Tarte Soleil

Being a Brit that hangs around with a lot of Francophones, I am naturally the butt of many a joke about British food and our genetic deficiencies in the kitchen. So I’m always ready to rise to the challenge and this is one recipe that will illicit comments from French guests such as ‘Sacré bleu! Une anglaise qui cuisine comme les françaises? C’est pas possible!’

Obviously you can put what you want in it, I used anchovies, home-made pesto and mozzarella. Don’t skimp on the filling, otherwise it ends up just being a big mouthful of pastry. 

The pictures on this site http://www.percheesurmabranche.fr/2014/09/28/tartes-soleil-pour-lapero/ are easy to understand even if you don’t speak French. The recipe is made even easier if you can get puff pastry sold in circles, as they do in France.

Ingredients

2 x 30cm circles of puff pastry

Filling of choice, e.g:

1 mozzarella, chopped into small slices

6-8 anchovies, chopped into small pieces

3 heaped tablespoons of pesto sauce

1 egg, beaten with a little milk

A little water

Instructions

1.  Lay out one of the circles of puff pastry onto a baking sheet; if possible first put the baking sheet onto a large flat plate or board to work on.
2. Spread your filling of choice onto the pastry, leaving a 1cm border around the outside and making sure not to break the pastry.
3.  Brush a little water around the edge of the pastry circle
4. Place the second pastry circle on top, being careful to line it up correctly, and press down  the edges to seal all the way round.
5. Get a glass and press down gently into the middle of the circle. Do not pierce the pastry, just score it.
6.  Using a knife or pizza slice, cut a line right through both layers of pastry from the edge of the inner circle to the outside.  Repeat until you have created a ring of ribbons attached to the inner circle. I did 16 slices.
7. Once your pastry is cut, start with one ribbon and from the centre gently twist it 2 or 3 times, making sure it stays attached to the inner circle. Repeat for all the ribbons. The more filling you have inside, the harder it will be to keep the ribbons together as you’re twisting them.
8. Now you should have a circle of twisted ribbons that looks a bit like a sun. Very carefully brush each ribbon with the beaten egg and milk mixture, try and avoid squashing the twists out of shape.
9. Transfer the tarte to the oven : I took my plate over to the oven and quickly slid the tarte onto the oven grill with its baking sheet. Bake at about 210C for 10-15 mins until it is puffed and golden.
10. Serve slightly warm with pre-dinner drinks. Ooh la-la!