Apple Plum Almond Cream Tart

Usually, savoury tarts/pies appeal more to me that sweet ones but when I saw this almond cream tart recipe with fruits while browsing through my Martha Day's "365 Days of Desserts" book, I truly cannot wait to try it! I even thought about it the whole time I was trying to fall asleep that night, thinking about the next morning when I could make this. I love anything and everything that has got almond in it - almond cake, almond drink, almond pudding etc - give 'em all to me! And this tart....it's really good!

For the pastry, I decided to use Michel Roux's pâte brisée recipe from his wonderful book, "Pastry". It's definitely one of my favorite pastry books!

Good selection of fruits for this tart include apple, pear and stone fruits like plum, peach and nectarine. I used 2 Granny Smith apples and 2 plums for mine.

Making pâte brisée:

~ 250 g plain flour
~ 150 g butter, softened
~ Pinch of salt
~ 3/4 tbsp caster sugar
~ 1 egg
~ 1 tbsp cold milk

Place everything (except the milk) in a mixing bowl. Use a dough hook and mix at low speed. It can be rubbed together by hand too. Once the dough starts to come together, add the milk and mix until everything combines. Take the dough out and on a lightly floured surface, use the palm of your hand to knead it 4-5 times until all bits of flour is well incorporated. Roll out and line the base and side of a 9 inch tart pan. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes are up, take the tart pan out of the refrigerator, use a fork to randomly poke holes all over the pastry base and sides so as to release hot air during baking, and straightaway put it in the oven to pre-bake for about 30 minutes at 160 deg C. Take it out and let cool.

Meanwhile, wash the fruits, peel off the skin if you prefer, discard the seeds/core and slice about 5mm thickness.

Making the almond cream:

~ 2/3 cup ground almond
~ 2 tbsp plain flour
~ 90 g butter
~ 90 g granulated sugar
~ 1 egg
~ 1 egg yolk
~ 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
~ 1 tbsp rum (optional)

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and yolk. Stir in the ground almond and flour. Mix well. Stir in the vanilla and rum. Mix well again. Spread evenly on the pre-baked pastry case. Lastly, arrange the slices of fruits in the pattern of a wheel, pressing down gently the bottom end of each fruit slice before overlapping with another slice on top. Bake the tart until it begins to brown and the almond cream cakey part is done.

Happy baking!

petite nyonya