French Friday, Orange Almond Tart
February 11, 2011 § 7 Comments
photo by Alan Richardson
Round three of our French Fridays with Dorie left me wanting a do-over. I’d never had anything like an orange almond tart, and, to tell you the truth, I wasn’t all that sure I was going to enjoy it. Oranges in a baked dessert just sounded kind of mushy or mealy or something strange on the tongue. I live in Florida. The only way I eat oranges is fresh from the peel, a lot of times off someone’s tree. But, I went with it because I trust DG‘s experience (take a gander at who she has worked with here).
Anyway, Susan (my friend and trusty FFWD cohort) and I made it as written except for one thing: the recipe calls for almond flour. I didn’t have any so we used finely ground almonds. I’m not sure how it affected the recipe since I’ve only made it once, but Sus wondered if we used official “almond flour” if the resulting tart would have been lighter (any pastry people out there know?).
So, why (I know you’re asking) did I want a do over? A couple of things: the crust was overly brown by the end (you have to pre-bake this one) making it mildly unattractive and too hard to eat in some places. Not what you want in a crust (totally my fault, though). Second, the almond flavor dominated. This is great when making an almond cake, and it wasn’t a bad thing here either, but why bother with oranges if you aren’t going to taste them? She suggests poached pear slices as an alternative, and I want to try them next time.
I say “next time” because even though this tart didn’t turn out perfectly, I really liked the way it tasted. The almond cream is nutty and not too sweet and the whole thing has a bit of a salty, caramel flavor that is, just, sorry to do this, YUMMY. (I feel like Rachel Ray saying “YUMMO!!” You’ll have to make it and see what descriptions you can come up with!) It’s perfect with ice cream, It would be dreamy with whipped cream. What more do you need?
** The French Fridays group asks that I don’t print the entire recipe in my posts about the book (trying to SELL books. I get it.), but if you think you want to give this or any of the FF recipes a try, leave me a note in the comments and I’ll email the recipe to you.
***I no longer am monopolizing the local library’s one copy of Around My French Table because my dear childhood friend, Erynn, sent me my very own copy. I’m excited that I’ll get to cook through the whole book and not feel like I have to hurry before my book turns back into a pumpkin. LUXURY! Thank you, friend.
I made mine with hazelnuts due to allergies and found the taste of the hazelnuts quite strong and distinctive, glad to hear that the almonds were quite strong in taste as well!
I agree with you that maybe another fruit would go better (especially with the hazelnuts). Mine tasted great also, but I think another fruit would have complemented hazelnuts better!
oooh. Hazelnuts sound good too! Fun to hear from someone else that made it!
Thanks for visiting my blog. I used almond meal, assuming it was almond flour, though I’m not 100% sure they’re the same. My filling was dense when I put it in the shell, but pretty light after baking.
You’ll love owning this book. SO many good recipes.
I also used almond meal… I grind them in the food processor [I usually have ground almonds at home but this time I only had slivered almonds. Go figure.]
I couldn’t taste the oranges either but the almond cream was SO good I didn’t care. The oranges are there to make the tart prettier :)
The only real difference between almond flour, meal and ground almonds is that almond flour Is made with blanched almonds i.e. no skins so as long as you ground into corn meal type consistency it should have come out the same. I think I don’t know how much almond skin could actually change the consistency…..
And just FYI you need to start posting recipes…. As long as you give credit it’s ok. It’s like make a bibliography in a paper you can use things just cite them
Should have read your whole blog before posting! I just saw the French comment! I’ll be emailing for recipes =o)
Casey,
I didn’t know you loved cooking! Very good about the difference between the flour or ground almonds…I definitely left the skins on. That’s it. I’m making it again.