Friday, February 11, 2011

French Fridays with Dorie: Orange-Almond Tart

 

This tart embodies everything I love about French cooking; French pastries in particular. It has a buttery, flaky shortbread crust, a pastry-cream/frangipane-type filling using my favorite nut, the almond, and it showcases a simple fruit that takes center stage like it was born for it. I'm not sure mine would make the pastry shop window, but the flavor was incredible. The orange is unusual and that's why I love it so much. Anything a little bit different catches my eye and I have to try it.


 

The most time-consuming part of this tart is the peeling and segmenting of the oranges. I had some leftover so I used them as a garnish (since the filling swallowed up my carefully-placed fruit). I might put more of them in the actual tart next time.

 

Leaving the orange pieces out to dry intensified their flavor and when baked, reminded me a bit of marmalade. They were sweet and had a  smidge of bitterness that went perfectly with the nutty filling.

 

I especially loved the edges near the crust that got a little chewy and sticky, like the corner piece of a lemon bar. The pastry crust got a little on the dark side for me....I'd bake it a few minutes less before pouring in the filling, but other than that, and the amount of time it took to assemble the whole dessert, I'm incredibly pleased with the end result. For more versions of this dessert, visit French Fridays with Dorie.




12 comments:

  1. Your tart puffed up beautifully around the fruit, and I like the addition of a few orange supremes to the final plating.

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  2. Beautiful photos! I also really like that addition of the orange supremes. thanks!

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  3. Very lovely. The addition of a few exrta oranges on the end was a nice touch.

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  4. So beautiful...I love the idea of a fresh fruit garnish...yum!

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  5. Love your plating. I'm getting so many great tips from all the french friday cooks!

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  6. Lovely work with the orange segments. They all look so uniform!

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  7. I love the closeup of your cut orange--looks like stained glass. :)

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  8. Your tart is beautiful! I am sure it was much easier removing the membrane from the orange segments - you did a great job. Your almond cream puffed up exactly like mine did.

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  9. Lovely post and your photos are really amazing. I agree with wondering and the enjoying the combo of oranges and almond. A winner in our home as well !

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  10. Enjoyed your post with such nice photos, etc. And garnishing with oranges is a great idea! We loved this tart and I can't wait to make it again...dreaming about the next fruit variety.

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  11. This was one of my favorite recipes so far. Your tart looks lovely!

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  12. He, he, your tart looks very much like mine, except for oranges - I used blood oranges:) I baked mine for a shorter time and the crust got darker, too. I wished that I had put more fruit on top. It tasted great, and I agree with you that the best parts were closest to the crust (and my silly husband picked off all the oranges, which I ate very quickly, afraid that he would change his mind:)

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