Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Fly Cemeteries

Chef: Lois Daish as heard on Afternoons Friday 19 October 2007

Tags: pastry, baking, slice, dried fruit

Cook books are usually too polite to use the term fly cemeteries; you have to look them up under something innocuous, such as fruit squares. How dull.  If you use a processor to first make the pastry, you don’t even need to wash it before using it to chop the fruit filling.

Pastry

Ingredients

• 200g standard flour
• 50g caster sugar
• 125g firm butter, cut into pieces
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons cold water

Method

Put the flour, sugar and butter into a processor and pulse until the mixture is something like breadcrumbs. Tip the mixture out into a large bowl.

Put the egg yolk and cold water into a cup and whisk with a fork. Sprinkle this over the ingredients in the large bowl, mixing it evenly though with a fork.

Abandon the fork, and use your hand to press the crumbly mixture into a firm dough.

Tip out onto a bench and knead lightly for a couple of minutes until the dough is smooth.

Divide into halves and roll each half out into a rough circle about the size of a dinner plate.

Place one circle on baking paper on a baking tray, and set aside the second circle in a cool place while you make the filling.

Filling

Ingredients

• 1 smallish tart apple, such as braeburn, jazz or granny smith.
• 2 cups mixed dried fruit, such as raisins, currants, sultanas, figs
• 1 teaspoon cocoa
• half teaspoon ground cloves

Method

Quarter, core and peel the apple, and cut into chunks.

Put in the processor together with the dried fruit, cocoa and cloves. Whiz to form a rough paste. 

Spread the paste over the circle of pastry, leaving a margin.

Lay the second circle of pastry over the fruit paste and press the edges together firmly. Prick top with a fork.

Bake in a 190C oven for about 25 minutes until the pastry is a pale biscuit colour. 

Delicious eaten while still warm, but can also be stored for 3 days.