Apple and Almond Frangipane Tart

This beautiful frangipane tart tastes as good as it looks!

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A Frangipane tart is a delightful French treat of shortcrust pastry filled with almond crème and baked with seasonal fruit. This recipe takes the almond flavour to a whole new level by also creating a buttery, rustic, crisp almond shell to encase the sweet filling. The granny smith apples pair particularly well with almonds, as do most apples. I would recommend checking which apples or fruits are in season for the benefit of maximum flavour. Other delicious fillings for a frangipane tart include pear, cherries, blueberries, raspberries or stone fruit such as peach or nectarines.

How to achieve the finest, most crunchy, buttery, and flavoursome shortcrust:

1. Use a good quality baking dish. My choice is Emile Henry bakeware as the brand produces the best quality high-resistance ceramic to ensure your bakes always have the best chance of reaching perfection. Particularly with tarts, baking the pastry evenly is highly important. I love the Emile Henry ruffled tart dish as it is not only functional, but its unique and fun design will always have people complimenting your bake and asking where it is from. This tart dish also has a spacious design that makes it practical for feeding the masses or for guaranteeing leftovers.
2. Everything needs to be cold. From the butter and water to your utensils and room temperature. If your surroundings or ingredients are too warm, the butter will melt your pastry and result in a tough crust. Also, work quickly!
3. Don't overwork the dough. The key to a crisp and crumbly shell is to minimise the development of gluten. Always process the mixture until only just combined – no kneading is necessary.
4. It’s okay to repair your tears! Even for those who have made pastry time and time again, tears can be inevitable. If you are getting more than a couple though, make sure your pastry is cold but not too cold before you’re rolling it out.
5. Use fresh pastry to ensure crispness. Yes, pastry can be kept in the freezer for months though I would only ever use it up to 48 hours after. Maybe I am just fussy but I have personally always seen the best results when my shortcrust is fresh. Fresh is always best.
6. Follow this recipe or any other recipe closely for the correct butter-to-flour ratio. The fat from the butter works in more ways than just bringing flavour to the pastry. Butter assists in the avoidance of gluten development as it stops the proteins in the flour from forming gluten bonds as it liberally coats them – amazing!

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Apple and Almond Frangipane Tart Recipe

For the Almond Shortcrust Pastry:

• 50g raw sugar
• 50g almond meal
• 200g plain flour
• 125g unsalted butter (cold, cubed)
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp cold water

Method: 1. Preheat oven to 180C. 2. Using a food processor, blitz together the raw sugar, almond meal, plain flour and butter until it is the texture of a fine crumb. 3. Add the egg yolk and chilled water, briefly blitzing until the dough is only just formed, pour the dough out onto the bench and carefully form it into a disc. 4. Once completed, wrap the dough in cling wrap and refrigerate. 5. Once the dough has firmed, lay out a large piece of cling wrap onto the bench, lightly flour the top of the cling film and the dough, roll out to a 0.5mm height. 6. Gently remove the cling wrap and dough from the bench and place the pastry face down on top of your baking dish 7. Peel off the cling wrap, push down an even layer of the pastry into the baking dish – don’t worry if you must patch some areas up! 8. Use a rolling pin or paring knife to remove any excess dough from the top of the tin. 9. Freeze the tart shell until the pastry is hard.

10. Remove from the freezer and poke a fork into the bottom of the pastry case about 10 times.

11. Blind bake for about 10-15 minutes until the pastry is slightly golden 12. Leave it to cool

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For the Frangipane Filling:

• 200g almond meal
• 200g unsalted butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 2 eggs (room temp)
• 2 egg yolks (room temp)
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 80g plain flour
• 4 granny smith apples

Method: 1. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl with hand beaters or in a stand mixer using the whisk attachment. 2. Once creamed, add the eggs until fully combined. 3. Scrape sides of bowl with the spatula. 4. Add the flour and almond meal until just combined, don’t over-mix!

5. Fill the tart shell with the frangipane mixture. 6. Finely slice, or mandolin apple and place on top, then sprinkle with caster sugar. 7. Bake for approximately 30 minutes at 180C or until golden and cooked through. 8. Leave to cool and enjoy!

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Next Read: Passionfruit Crème Brulée

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