Rodebessenvlaai

the Limburg redcurrant tart: a wide, flat yeast-dough base filled with scarlet currants set in their own juices and crowned with a high, softly browned cap of meringue

Origin: Netherlands

From the journey of Currant.

The vlaai is the pride of Limburg, the long southern province that Dutch and Belgian territory share, and it is unlike any other tart in Europe. It is wide, flat, and shallow; it is built not on shortcrust or puff but on a soft, faintly sweet yeasted dough rolled thin; and it is baked in every bakery of the province and carried to every birthday, fair, funeral, and first communion, cut into narrow wedges and eaten with coffee. Its ancestry is older than the pastry-cook, for the flat fruit-topped bread baked in the falling heat of the oven after the week's loaves is a peasant form found across the Rhineland and the Low Countries. Redcurrants, the aalbessen or rode bessen that the gardeners of these provinces were amongst the first in Europe to bring in from the wild, make the sharpest and the most beautiful of the fillings, and the Limburg answer to their acidity is a thick, high cloud of meringue baked pale gold over the fruit, so that each mouthful has the sour, the sweet, and the yeasted crumb together. It is the bessenvlaai of July, made in the fortnight when the strigs come off the bushes.

Ingredients

Dough

300 g plain flour
7 g fast-action dried yeast
30 g caster sugar
0.5 tsp fine salt
150 ml whole milk, warmed to blood heat
50 g unsalted butter, softened
1 whole egg yolk

Filling

700 g redcurrants, stripped from their strigs
120 g caster sugar
30 g cornflour
3 tbsp fine dry breadcrumbs or ground almonds

Meringue

3 whole egg whites, at room temperature
150 g caster sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tsp lemon juice

Method

Mix the flour, yeast, 30 g sugar, and salt. Add the warm milk, the softened butter, and the egg yolk and work to a soft dough, then knead for 8 minutes until smooth and satiny. Cover and leave in a warm place for 1 hour, until doubled.
Strip the currants from their strigs with a fork. Toss them with the 120 g sugar and the cornflour and leave to stand for 20 minutes. Butter a 28 to 30 cm shallow tart tin or vlaai tin.
Knock the dough back and roll it out very thin, to about 3 mm, on a floured surface. Line the tin, pressing the dough up the sides to a low rim, and trim. Scatter the breadcrumbs over the base, spoon in the currants with all their juices, and leave to prove for 20 minutes. Heat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan).
Bake for 25 minutes, until the base is set and pale gold at the edge and the fruit is bubbling. Meanwhile whisk the egg whites with the salt to soft peaks, add the 150 g sugar a spoonful at a time whisking to a stiff, glossy meringue, and finally whisk in the lemon juice.
Take the tart from the oven, drop the temperature to 150°C (130°C fan), and pile the meringue over the hot fruit, spreading it right to the pastry edge and swirling the top into peaks. Return for a further 12 to 15 minutes, until the peaks are pale gold and the meringue is set. Cool completely in the tin before cutting.

Notes

The plainer form, without meringue, sets the currants under a lattice of the same yeast dough and is what most Limburg bakeries sell as vlaai; it keeps better and travels better, and the fruit needs 30 g more sugar to stand alone. Frozen redcurrants work well and need no thawing, though toss them with the cornflour whilst still frozen. A vlaai is best eaten the day it is made, since the yeasted base stales quickly and the meringue softens overnight. The same base and method take gooseberries, morello cherries, apricots, or plums, and a mixed bessenvlaai of red and blackcurrants together is very good indeed.

The Gastrographer

Name: Rodebessenvlaai
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 3 h
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Netherlands
Ingredients: 300 g plain flour; 7 g fast-action dried yeast; 30 g caster sugar; 0.5 tsp fine salt; 150 ml whole milk, warmed to blood heat; 50 g unsalted butter, softened; 1 whole egg yolk; 700 g redcurrants, stripped from their strigs; 120 g caster sugar; 30 g cornflour; 3 tbsp fine dry breadcrumbs or ground almonds; 3 whole egg whites, at room temperature; 150 g caster sugar; 1 pinch salt; 1 tsp lemon juice

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control