We had a minor storm last night and when I woke up this morning some of the branches on the tomato plants were broken. I went out on the terrace in the pouring rain to raise the fallen plants, thinking about all those green tomatos on the broken branches and what to do with them. I first thought of making a green tomato jam, but after looking in one of the cookbooks I saw a green tomato pie recipe. Aha, perfect! I didn’t follow the recipe at all (except for the fact that I used green unripe tomatos) and decided that the tomatos would go well with almond paste and lemon. So I collected all my unripe tomatos, put on my kitchen music (the best of Dean Martin) and just after hearing the first tones F shouted from the ground flour asking what I was baking. For a second I didn’t know what I should say. Should I tell him about my crazy plan, with the risk of having to eat everything by myself as he sometimes is a bit fuzzy with vegetables and vegetable cakes? But I was honest and he answered that it sounded “interesting” wondering how on earth such a thing could be edible…

I used a Donna Hay recipe for the pastry and the filling was just a gamble that turned out excellent! Next time I’ll try with cinnamon instead of lemon or maybe something else. And there will be a next time because we both really liked these mini pies and I’m sure that by the end of summer I’ll end up with more unripe green tomatoes. If you’re tired of making green tomato jam or fried green tomatoes every time the summer ends to quickly or a storm splits your plants resulting in a lot of unripe tomatoes, bake these sweet and delicious pies. As soon as you taste them you’ll forget all about bad weather and the end of the summer.

Unripe tomatoes of different kinds: yellow pear shaped, black cherry and bloody butcher.

Mini green tomato pies with almond paste and lemon
(makes 5 pies, using 12 cm * 2 cm metal pie tins)

basic vanilla pastry (adapted from Donna Hay):
250 gram flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
180 gram unsalted butter, cold and chopped
80 ml ice water
1 vanilla pod, the interior

Filling:
180 gram unripe tomatoes, mixed sorts (mostly cherry tomatoes)
200 gram almond paste
50 gram unsalted butter, softened
zest from one lemon
1 tbsp Grand Marnier
0.5 tbsp flour

milk for brushing
caster sugar to sprinkle on top of pies

pastry:
Combine flour, sugar, vanilla and butter in a food processor. Process until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. While still running the food processor, add water little by little until a smooth dough is created. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes before using.

filling:
Grate almond paste and combine with softened butter. Chop the tomatoes coursly. Add tomatoes, lemon zest, Grand Marnier and flour to the butter/almond paste mixture. Combine.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (convection oven). Lightly grease the metal tins with butter.
Take 2/3 of the pastry and roll out to 3-4 mm thick. Cut out 5 rounds, around 2 cm wider than the tins. Line the pie tins with the pastry and trim the edges.

Divide the tomato filling between the pies. Roll out the remaining pastry and cut in strips. Arrange the strips on the pies to a lattice pattern. Press and trim the edges. Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 30 minutes, until the pies are golden.

It’s time for another Daring Bakers challenge! The idea of the Daring Bakers is that every month one baking recipe is presented that all members have to follow exactly without any modifications except where specifically allowed. During the month we share our experiences and learn to be better bakers. The recipe, our photos and experiences are then officially posted on a specified day.

This month’s challenge was to bake a Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream from Carol Walter’s “Great Cakes” and the recipe was picked by Chris of Mele Cotte.

It’s super hot outside and I’m melting so I will keep this post as short as possible. As usual I did the challenge in the very last minute. I baked the cake last night and today during the day I completed the different steps. I decided to do half the recipe, using a smaller spring pan. I used cherry preserves instead of apricot and I omitted the sugar syrup and used Frangelico hazelnut liquour instead. For decoration I used fresh cherries.

I averted two minor catastrophies:

1. My swiss buttercream curdled. But I quickly re-heated it for a couple of seconds, whipped it and it turned out very smooth and nice.

2. After putting the praline buttercream very even on each cake layer and then with the cake in my hand looking for a space in the fridge I discovered the whipped cream that I was suppose to have on each layer of butter cream…. So I gently split the layers and added the cream on my earlier perfect layers. It didn’t turn out too great, but better than I first thought.

The verdict? A gorgeous cake and I’m sure I will make it again in the future. There were many discussions on the private Daring Bakers forum about this very cake, but with over 1000 members it’s a tough choice for the monthly host to pick a recipe that will suit everyone. I’m very glad that Chris picked this recipe, as I would not have tried it otherwise despite the fact that I love hazelnuts all because the fact that I normally don’t like butter cream. But this one was delicious! Thanks!

The recipe can be found here and to see all fabulous versions of this cake go to the Daring Bakers blog roll.