Here’s an unusual old English recipe that uses Rose Hips (any of the edible hips can be used). The rosehip tart is brought up to date by replacing the shortcrust pastry with puff pastry. The rose hips do not require blending or passing through muslin but they do require good cleaning so the recipe is a little fiddly at the beginning. It is all worth it though as when the puff pastry crisps and inside the thin pie or slice is finally pulled from the oven. The sweet, spicy fragrance of cooked hips and golden pastry will let you know that it was worth every minute. You'll enjoy every single delicious slice!
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Rosehip Slice Recipe
Ingredients:
Puff Pastry 250 g
Large cup of cleaned rosehips
300ml of Water
2 – 3 Tablespoons of Honey
½ Tsp Ginger
½ Tsp Cinnamon
1 Orange
Icing Sugar to dust
Instructions:
First the fiddly bit, puff pastry and the cleaning of the Rosehips.
To clean the hips simply remove the Calyx and slice them in two lengthways discard the seeds and the rinse well under the tap, repeat until you have a large cup of Rosehips – give them one more little wash just before cooking.
Quick tip about cooking with Rosehips, please use them as fresh as possible. The Vitamin C that is so crammed into these fruits is very delicate and to get the full value from them Rosehips need to be prepared and used as soon as possible otherwise like the flavour of peas the Vitamin C degrades and you don’t get the full value from them.
Next the puff pastry, what works best is a homemade ruff puff pastry but shop bought all butter puff pastry is fine too. If you have got time to make homemade ruff puff please do as the satisfaction is even greater when you pull the Rosehip slice from the oven and you get the opportunity to grate a little of the Orange Zest through the pastry!
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Now back to the Rosehip filling. In a saucepan place the Rosehips and the water, bring them to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes. Once 15 minutes have passed add the Honey, Ginger and Cinnamon as well as a twist of Orange Juice. Then set aside allowing to cool.
Get the oven warming up to 200 degrees.
On a floured surface divide the puff pastry into two. Roll each portion of pastry into a round. Now on a shallow buttered pie plate place one of the discs of pastry. Fill the bottom half of the pastry with the now warm hips being careful not to overfill. Moisten the edge of the pie and place the top disc on top and crimp the edge of tart fixing the top to the bottom firmly (please make sure that this edge is very firm as when the pie puffs up you don’t want that edges to pull apart) and make a few holes in the top of the pie with a sharp knife to allow stream to escape.
Place the tart or slice in the oven for about 20 – 25 minutes until the pastry is golden, then remove and dust with a little icing sugar.
Serve as slices either hot or cold.
Rosehips not ready yet? You might enjoy this Wild Rose Petal Jam recipe.