I love frangipani, it is one of those concoctions that lends itself to different seasons, fruits and flavours. A classic frangipani is simply flavoured with vanilla essence and a touch of brandy or kirsch,   here we add a hint of the exotic with fresh orange juice and orange blossom water, both of which couple beautifully with the rhubarb. Puff tarts are incredibly easy to prepare,  but if you wanted something a bit more delicate then do make a short crust pastry, line an oblong or square baking tin and fill it with the almond and rhubarb as we do here. The joy of frangipani tarts is that more often than not there is no baking blind, so no worry that your beautiful shell is going to shrink away to nothing before you have got as far as filling it!  

As indicated in the recipe You can prepare these tart up to the cooking stage and either leave overnight in the fridge or freeze them at this point for later use.  I like to have a number of different fruit pies and tarts in the deepfreeze for those occasions when in the UK we don’t have much fruit on offer,  and for those times when a pudding is required to pep up a meal for unexpected guests.

 

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

125g salted butter, softened

125g caster sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

125g ground almonds

1 tablespoon plain flour

Juice ½ an orange

1 teaspoonful of orange blossom water

1x 320g pack ready rolled all butter puff pastry

4-5 even width sticks of fresh Rhubarb cut into 6cm lengths

 

Orange scented frangipani – method:

Cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat the egg and egg yolk together and gradually add to the butter and sugar mixture, whisking well between additions.

Fold in the ground almonds and the flour and then the orange juice and orange blossom water.

Spread the mix in the base of the cooled pastry shell and arrange the plums on top, pressing well into the mix.

Pastry case preparation:

Cut two pieces of baking paper measuring approximately … Roll the pastry sheet between the two pieces of baking paper to measure 25 x 35. Make the egg wash by breaking the egg into a small bowl and whisking with a pinch of salt until the egg is liquid.

Remove the top sheet of paper but keep it aside for later.  Brush a 3cm border around the four edges with the egg wash and then fold all four edges in by just over 3cm. Seal by crimping the inside edge of the fold with a fork.

Put the prepared pastry sheet still on the baking paper onto a baking tray.

Spoon the frangipani onto the pastry base and spread evenly up to the crimpled edges. Arrange the rhubarb pieces in even spaced rows and then press them into the frangipani.

Cover the tart and refrigerate for a minimum of 20 minutes before cooking. You could freeze the tart at this stage and cook directly from frozen.

Cooking:

Preheat the oven to gas 5/170c

Put the tart on its baking tray into the middle of the hot oven. Let it cook for 15 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to gas 4/160c and cook it for a further 20 minutes or until the pastry is well risen and dark golden and the frangipani is risen and light golden and spongy to the touch.

Remove from the oven and allow the tart to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

Serving:

Serve with crème fraiche or the Stirring Stuff rhubarb and black pepper ice cream.

Rhubarb and Black Pepper Ice Cream