go in with your hands!
This is a glorious tart crust to make because as you mould the pastry with your hands the oils give you the best hand moisturizing treatment ever! The pastry is malleable and lends itself to being pushed around, meanwhile you don’t need to worry about rolling out pastry.
Old school French patisserie – make it trad with almonds or experiment with other nuts
Frangipane is a cream made with butter, eggs and traditionally almonds which provides the most moist and sumptuous setting for all kinds of fruits set in a tart. Flavour it up with amaretto and add cherries, keep it trad with almond extract and plums, add a bit of orange zest and sherry for a “Santiago” type tart, add cinnamon and make with hazlenuts for a very very sophisticated apple tart, change the nuts and experiment with walnuts, pecans and even pistachios. Once you have mastered this only your imagination will limit the types of tarts you create.
Here I’ve made it old school with a bowl and a wooden spoon – as long as your butter is softened, this is all that you need. My “Go To” recipe is of course my Mum’s one.
An easy peasy pastry that lifts any dish. You dont even need a rolling pin
This pastry is ridiculously easy to make. You do not need any special equipment at all yet it is sophisticated all the same. All you need is a bowl, a regular kitchen knife and some scales to weigh the ingredients.
