This week I was all set to make some
Strawberry Almond Tartlets, but, sadly, I couldn’t come up with any decent
strawberries. I really wanted some freshly picked farm strawberries bursting
with flavor, but all I could find were big,
cottony, flavorless berries from
the supermarket. Ugh. Not to be deterred, I quickly subbed raspberries for the
strawberries and, I must say, was very happy with the results. These little
tartlets have a flaky tart crust and a baked frangipane
filling flavored with a
little dark rum, a trick I learned from pastry chef Francois Payard. The rum
adds some depth to the almonds without being overwhelming. I topped the
frangipane filling with a thin layer of raspberry preserves, then
garnished the
tartlets with fresh raspberries and a swirl of whipped cream. I sweeten the
cream with a little confectioners’ sugar, which also stabilizes it (owing to
the cornstarch), allowing it to hold up longer than cream sweetened with
granulated sugar. If you’re looking for a more rustic, homespun look, don’t
glaze the raspberries with jam and spoon the cream on top instead of piping it.
I tend to prefer a sleeker, pastry shop look myself, but to each his own, I
say!
Raspberry
Almond Tartlets
Makes eight 3 ½-inch tartlets
Tart
Dough:
1 ½ cups (181 g) all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons (43 g) cake flour
3/4 teaspoon sugar
¼ plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons (4 1/2 oz) unsalted butter,
cut into ½-inch cubes and frozen for 20 minutes
3 tablespoons shortening
2 1/2 tablespoons ice water
Almond
Cream:
10 1/2 Tbsp (150 g) unsalted butter, at
room temperature
3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
1 2/3 cups (150 g) almond flour
3 large eggs
1 ¾ tablespoons (15 g) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon dark rum, such as Myers’s
(optional)
Topping:
Raspberry preserves
Two 10-ounce containers fresh raspberries
1 cup (232 g) heavy cream
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar,
sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Finely chopped pistachio nuts
Make
the tart dough:
1. Place the flours, sugar and salt in
the bowl of a food processor and pulse few times to combine. Add the butter
pieces and shortening and toss lightly to coat with flour. Blend the fat and
flour with about five 1-second pulses or until the mixture is the texture of
coarse meal with some of the butter pieces the size of peas. Sprinkle the water
over the flour mixture and process continuously until the dough begins to clump
together. Do not over-process; the dough should not form a ball. Turn the
dough out onto a work surface and shape it into a thick 4-inch wide disc. Wrap
the dough in plastic wrap and chill until firm enough to roll, about 30
minutes.
2. Place unwrapped dough on a work
surface that has been lightly dusted with flour. Using a rolling pin, roll the
dough out to about 1/16-inch thickness, lifting and rotating the dough often,
while dusting the work surface and dough lightly with flour as necessary. Using
a 5-inch pastry cutter (or use a paring knife with a plate as a guide), cut out
as many rounds from the dough as you can. Gently press the dough onto the
bottom and up the sides of 3 ½-inch tartlet pans. Roll the pin over the top of
the pans to trim off the excess dough. Reroll the remaining dough scraps and
repeat to make a total of 8 tartlet shells. Lightly prick the bottom of the
dough in each pan with a fork at 1/2-inch intervals. Refrigerate the dough in
the pans for 20 minutes to firm up the dough.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Right
before baking, line the dough in each pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper
and cover with pie weights or dried beans. Place the tart pans on a baking
sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Carefully lift the foil (along with the weights)
out of the tart pans and bake the crust for 10 minutes longer. Leave the oven
on. Transfer the tartlet pans to a wire rack and cool completely.
Make
the Almond Cream:
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer
fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter and sugar together at medium
speed until well-combined and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the almond flour and
mix until combined. Add the eggs in three stages, making sure that each
addition is incorporated before adding the next. Add the flour, vanilla extract
and rum and mix until combined.
5. Scrape the Almond Cream into the
cooled tartlet shells and smooth it into an even layer. Place the tartlet pans
on a baking sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the filling is golden
brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire
rack.
Finish
the tartlets:
6. Spread the tartlets with a thin layer
of raspberry preserves. Arrange a circle of raspberries around the edge of each
tartlet. Spoon some of the raspberry preserves into a fine-mesh sieve and press
it through to remove the seeds (if they’re cold, warm them in the microwave for
10 seconds or so). Brush some of the strained preserves onto the raspberries to
make them shine.
7. Whip the cream to soft peaks. Add the
sifted confectioners’ sugar and vanilla and whip to stiff peaks. Transfer to
pastry bag fitted with a medium star tip (Ateco #6). Pipe a swirl of whipped
cream in the center of each tartlet and garnish with finely chopped pistachios.
Refrigerate the tartlets until ready to serve.
