Time for French Fridays with Dorie, our recipe this week is an Orange Almond Tart. I was excited about this recipe since I love oranges and almonds and making tarts. This recipe is quite similar to the recipe for French Pear Tarts that we made with Tuesdays with Dorie back in January of 2009.
Dorie's Sweet Tart dough is made in the food processor, I have found that for some reason (not sure why) I always need to add a little extra liquid when making my tart doughs in the food processor so instead of the egg yolk only, I used the whole egg and a couple of tablespoons of water to help the tart dough come together.
Next, pick a tart pan. I figured I'd go with my large heart tart pan since it is almost Valentine's Day and who can resist a heart tart? I did not pre-bake my tart dough, after baking quite a few tarts over the past few years, I've just come to the conclusion that I like my tart dough a little less browned and crunchy that many of the recipes call for. I like it crispy and flaky kind of like a cross between a soft sugar cookie and pie crust.
I used the pat in pan method for the tart dough, which always seems easier to me. Then the tart dough is sent to holiday in the refrigerator for a while the almond cream filling is prepared. I do not keep almond flour on hand but almost always have almonds, and find that you can make a rustic almond meal in the food processor with sliced almonds that works just as well as almond flour and gives it a little more texture. For the filling, instead of two teaspoons rum or one teaspoon vanilla, I switched it up to two teaspoons triple sec (which, according to wikipedia, was invented in France) -- to up the orange flavor and one teaspoon vanilla, since I love vanilla and orange together.
The first photo in this post is my "before baking" shot that I always take. Above is the tart just out of the oven after testing done at only 30 minutes. I had the timer set for 50 minutes per the recipe, but went to check at 30 just because it smelled done to me, and there it was, perfectly golden brown.
And below generously dusted with powdered sugar. Haven't tried this one yet but pretty sure we will love it. Will report back after dinner with the results of the family taste test :) ETA: This tart is so delicious! I think it's my favorite recipe I've made with FFwD so far. My five year old daughter said it was awesome and my three year old son said it was really yummy and wanted a second piece. Everyone else was too full from dinner to try it (tonight was homemade pizza night) but I'm sure that they'll love it as soon as they have some.
