Almond and orange sweet tart dough
I was planning to bring a cake to a party a couple of weeks ago, but time was tight so I decided to go for the easy and quick: a chocolate tart.
It was filled with a simple chocolate ganache, but the tart dough was the best part: I tried a new recipe of a sweet tart dough (pâte sucrée) with some ground almonds and orange zest. It resembled a biscuit dough, it was very crunchy and it had a nice flavour of butter with an orange aftertaste.
Moreover, I also practiced a new technique to decorate the border of tarts that I’ve learnt from my latest Italian pastry book. Here is the illustrated step-by-step recipe for my almond and orange sweet tart dough:
Almond and orange sweet tart dough
Print recipe
Ingredients
| 250g | Pastry flour |
| 150g | Butter (room temperature) |
| 125g | Granulated sugar |
| 50g | Ground almonds |
| 1 tablespoon | Vanilla extract (or some vanilla seeds) |
| 1/2 | Orange zest (only the orange part) |
| 1 | Egg |
| 1 pinch | Salt |
| 3g | Baking powder |
Directions
1
Place the diced butter with sugar, almonds, vanilla and zest in a bowl
2
Mix the ingredients without creaming. If you have a mixer, use the paddle attachment at low speed.
3
Add the egg, salt and mix until all the ingredients are combined
4
Add the sifted flour and baking powder and mix until they are incorporated. Form a ball without overmixing or overworking the dough.
5
Wrap the dough in plastic, flatten it and chill at least one hour
6
Roll the dough until it is 5mm thick
7
Place the tart ring on top of it and cut the round that will be the bottom of the tart. Prick it with a fork or with the specific tool. Put the round aside on a pan covered with parchment paper
8
Form again a ball with the scrapes and roll them out again to a 5mm height. Cut a round like in the previous steps.
In the middle of it, cut another round leaving a border of about 2-3cm (I used a saucepan lid for the smaller shape).
In the middle of it, cut another round leaving a border of about 2-3cm (I used a saucepan lid for the smaller shape).
9
Put the ring on top of the bottom round created in step 7
10
Repeat step 8 and 9, so that you have a tart bottom with two rings on top. The height of the dough should be the same as the tart ring.
11
Decorate the dough by repeating a pattern with a dough cutter
12
The tart is ready to be baked. It is advisable to leave it about half an hour in the fridge before baking. Blind bake at 180° for 25 minutes by putting some weight on parchment paper on the tart shell (e.g. dry beans).
Note
- It is very important not to overmix the dough otherwise too much gluten will develop and it will become too hard
- You can bake the tart and store it for up to 15 days covered in plastic for about 2 weeks
- When rolling out the dough, don't use too much flour otherwise the dough will become grayish during baking
- The sugar and almond flour help to prevent too much gluten from forming, so to ensure the dough is flaky.
