Nectarine And Almond Tart Recipes

Steps:

• Blend flour, salt and 2 tablespoons sugar in a bowl or food processor. Dice 8 tablespoons of the butter. Use a pastry blender or two knives to blend flour mixture and butter, or pulse them together in a food processor to make a crumbly mixture. Beat the egg yolk with 3 tablespoons cold water. Dribble it over the flour mixture, then stir or pulse slowly until the mixture starts clumping together. A bit more water may be necessary. Gather dough in a loose ball and form into a disk on a lightly floured surface.
• Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough and line a 10-inch loose-bottom tart pan. Line pastry with a sheet of foil and spread pastry weights or dry beans on top. Bake 12 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter, cooking it on low until it turns a light nut brown. Pit fruit (except figs) and cut in eighths or, if fruit is small, fourths. After 12 minutes, remove foil and weights from pastry. Return pastry to oven and continue baking until it is lightly browned, another 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pastry from oven and increase temperature to 400 degrees.
• Brush pastry with preserves. Arrange fruit in tight concentric circles, starting by placing it around the perimeter, skin side down, against the vertical sides of the pastry and standing it up as much as possible. Brush with melted butter. Dust with remaining sugar. Bake about 35 to 40 minutes, until edges have browned but fruit has not collapsed. Cool before serving with crème fraîche.

Steps:

• Make dough:
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat to 375°F.
• Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and zest and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Add yolks, vanilla, and water and pulse just until incorporated and dough begins to form large clumps.
• Turn dough out onto a work surface and divide into 4 portions. Smear each portion once with heel of your hand in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather dough together using scraper and form into a ball, then flatten into a rectangle.
• Put dough in tart pan and pat out with well-floured fingers into an even layer over bottom and up sides so it extends about 1/4 inch above rim. Chill 30 minutes.
• Lightly prick tart shell all over with a fork, then line with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake shell until golden around edge, about 15 minutes. Carefully remove foil and weights and bake until shell is golden all over, about 15 minutes more. Cool shell completely in pan on a rack. Leave oven on.
• Make filling:
• Beat together almond paste, butter, sugar, and almond extract in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then mix in flour and salt.
• Halve nectarines, discarding pits, then cut into 1/4-inch-wide wedges.
• Spread frangipane filling evenly in tart shell. Stand nectarine wedges, skin sides down, decoratively in filling, being careful not to push too far into filling.
• Bake tart until frangipane is puffed and golden and edges of nectarines are golden brown, about 1 1/4 hours.
• Make glaze:
• Heat preserves and water in a 1-quart saucepan over moderately high heat, stirring, until preserves are melted. Remove from heat and force through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl, discarding solids. Stir in Amaretto (if using).
• Brush top of hot tart generously with glaze and cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Remove side of pan and cool tart completely, about 2 hours.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to gas 7, 220C, fan 200°C Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Mix the custard, vanilla and ground almonds together.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry to a rectangle, about 23x30cm (9x12in), then lay it on the lined baking sheet. Spread the custard mix over the pastry, leaving just under 2.5cm (1in) space around the edges. Scatter the nectarine slices over the custard, then roll up the bare pastry edges to make a slight rim.
• Sprinkle over the icing sugar, then the flaked almonds. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the nectarines are tender and the pastry is crisp.
• Sieve the conserve then brush it carefully over the fruit and pastry edges. Serve hot with cream or creme fraiche.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Lay the pastry on a large baking sheet and mark a border 2cm from the edge with a knife. Bake for 10-12 mins until puffed up, golden and crisp underneath. Mix the crème fraîche, whole egg, ground almonds, vanilla extract and 40g of the sugar together.
• Push the centre of the pastry down and spread this with the almond and crème fraîche mixture, then top with the fruit. Warm the jam in the microwave, then sieve and brush all over the fruit. Bake in the oven for 10 mins.
• Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites until stiff in a big mixing bowl. Add the remaining 100g sugar, the almond extract, if using, and cornflour, and whisk again to a thick, smooth glossy meringue. After 10 mins, remove the tart from the oven and turn down to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Dollop the meringue in spoonfuls over the tart, then scatter over the almonds. Bake for another 10-12 mins until the meringue feels crisp to touch. Eat at room temperature with more crème fraîche.