via ABC tv where she has her own tv series called Poh’s Kitchen I would love to watch that but it’s in Australia only apparently… 
Chris Badenoch – He wrote a cookbook too but there is also some controversial stuff going on around him. I’m not interested enough to find out but if you’re into juice gossip… I would google some more.
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Appetizer
Asian
Bread
Breakfast
Desserts & other sweets
Healthy
Yes recepies like this we should remember and make.It looks so cute and yummy as well:)
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 27th, 2011 at 23:22
Thanks Dzoli! It was very tasty indeed!
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this recipe looks tasteful and yes it looks yummy …great dessert =)
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 27th, 2011 at 23:22
Thanks Raquel!
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*hold up empty plate* May I have some? Looks very delicious!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 27th, 2011 at 23:23
Ah yes ofcourse Astrid! Just come on over…
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A fabulous dessert and flavor combination! I really have to buy some verjuice…
Cheers,
Rosa
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 27th, 2011 at 23:23
It’s an interesting ingredient. I’ve got some left so I have to think how to use it up (it needs to be kept in the fridge)
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WOWOWOWOW! And SO timely – I saw something similar on Jamie’s site (Life is a Feast) and have many of the ingredients to make for guests tomorrow – it will be fun to do her apricot tart and your nectarine one!
I even have the verjus!
Valerie
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 27th, 2011 at 23:24
Yes, Jamie made that gorgeous apricot tart too… Which looks much more sophisticated then mine did.
But if you have the verjuice… no excuses to make your own!
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How pretty! I’ve had recipes call for verjus too, and have never been able to get my hands on it. I think I substituted it with lime juice, or something, but of course it wasn’t the same.
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 27th, 2011 at 23:25
They said that indeed you can substitute it with some like lime juice but the taste is nothing like lime juice, so I can’t see how that would work equally well. Although there appear to be various kinds of verjuice so maybe one is different then the other..
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I was just reading through a bunch of recipes using verjus in Art Culinaire, and am so curious to try it! That said, your bectarine frangipane flan with the verjus is a Michelin star type dessert, SO beautiful and SO wanting to taste! On another note, I’m so glad you’re thinking about joining in on Daring Bakers again! You always rocked the challenges!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 27th, 2011 at 23:26
O thanks Lisa! I’m really looking forward to find out about the next DB challenge..
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Anything resembling fruit and pastry is a winner with me. I don’t get to see Masterchef Australia, but I’ll bet it’s wonderful. I often wonder how they manage to do what they do under such pressure.
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 27th, 2011 at 23:27
I know! I wouldn’t be able to come up with a new recipe in such short time! It takes me a day to think of something and they have 45 minutes to think of something, get the ingredients AND make it… Pretty impressive in my book!
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Looks like something served in heaven. Mmmmm…
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 29th, 2011 at 00:01
Not sure if they would serve this in heaven but it was sure very good…
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It’s so mouthwatering!!!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 29th, 2011 at 00:02
Thanks Jun!
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This is simply adorable. Its colorful feature is alluring. I like it.
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 29th, 2011 at 00:00
Thanks!
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Such a beautiful tart. Great way to use the summer nectarines.
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 28th, 2011 at 23:58
Thanks Esi. Yes, perfect for using up any stonefruit that is left while the end of summer lasts..
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Such a stunning dessert! And just as delicious as it is pretty to look at – I’m sure!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 29th, 2011 at 22:23
Thanks Reeni and yes, I can tell you that it was..
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Looks so delicious and beautiful picture. Loves your presentation.
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 29th, 2011 at 22:23
Thanks Amelia!
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The dessert itself is fabulous…as for the show, well a lot has changed since season 1. Like anything, the first season will always be remembered…however as the show progressed we saw less and less cooking and a lot more emotional back stories of the contestants! Anyway, at least you got to appreciate Maggie Beer…she really is one special lady!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 29th, 2011 at 22:23
Yes, well we are now a bit further into season 3 (never saw season 2) and I do think I know what you mean… I still like it better then the Dutch version or the English version and let’s not talk about the US version…
And yes, love Maggie Beer!
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This looks so good and flavorful. I didn’t know what verjuice was – thanks for the information
P.S love that background in pic u used
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so pretty, Simone.
Love the combination or orange and turquoise. Of course I’m sure the taste is superb too
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So I went to make these – but didn’t understand the pastry cutting instructions. I did do the slicing 3 mm on each edge and my pastry was baked fully (IMHO) in 10 minutes – but I left it 15 and took it out… then what? It says to remove the centre piece and I will be left with a case? and put the frangipane in there?
I didn’t get it. Your photos look like you only used the centre. What happened to the edges that puffed up – the 3mm edges?
Could you help me here? I did make something – b ut it looked nothing like this.
Valerie
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Simone (junglefrog) — September 2nd, 2011 at 08:17
He Valerie! Ooo, yes I sort of know what you mean as I had to read it five times to understand it myself. I think I will add something to the recipe to make it clearer. I didn’t change the instructions from the original which I guess I should have done. The part where it says to remove the centre piece is not the ENTIRE centrepiece it is just the puffed up bit. Basically what you do is that you remove the top layer of the centre so you have a middle that is a little shallower then the outer edges. Those are supposed to puff up (which didn’t work so well on my photo, that’s why it looks like I used the middle part only) So what you are left with is literally a case of the outer edges with the shallower part in the middle. I hope that explains it a little better. I will change the recipe to include these notes as well! The fact that yours was cooked fully has probably something to do with my oven which is in need of replacement…
Let me know if this makes more sense!
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Thank you SO much!
That makes SO much more sense – take two will happen shortly!
Valerie
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