In addition to my food blog and cookbook dose, I also love subscribing to cooking magazines. I have always looked forward to my issue of Bon Appetit magazine. My favorite section is their R.S.V.P section, where readers request their favorite restaurant recipes and Bon Appetit requests the recipe on their behalf and publishes the recipe in this section.
For the recent July issue, there was a recipe for a Fig-Almond Tart from Marinus at Bernardus Lodge in Carmel Valley, California. I hardly bake and can’t say I am much of a baker, but I was really drawn to trying the Frangipane filling with the figs. I tried baking the tart by exact instructions, however my crust was too doughy and I had to add more flour than what was called for in the recipe. I am not sure if it’s due to my lack of experience playing with dough, or because the crust needed more flour. I have a feeling it’s due to my lack of baking. Anyways, don’t want to bore you too much, adding flour was still okay for the crust and was able to still get a great tasting tart. I loved having frangipane with figs, but I think I would have loved it even more if there was some hint of fig in the filling as it did on the exterior.
Here is the recipe from Bon Appetit. I did not alter anything. I have taken it directly from July 2011 issue. Hope you enjoy. Please let me know if you know the trick of making the crust. This was a complex recipe and required lot of patience and time in between steps, but if you’re going to be home most of the day then it’s worth making a tart.
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Fig-Almond Tart
Ingredients:
Crust
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tbsp. heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose for plus more
- 6 tbsp. sugar
- 1/ tsp. salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, diced plus more
Filling
- 3/4 cup half-and-half
- 1/4 cup plus 2/3 cup sugar, divided
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tbsp. all purpose flour
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cup (scant) slivered almonds
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 12 oz. fresh mission figs (about 12 medium), stemmed, quartered
Special Equipment: Use a 10″ – diameter tart pan with a removable bottom ( I just used a tart pan that did not have a removable bottom)
Directions:
Crust
Whisk egg yolk and cream in a small bowl. Mix 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, and salt in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add1 cup butter: mix on low spped until coarse meal forms. Add egg mixture. Blend just until most clumps from. Gather into a ball, flatten into a disk, weap in plastic, and chill for 1 hour.
Butter tart pan, Roll out dought to 13″ round on a lightly floured surface. Transfer to pan. Press onto bottom and up sides. Trim excess dough. Chill 30 minutes.
Filling
Bring half- and-half to a simmer in a small saucepan. Whisk 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, and flour ina small bowl. Gradually whisk in half-and-half. Return to a sacuepan. Whisk constantly over medium heat until mixture thicken and boils, about 3 minutes over a bowl of ice water; stir pastry cream until cold. Remove from ice bath; set aside.
Finely grind almonds with 1/3 cup sugar in a food processor (do not grind to a paste) Using an electric mixer, beat butter and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a large bowl until smooth. Add 2 eggs, 1 at a time, beating well between additions. Gradually beat in cream (reserve remaining cream for another use). Cover; chill until firm, about 4 hours. Preheat oven to 375*. Spread filling over crust, Arrange figs, cut side up, in a concentric circles over filling. Place tart on center is golden and set, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Let tart cool completely in a pan on a wire rack.
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