michelle picker cooks

Eve made this ensaïmada, a pastry which hails from Mallorca. Traditionally made with a lot of pork lard (saiïm in Catalan) this version, from a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe, uses only 100g (3½ oz) of butter. I’ve never tasted the original version but this one was moist and delicious and a fitting finale for a Spanish meal.

Before you start, soak 50g (1¾ oz) of chopped muscatel or other raisins in 3 tablespoons of orange liquor for half an hour. Preheat your oven to 200ºC (390ºF). In a mixer beat 100g (3½ oz) of diced room-temperature unsalted butter with 150g (5⅓ oz) of caster sugar until light, airy and pale in colour. Lightly whisk 2 eggs and add them a little at a time. If the mixture starts to look split, add a bit of flour to bring it back together. Add 40g (1.4 oz) of almond meal, 70g (2½ oz) of plain flour and ¼ of a teaspoon of salt. Beat just until everything comes together. Now remove the stones from 4 apricots and dice them. Fold them into the mixture by hand along with the raisins and alcohol, the zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon and 40g (1.4 oz) of flaked almonds. Set aside. Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll some store-bought puff pastry into a rectangle 50cm long, 30cm wide and 2-3 millimetres (0.1″) thick. Cut it into two rectangles, both measuring 15cm x 50cm. Spread the almond paste thinly over both of the pastry rectangles, leaving a border along one long edge on each. Gently roll the longest edge over itself and roll the whole sheet into a long sausage, the seam facing down. Using a baking tray lined with baking paper, place one end in the centre of the tray and wrap around into a coil shape, leaving a slight gap in the centre. Fold the end underneath the coil to seal it shut, brushing with a little egg to help it stick. Repeat the same process with the 2nd pastry rectangle. At this stage you can make 2 separate pastries but Eve opted to add the second to the first to make one larger pastry. Use another 3 apricots, stones removed and cut as desired, to decorate. The traditional decoration is a flower at the centre but ours had apricot wedges dotted around the entire coil and was decorated with extra flaked almonds. Brush the pastry with a beaten egg and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Bake for 8 minutes before reducing the oven heat to 170ºC  (340ºF). Continue to bake for another 45 minutes or until the pastry is golden-brown. Cool on a wire rack, dust with icing sugar and brush the apricots with some runny honey before serving warm or at room temperature.