I baked this pistachio frangipane tart for my mom's birthday. It's adapted from Anna Olson's recipe for a grapefruit pistachio tart, which I have made a few times with my mom in winter, and, since grapefruits are not in season in August, I used pluots to garnish the tart. You could also use fresh plums, peaches, or apricots. Berries would also work great, like raspberries!
There are a few changes I made to the original recipe:
- I halved the filling recipe: The original recipe for the filling yielded way too much for the size of the tart, and if you attempt to pour all the filling in the tart shell, it will overflow.
- I pressed the dough into the tart pan because the dough is quite delicate to work with, as are most "pâte sucrée" doughs (the French baking term for sweet crust)
Traditionally frangipane is made with ground almonds, but actually you can make it with any nut, and so for this tart, we have a pistachio frangipane, which is a pistachio cream made from ground nuts, sugar, butter, and eggs. Frangipane is a favourite of mine and makes an excellent filling for tarts. It's also the topping used on bostock made from leftover brioche and frangipane.
Pluot pistachio tart
Equipment
Ingredients
Crust
- 1½ cups (190 g) all purpose flour
- ½ cup (60 g) ground pistachios
- ⅓ cup (70 g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon (5 mL) Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter cubed, frozen
- 4 egg yolk
Filling
- ¼ cup (60 mL) whipping cream (35 % fat)
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar I know, I know, nobody has a cup measurer for ⅙ of a cup. I used 41 grams sugar to be exact, approximately half of a ⅓ cup measurer of sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon (15 mL) pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (30 g) shelled unsalted pistachios finely ground
Fruit and topping
- 3–4 pluots basically have enough on hand so that you can cover the tart with sliced fruit, sliced
- 1 tablespoon (15 mL) apple jelly diluted with some water for glazing: this is optional—the fruits are so sweet and juicy, that the glaze really isn’t necessary
- 1 tablespoon (15 mL) shelled unsalted pistachios for garnishing (either whole or chopped)
Instructions
To prepare the crust
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the cold butter, and work the mixture until you get a coarse crumb (I use my hands, but you can use a pastry cutter, 2 knives, or a food processor).
- Add the egg yolks and mix until the dough just comes together when pressed.
- Press the dough into a 9-inch tart pan (with removable bottom). Trim the edges and refrigerate until chilled (the dough will be hard).
- Dock the dough with a fork several times and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven to cool slightly.
To prepare the filling while the crust is baking
- Whisk together all the ingredients. Pour into the pre-baked pie shell, and bake for an additional 18 minutes. The tart filling, including the center, should be set when it is done baking. Remove the tart from the oven and let it cool completely before chilling it for at least 1 hour.
To finish the tart
- Top the tart with the sliced fruit. Then glaze with some diluted apple jelly.
- Sprinkle with some ground pistachio. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.
Notes
alison says
happy birthday to your mom,the tart looks awesome!
Lynn says
That is a beautiful tart! I wonder if you could press the dough directly into to the tart pan then chill instead of rolling it out. It might not be as pretty though..
Sprinkeld with Flour says
This tart is so pretty. What a great birthday dish:)
Pacheco Patty says
Beautiful tart, I like all your ingredients and I'm sure your mom was thrilled!
May Ling Wu says
I would love to get this tart for my birthday!
savy cook says
what a special way to celebrate- looks FAB!
lynne says
It's so pretty! I always wondered what a pluot was. It looks delicious!
Mgoh says
it looks sooo good! and congrats on the top 9!
The Mom Chef says
Happy birthday to your mom. The tart is amazing, especially the crust. It looks very, very flaky and delicious. Thank you for passing this along.
Lori Lynn says
Looks absolutely lovely.
HB to your Mom.
Congrats on Top 9! YAY! Well-deserved!
LL
Cristina @ TeenieCakes says
Thank you for introducing me to Frog Hollow Farms, I look fwd to exploring their site more. Beautiful crust to hold all that lovely fruit and perfect garnishments with the pistachios!