Recipe : Hairy Bikers Gerbeaud Slice (Zerbo)

These little slices of utter naughtiness came from The Hairy Bikers' Big Book of Baking and the name, Gerbeaud Slice comes from the name of the Budapest café that created them.

Gerbeaud Slice (Zerbo)

ingredients :

Filling :

200g walnut halves

150g caster sugar 

300g apricot jam

Pastry:

300g plain flour, sifted

1 heaped teaspoon fast-acting dried yeast

50g caster sugar

big pinch of salt

50g butter

4tbsp milk

4tbsp soured cream (but I used crème fraîche)

1 egg yolk

sunflower oil for greasing

Icing:

50g dark chocolate

50g caster sugar

4tbsp water

Put the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl, mix and rub in the butter to make breadcrumbs. Mix the milk, egg yolk and cream together, make a well in the centre of the flour and and pour them in.

Combine until you get a soft, sticky dough. Put to one side.

In a food processer, blitz the walnuts and sugar. (I really need to win one of these - I'm still using a stick blender in a bowl with a tea towel draped over the top to stop all the bits flying everywhere !)

Heat the apricot jam in a saucepan until it softens - or alternatively use a jar of French Mamie's scrummy homemade apricot jam which is already runny enough.

Cut the dough into three equal portions and roll one out on a floured surface.

Cut into a rectangle and transfer to a greased tin. (This is easier said than done because it sticks and breaks - I needed to reroll a couple of times.)

Spread half of the jam over the pastry and top with half of the walnuts. Layer on the second piece of pastry, the rest of the jam then walnuts and end with the final piece of pastry.

Leave for 1/2 hour to rise slightly (it wont rise much but the pastry will go springy) then prick all over with a fork and bake in a preheated oven at 180° for 25 minutes. Leave to cool.

Melt the chocolate with the sugar and water, stirring constantly, and spread over the cake. Leave to set then cut into fingers.

These are incredibly sweet and gooey and the kids love them.

Linking up with Belleau Kitchen's Random Recipes which is twinning up with Chocolate Log Blog's We Should Cocoa challenge this month

As it's a Hairy Bikers' recipe, I'll also link up with Jo's Kitchen's monthly Hairy Bikers Bloggers Know Best linkie.

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

My version of the Hairy Bikers' Dutch Apple Cake

Belleau Kitchen #randomrecipes challenge - puddings, cakes and bakes (Hairy Bikers Bread & Butter Pudding)

Madhouse recipe : Slow cooker Moroccan Chicken with Olives & Preserved Lemons