Almond Cream Tart

This is one of the recipes I hae learnt recently in a shortcrust pastry baking course in June. Held over 5 days from 8-2pm, I learnt Apple Cranberry Pie, Flan Parisian, Tarte Normande, Tarte Bourdaloue and Quiche Lorraine... the latter two were the ones that brought me to my knees (with all that butter and cream!).  I devoured with my family as soon as I brought them home.   

​Tarte Bourdaloue is a classic pear and almond tart and originates from Paris in 1906. I omitted the pears this time I didn't have any preserved pears at home. So what resulted was an Almond Cream Tart which is equally delicious. Don't be alarmed by the number of ingredients and steps. What results is a beautiful decadent tart which you can enjoy for days :) 
​
I will make the classic Tarte Bourdaloue in one of the future blog posts.

Ingredients (yields a 8inch round tart)
​Shortcrust Pastry
200gm plain flour
​4gm Salt
20gm Sugar
​100gm unsalted butter
1 egg
5gm water
​2gm vanilla essence
 
Almond Cream Filling
​60gm softened butter
60gm sugar
​60gm ground almond
​10gm plain flour
1 egg
2 gm vanilla essence

Topping
​1 cup almond flakes/almond slivers
​40gm Apricot glaze (for the shine - optional)

Method
​1) First and foremost, cut the butter into cubes, put them in a small bowl and place them in the freezer. I can't emphasize how important it is that the butter is ice cold. It can't be soft as then it would affect the pastry dough texture. It will not hold itself well and will crack easily in the later stages.So, please please make sure the butter is hard and frozen.

Sieve the plain flour, sugar and salt.. After sifting, put these ingredients into a mixing bowl.  

2) Now, take out the hard cubes of butter from the freezer and place them into the mixing bowl with the flour mixture. Use a plastic scrapper for 5 mins to break the butter into the flour. 

3) Working very quickly so that the dough still remains cold, use your finger tips to get a flaky dough texture like glass shards.

4) Mix the egg, ice water and vanilla essence in a another small bowl pour this mix into the butter dough.  

5) Knead the entire mix quickly into a ball. Don't over knead.

6) Using your cleaned kitchen counter or a pastry mat, sprinkle a little flour (don't use too much flour - this will result in a hard dough) and crush the dough little by little using the heels of your palm. This is called fraisaging. 

7) Continue fraisaging until all the dough is used up.

8) Again, working very quickly,  join the fraisaged dough pieces into a round lump. then wrap in cling wrap.  Keep it in a chiller for 20mins.

9) At this juncture, preheat the oven to 180 deg C. Start preparing the almond cream. Cream (beat with a wooden spoon) the softened butter by hand for a few minutes. Sieve the flour, ground almonds and sugar and then add this to the creamed butter. Cream again for another 2 mins. Mix the beaten egg and vanilla essence in a small bowl.. then add a little at a time (like 1/3 at a time).  Mix well till well combined. Set aside in a cool place.

​10) Take the chilled dough after 20 mins and roll it out on a slightly floured surface. It shouldn't be too thick and should be big enough to fit into a 8 inch tart ring or pan. 

11) Butter the ring or a tart pan. Then place the rolled out flat dough into the ring gently and carefully. Smooth the dough into the ring and press along the edges. Trim off any extra dough using a rollling pin to go over the top of the ring. If there are holes or parts where the dough has been stretched out too thin, patch it up with small pieces of dough.

12) Pour in the almond cream and spread it out evenly.

13) Top with almond slivers/flakes.

14) If there is any extra dough and almond cream, make mini versions of this almond cream tart.

15) Pop the big tart and the mini ones into the oven for 25-35 mins till the top is golden brown. Remove from oven and let it cool down for 10mins. If you are using the apricot glaze, warm the glaze in a small pot till it reaches jam consistency. Then, brush over the tart. Enjoy delicious Almond Cream Tart!