FFwD – Orange-Almond Tart

Or, in this case, it’s a Clementine-Almond Tart.

And yes, it’s supposed to be French Fridays with Dorie, not French Saturdays, but, well, if you’ve read my last post, I figure you understand why I didn’t get to writing this and posting it yesterday afternoon.

Anyway, I decided to make the tart with clementines rather than oranges simply because that’s what I had on hand. 

So Friday morning, the first thing I did was to slice peel and membrane off my clementines.

I placed all the little naked sections of clementine on several layers of paper towel, covered them with a couple more layers, and let them sit for a few hours.  I replaced the paper towels after about two hours as well.

Then I made the sweet tart crust – a simple mixture of flour, confectioners’ sugar, salt, butter, and egg yolk.  Process until the mixture forms clumps, and the dough is done.  I wrapped it in plastic and stuck it in the fridge.

Next, I made myself some almond flour.

Simple enough – I just put a cup or so of blanched almonds in the food processor and pulsed repeatedly until I had very small pieces of almond.  I spooned that, a little at a time, into a strainer and strained the fine flour into a bowl. 

If you decide to do this yourself, just be sure to pulse the processor, or run it for short periods of time, so you don’t end up with almond meal – a wetter, stickier product than the flour.

I still had little bits of almond left over, and I ended up adding them to the walnuts in the Baklava I was also making.  

For now, though, back to the tart.

Next up – making the almond cream.

I’ve got granulated sugar, corn starch, butter, vanilla, an egg, almond flour, and all purpose flour.

First, I processed the butter and sugar until they were – per Dorie’s recipe - “smooth and satiny.”

Next in – the almond flour.

And then the flour and cornstarch…

the egg…

And, finally, the vanilla.

When the almond cream was nice and smooth, I scraped it into a bowl, covered it with plastic, and stuck it in the fridge.

Time to partially bake the tart crust.

I’ll say this right now – I was lazy here.

I should have just pressed the dough into a tart pan when I made it.  But no, I was still thinking maybe I’d make a bunch of mini-tarts, so I thought I’d roll out the dough instead.  But then, when it was time to pre-bake it, I ended up dumping the chilled dough into the pan, breaking it up into bits, and pressing it in place.  Mostly.

Nope, it’s not pretty.

But I figured most of it would be covered anyway. 

Yes, this is terrible of me, and I would certainly not recommend you do it.  Unless you’re trying to do too many things at once, in which case you are allowed.

Anyway, I baked it for about twenty minutes, and let it cool.

A bit later, I was ready to assemble and bake the tart.

First – the almond cream.

And then the clementine sections.

I thought it looked pretty.

I baked it for fifty minutes, and it smelled really, really good.

I know Dorie recommends eating this the day you bake it, but, well, we didn’t.

I’m sorry, Dorie, but I was too busy stuffing my face with Baklava.  I hope you understand.

Anyway, this morning I sliced the tart, took a bunch of pictures of it, and then finally had a taste.

It’s really, really delicious.  The almond cream is sweet and kind of sticky/fluffy, and then you get little still-slightly-juicy bits of clementine in every bite.  The crust – well, I love all kinds of pie and tart crusts, and this one is no exception.  Tender and buttery and slightly sweet.

All in all a lovely dessert, perfect with a good cup of coffee or tea.

If you’re looking for the recipe, you can find it on pages 461-462 in Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table.  So, if you haven’t already, go buy it.            

And if you’re wondering what other people thought of this tart, head over to the FFwD site and peruse all the links!

Comments

[judith]

YUM!!! Where's the sexy close-ups of the baklava?

[Teresa]

Great process photos! I grind my own almond flour, too. It's not as expensive and you can control the quantity you have on hand.

[yummychunklet]

The close ups of your almond cream are making me want to make this again right now! Great post!

[KY]

Your tart looks so good and the clementine pattern so pretty. I found the tart a little too sweet but looking at your pictures, I find myself swishing for a slice!

[KY]

Wishing! I mean wishing. I don't know how 'swishing' came about!

[Cher]

Oh, I thought this was wonderful the next day. And baklava - oh, wow! To have two such desserts in the house sounds wonderful.

[Allison]

I just adore your photos! Love the tip that you can grind your own almond flour!

[Lana]

I did not read the recipe thoroughly (what else is new?) and did not chill the cream (I just realized that:) It bubbled when I baked it, and covered the beautiful blood oranges a bit, but otherwise it was delicious.
I love your process photos:) I thought I was crazy segmenting small blood oranges, but you beat me with clementines! Looks great!