The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

I love to bake and have always longed to be one of those bakers who can produce perfect aesthetically magnificent creations. This is a bit strange because in other ways I’m not exactly what you would call a perfectionist. This desire for baking perfection may stem from the fact that baking is something I was very comfortable with at a young age. I worked in a bakery for a while after high school and prior to that spend many days in the kitchen baking cookies, pies, tarts etc. Baking came to me easily, I only struggled with the aesthetic.

It doesn’t seem to matter how much time I spend calculating circumference or carefully cutting sides of puff pastry, somehow it always comes out looking a bit rough. I know there is appeal in a rustic looking free form tart, but sometimes, maybe even just once, I would like to make something that looks as amazing as it tastes, something refined.

I will say that despite all this talk of perfection, it wasn’t my goal to come out with a perfect looking tart or tarts this weekend. I just found myself contemplating this point again after these tarts came out the way they did: a bit rough not unlike the others before them but absolutely delicious.

The inspiration for these came from a post  Pim did back in November and which I bookmarked immediately so that as soon as fig season came around in Vancouver I could make this amazing looking tart. This tart of course turned into two, there was a bit of left over dough and a small basket of blueberries in the fridge that seemed willing. Pim called this the best fig tart ever and I think I will have to agree. It’s funny though because I would not have thought to pair Figs with Frangipane. I would have assumed the almond to be a bit overpowering, but its actually not at all. Especially because I did it the lazy way (I recently broke my food processor) and bought blanched ground almonds, I suspect though that this tart would be even better if you roasted the almonds and ground them yourself. All things considered you have to try this, especially if you are as obsessed with figs as I am. This has become an instant favorite in our house and I know I will be making it again very soon.

Fig and Blueberry Tarts with Almond Frangipane -Recipe Adapted Chez Pim

I have used the same pie dough for as long as I can remember, while its a great go to recipe for no fail flaky dough (it uses 1/2 lard 1/2 butter) I decided to try something new this time. Since this recipe is adapted from Chez Pim it only made sense to give Pim’s dough a try. As I don’t own the Foodie Handbook I found the recipe in video format on Serious Eats, Pim has since then published the recipe on her blog. The video is really helpful for those of you who are intimidated by pie dough.

For the Dough-

2 1/4 cup of all purpose flour

8 oz cold salted butter

1/4 cup cold water

For the Frangipane-

1/2 – 3/4 cup ground almonds

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

For the Tart -

10 large figs

1 small box of blueberries

1 egg

granulated sugar

1. For the Dough: Dump the four onto your work surface and cut the butter into chunks on top of it. Working with you hands press the flour into the butter and use a pastry scraper to scrape up all the flour. Continue doing this until all the flakes of butter have been pressed into the four and you have a lose crumbly texture. Make a well in the center and pour in the cold water, quickly mix together with you finger tips until the dough comes together. Form into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Once the dough has cooled, remove it from the fridge and on a floured surface, using your rolling pin, roll it out into a long rectangle. Fold the dough on top pf itself in thirds and roll your again. Repeat this 5 times or until the dough is smooth and easy to work with. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, I cut one bigger using about 3/4 of the dough and one smaller using the 1/4 remaining.

Refrigerate again until col before rolling out.

2. For the Frangipane: In the bowl of your stand mixer combine almonds sugar and butter and mix until combine. you could easily do this by hand as well. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic, and refrigerated until ready to use.

3. To assemble roll out your dough into one large rectangle and one smaller rectangle. I rolled it out to about a 1/4 inch thick. Spread about 1/4 of the frangipane mixture on the bigger tart and about half of that amount on the smaller tart. Make sure to leave a 1 inch boarder around the outside. Cut your figs into quarters and arrange on the larger tart shell. For the smaller tart grab a good handful of blueberries and layer them on top of the frangipane. For the blueberry tart I had about 2-3 layers. Once the tarts are filled, if the dough has warmed up, you can just stick it in the fridge for 10 minutes to cool it down, this also makes it much easier to fold the edges in. Once the tart has chilled againg gently fold in the edges of the dough and with a pastry brush brush the edges with the egg wash. Sprinkle the tops of the tarts with some granulated sugar and bake for 45 – 50 minutes at 400 F. Serve warm.