Italian Almond Tart

Love this tart very much. The crunchy crust and almond flakes and also the cake like filling. 

It is simple delicious!!

The whole tart looks so beautiful when it is cooked. It would make a awesome gift for a Christmas treat to family and friends.

Ready to send into the oven... 

This is FRESH from the oven...

I am so glad that i rush to bake this Italian Almond tart. WHY?? because it is simple delicioussss!!!

Recipe ( from Williams-Sonoma Baking Book )
makes one 7 inch tart
(i follow Lena's half of the original recipe)


Basic Tart Dough
100gm plain flour
45gm sugar
1/2 egg yolk
1 tbsp ice water, plus more if needed
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
63 g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Method ( by food processor )
In a small bowl, stir together the egg yolk, the iced water and vanilla. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, salt and pulse to blend. Add the butter and pulse till the mixture resembles coarse meal with butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the egg mixture and pulse just until the dough pulls together. If dough is dry, mix in more water little at a time.

Lightly flour the rolling pin and roll the dough out between 2 plastic sheets. Roll it to about 3mm thick and a little wider than the circumference of the pie pan. Lift up the plastic wrap and slowly transfer to the pie pan. Press the dough onto the bottom and into the sides of the pan and then trim the dough. If any part of the dough breaks during shaping, just pinch a small dough you trimmed off and seal it. Blind bake the tart shell for about 25-35mins at 190C. I placed some uncooked read beans(i used uncooked soy bean as i don't have red bean in my pantry :p) on a piece of foil paper (i used parchment paper) and then placed on top of the shell. Bake till the the dough is dry, can lift the foil paper to check the dough. When the dough has baked for about 30 mins, i removed the foil paper and beans and further bake for 5 mins till the dough is dry.
(i baked mine for 25 minutes, remove the parchment paper and beans and return to the oven to baked another 5 minutes till the dough dry.)

Ingredients for fillings
63 g unsalted butter, softened
125 g almond paste ( recipe below), cut into 1 inch cubes
30 g sugar
1 egg
30 g plain flour
some sliced almonds for sprinkling
some jam for spreading the base of the tart (i used semi-sweet cooking chocolate)

Method:
Preheat the oven at 180C. In a bowl, with a hand mixer on medium speed beat butter until smooth. Add the almond paste, one piece at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. While continuing to beat, sprinkle in the sugar. Add the egg, mixing well and stir in the flour.

Spread the jam (i used melted semi sweet  cooking chocolate) evenly in the bottom of the baked tart shell. Spoon in the almond paste mixture and spread evenly over the jam/ melted cooking chocolate. Sprinkle the surface evenly with the sliced almonds or nuts.

Bake until the filling is golden and the middle is firm, about 35-45 minutes.( i baked mine for 35 minutes) Transfer the tart to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Almond paste, cut into cubes. (not nicely cut cubes :p)

Recipe for almond paste (copy from Frozen Wings, originally from Kitchen Flavours )

75 g ground almonds
45 g sifted icing sugar
just about 1/2 of an egg white
pinch of salt

Combine ground almonds , sifted icing sugar and salt and slowly add in the egg whites till it becomes a dough. You can use a dough scraper to combine. You can make them one day ahead , keep them in the fridge.
**I add in the egg white a little at a time until the mixture can be combine into a dough. I did not use up all of the egg white, only about half of the 1/2 egg white.

I am submitting this post to Bake-Along #55 hosted by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena from Her Frozen Wings