Saturday, June 4, 2011

Apricot-Peach Tart with Almond Frangipane

We are lucky to live on the same block as a little organic food shop here in Barcelona...these shops are called "herbolarios" and although they are in abundance, not very many of them carry fresh produce...luckily ours does, and lots of it! The other day I was happily surprised to find fresh apricots and peaches! I've never made a fruit tart before...


but it was easy as pie! I burned the tips of the fruit a little, but it was still as delicious as ever...


I just ate the last piece this afternoon..

I'm not sure if it's because I modified the crust recipe and added wheatgerm, or if there was just a lot of butter, but I found that the dough kept getting stuck to the cutting board and was hard to roll out so in the end I just ended up pressing it into the tart pan and it worked perfectly!  On the next try, I might try adding a quarter cup of crushed almonds to the crust recipe...hmmmmm

Plum-Almond Tart
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 1 9-inch tart or 8 4-inch mini-tartlets
For crust:
1 cup spelt flour
1/4 cup wheat germ

1 tablespoon raw brown canesugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

125grms (1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon aprox) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons ice water

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

For filling:
1/3 cup whole raw almonds (about 2 ounces)

1/4  cup raw brown cane sugar
1 large egg
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 tablespoons cognac

7 small apricots + 1 large peach cut into 3/4-inch-thick wedges--you can vary the fruit ratio or even replace either for plums if you prefer)
1/4 cup blueberry jelly

Whipped cream (optional--we ate ours with Vanilla Ice cream! Although I don't think it needed it...)

Make crust: 
Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine first 3 ingredients--cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal (by hand or with an electric mixer). Mix 2 tablespoons ice water and vanilla in small bowl.  Add water mixture to dough and mix until moist clumps form.
Gather dough into ball and roll out as much as best you can on floured surface--if you can go all the way great, if not try pressing the dough into a 9" tart pan as described above. Trim overhang, fold in, and press. Using fork, pierce dough all over. Freeze 15 minutes.

Bake crust until pale golden, about 30 minutes and let cool. Maintain oven temperature.

Make filling:
Finely grind almonds with sugar with handheld mixer. Add egg, butter and 1 tablespoon cognac.  Process until smooth and pour into crust. Arrange peach and nectarine slices atop filling. Bake until the fruit is tender and filling is golden and set, about 1 hour.

Melt jelly with remaining 1/2 tablespoon cognac in small saucepan over medium-low heat. 
Brush jelly mixture over plums.

Cool tart. Serve at room temperature with whipped cream, or ice cream or whatever you like!