A Little Sweet and a Little Tangy with the Le Creuset Baking Tray

Crisp to Perfection

It’s no secret that I have a love affair with Le Creuset Cookware. I own 3 dishes from the Le Creuset Satin Black Range and use them on a regular basis, so I was keen to try out the 31 x 31 cm Le Creuset Toughened Non-Stick Baking Sheet. I looked through my recipes and decided to make a Rhubarb and Raspberry Crostata. I’ve made this crostata 2 or 3 times before and each time I bake it, the filling bubbles over making a mess of the baking tray. I checked the crostata while it was baking to find this had happened yet again. Thankfully the hard-wearing non-stick surface is metal utensil safe because I needed to do a lot of cleaning up. The tray has a wide rim with heat-resistant silicone inserts for added grip, which made lifting the tin out of the hot oven easier and safer. As the crostata was cooking in the oven I could see the filling overflow and start to stick to the tray and was quite worried I would be unable to clean it even after hours of hand work and elbow grease. I don’t know what Le Creuset use in their nonstick coating, but the baking sheet cleaned up super easily and with no trace of the grime that was baked on. Best of all, the pastry cooked perfectly without any trace of the dreaded soggy bottom. Here’s the recipe for you which feeds a crowd. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, 60 gm eggs and unsalted butter unless specified. My oven is a conventional gas oven, not fan forced, so you may have to lower your oven temperature by 20°C.

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Rhubarb and Raspberry Crostata

Ingredients

• 250g plain flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 150g cold butter, diced
• ⅓ cup cold water

Filling

• 1 (500g) bunch rhubarb, rinsed, drained, trimmed
• 200 g frozen raspberries
• ¾ cup caster sugar
• 2 tbsp custard powder

Frangipane

• 50 g unsalted butter, softened
• ¼ cup (55g) caster sugar
• 1 tsp grated orange rind
• 75g almond meal
• 1 tbs plain flour
• 1 egg, beaten lightly

Topping

• 1-2 tbs milk
• Raw sugar, Demerara or coffee crystals

To serve

• Icing sugar
• Double cream and raspberries

Method

On a flat work surface, combine the flour and salt, then incorporate the cold diced butter with your fingers. Rub the butter into the flour until the butter pieces are no larger than the size of peas. Make a well in the centre of the flour, and pour in the cold water. Using your hands, mix the water into the flour until dough is formed. Flatten the pastry into a disc; wrap the dough in plastic and put in the refrigerator for one hour. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Chop the rhubarb into 5 cm pieces and put into a mixing bowl with the frozen raspberries, caster sugar and custard powder; toss to coat. To make the frangipane; place all the ingredients into a food processor then process all the ingredients to form a soft paste. Lightly dust a large sheet of baking paper with flour and roll the pastry out to form a rough circle approximately 30cm in diameter. Transfer the pastry on the baking paper to a large oven tray. Spread the frangipane in the centre of the pastry, leaving an 8 cm border. Top with the drained rhubarb mixture. Lift the sides of the pastry up over the fruit and crimp in place. Brush the edges of the pastry with milk and lightly sprinkle with raw sugar or coffee crystals. Bake on the lower shelf of the oven for 45-50 minutes or until crisp and golden. Dust with icing sugar and serve with double cream and some fresh raspberries, if desired. As you can see the crostata turned out perfectly. The baking tray was super easy to work with throughout the entire recipe. I could prep my on the generous surface space, cook in the oven and then easily transfer the crostata to a cooling rack without burning my fingers thanks to the silicone handles. Shop the entire Toughened Non-Stick Bakeware Range by Le Cresuset.