fig frangipane tart

fig frangipane tart

4 Apr 2011

I did so much baking in March, it was ridiculous. There seemed to be a birthday celebration every second day or thereabouts so I have at least 5 baking posts in the wings.

The fig season is still in swing so a few weeks ago I bought 2 punnets of figs to make a fig frangipane tart. One of the girls had eaten one in Paris last year and said it was the best thing she'd ever tasted. How could I do anything but rise to the challenge? 



The recipe I used was similar to this one with the addition of some fig jam and creme patissiere in the filling and minus the raspberries.

I made the pastry on Saturday evening then at 6.00 a.m. on Sunday morning, before hitting the gym, I was making fig jam using this recipe. While I was waiting for the jam to cook I sent out an email to my friends declaring my insanity. By the way, I'm not really a jam person but this jam is delicious. I also decided to include creme patissiere in the tart filling, so yet another another step in the process.



I had a little too much filling so I made a few little mini tarts. I was going out for dinner that night, so I took 2 along with me for dessert.



I decided to glam things up a bit and did a restaurant type dessert plating. I made a little fig and orange salad dressed with orange juice and a dash of honey then topped with orange zest. It was fresh and light and a perfect counterpoint to the tart.



My friend's verdict - even better than the tart from Paris! The effort was worth it.



Update 2021

In 2011 when I wrote this blog post I didn't include the recipes and sometimes I didn't even write them down. This fig frangipane tart recipe is one of those recipes, however as I make frangipane tarts all the time it was easy to recreate. Due to popular demand I've written up the recipe for you minus the creme patissiere, which although lovely, isn't really necessary. The link to the fig jam recipe I used to make the tart is included in the text.

For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Fig Frangipane Tart - makes one rectangular tart
Pastry 
¼ cup icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
¼ cup almond meal
1⅓ cups plain flour
110 g (4 oz) cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cold water

Frangipane
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
2 eggs
2 tbs plain flour 
100g almond meal
1 tbs orange juice
½ cup fig or apricot jam

Topping
4 small figs, halved lengthwise
1 tablespoon sugar
Optional - apricot jam to glaze

Pastry

To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 190°C, conventional. Roll out the pastry thinly on a floured board then line a rectangular tart tin with the dough. Ease the dough into the flutes and trim the edges before returning the tart tin to the fridge while you prepare the filling. You won’t use all the pastry but it freezes well so just wrap any remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. 

To assemble the tart, remove that tart shell from the fridge. Cover the base of the tart with ½ cup of fig or apricot jam. Carefully cover the jam with the frangipane filling. Smooth the top with a knife. Spoon the paste into the pastry case and place the figs on top then sprinkle the figs with the sugar.

Place the tart on a baking tray to catch any spills before placing in the preheated oven. Bake for 45 minutes – 1 hours or until the filling is set and the pastry nicely browned. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

When cold, glaze the top of the tart with some thinned, warmed apricot jam if desired. Unmould and cut into slices to serve.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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