Plantain tart

Ingredients

The pastry

• 500 gplain flour
• 250 gcold butter or shortening
• cubed
• 60 gsugar
• 1egg
• about 90 ml cold water
• 1 teaspoonsalt

The filling

• 4very ripe plantains
• black-skinned
• 150 gsugar
• or brown sugar
• 1 teaspoongrated nutmeg
• 1 teaspoonground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoonvanilla
• a pinch of salt
• red food colouring, optional

To finish

• 1egg, beaten
• a little sugar, to sprinkle

To bake

• a hot oven
• lined trays

Directions

1. Peel all the very ripe plantains. Cut the ends and peel it back. Mash the plantains thoroughly. Mash them until they are quite smooth. Large chunks stay wet in the tart. Put the mashed plantain in a pan. Add the sugar and the salt to it.
2. Add the nutmeg and the cinnamon. It stops it from tasting flat. Cook it over a steady medium heat. Stir it constantly throughout. Stir right into all the corners. Do not stop stirring at any point. Keep the heat low once it thickens. Stand back and use a long spoon. Judging it takes a spoon test.
3. Stir in red food colouring at the end. Add the colouring off the heat. Add the colouring a drop at a time. Stir until the colour is even. Stir in the vanilla off the heat. Heat drives off vanilla quickly. Add the vanilla right at the very end.
4. Stir the vanilla through thoroughly. Let the filling cool completely. Hot filling melts the pastry butter. Cool it right down completely first. Put the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add all of the cold cubed fat. Rub it in to a coarse crumb texture.
5. Rub it with your fingertips only. Lift the mixture up as you rub it. That keeps it cool and aerated. Beat the egg with the cold water. Add it gradually to the flour. Add only enough to bring it together. Too much water makes it tough. Add it in just a splash at a time. Bring it into a dough with a knife. Stop the moment it holds together.
6. Wrap it up and then refrigerate it. Give it at least thirty full minutes. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface. Roll it about three millimetres thick. Thin enough to bake up quite crisp. Keep it even across the sheet. Cutting it is straightforward enough.
7. Cut rounds with a bowl or cutter. About twelve centimetres across is usual. Keep every one of them the same size. Put filling on one half of each round. Do not overfill any of them at all.
8. Leave a clear border all round. Brush the border with beaten egg. Fold the pastry over the filling. Press the edges together firmly. A dry edge opens right up in the oven. Brush it right round the border. Press the edge properly closed. Press the edge down with a fork. Press it firmly into the edge. Cut one small slit in each top. Steam builds as the filling heats. One small slit in it is enough.
9. Brush the pastry with beaten egg. Sprinkle a little sugar over them. Egg gives a deep golden shine. Brush the glaze on thinly and evenly. Heat the oven to two hundred degrees. Bake them for about twenty-five minutes. The pastry must colour properly. Lift one to look at the underside. It should be golden rather than pale. Lift them out onto a wire rack. The fruit filling is extremely hot.

Technique

• The bright red is added food colouring rather than anything natural to the plantain, and the atlas says so plainly — cooked plantain is a dull brown and the red makes the tart striking on a bakery shelf. It adds no flavour, is entirely optional, and many home bakers leave it out.
• The plantains must be very ripe with black skins, which is when the starch has converted to sugar and they are sweetest; yellow ones are far too starchy. That takes a week or more from yellow.
• Cook the filling down until a spoon dragged through leaves a channel that stays open briefly, stirring constantly since sugar and plantain catch and burn. Thick hot fruit paste spits as it bubbles and those spits are genuinely hot, so keep the heat low once it thickens, stand back and use a long spoon.

Substitutions

• Shortening stands in for butter in the pastry; either must be genuinely cold and rubbed in with fingertips only, since palms melt it.
• Nutmeg is the defining spice and Jamaica a major grower, so use it generously with cinnamon supporting it.

Variations

• Let the filling cool completely before it meets the pastry, since hot filling melts the fat and makes sealing impossible.
• Brush the border with beaten egg before folding, since a dry edge opens in the oven, then crimp with a fork and cut one small slit in the top so steam can escape.
• The filling holds heat far longer than the pastry and can badly burn the mouth, so give them fifteen minutes before eating.

History

A Jamaican bakery item sold alongside patties, using overripe plantain cooked with sugar and nutmeg.

Frequently asked questions

What is Plantain tart?

Plantain tart is a bread & pastry from Jamaica: half-moon pastry filled with spiced sweet plantain, often stained red. A Jamaican bakery item sold alongside patties, using overripe plantain cooked with sugar and nutmeg.

How long does Plantain tart take to make?

Plantain tart takes 40 minutes plus resting of preparation and 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes about 12 tarts. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Plantain tart?

Yes, within limits. Shortening stands in for butter in the pastry; either must be genuinely cold and rubbed in with fingertips only, since palms melt it. Nutmeg is the defining spice and Jamaica a major grower, so use it generously with cinnamon supporting it.

What is the most important thing to get right in Plantain tart?

Add the nutmeg and the cinnamon. It stops it from tasting flat. Cook it over a steady medium heat. Stir it constantly throughout. Stir right into all the corners. Do not stop stirring at any point. Keep the heat low once it thickens. Stand back and use a long spoon. Judging it takes a spoon test.