Friday, February 13, 2009

106. Raspberry Jam Tart with Almond Crumble (p. 787)

If you're looking for a delicious, impressive-looking dessert for your next dinner party, but your short on time, this recipe is the one for you.

It really is very easy. All you do is grind some sliced almonds, sugar, butter, flour and salt in the food processor until it resembles beach sand. Reserve about a cup of this "sand" for the topping. Then pulse two tablespoons of beaten egg into the remaining almond-sugar-flour mixture until it comes together. You need to beat the egg, measure out two tablespoons and discard the rest. I can only imagine the amount of trial and error it took the Gourmet test kitchen cooks to figure out that you need exactly two tablespoons of egg.

Then you take the mixture and press it evenly into a removable-bottom tart pan and bake it for a little while. Then, take it out of the oven and spread some raspberry jam over the tart shell. I used jam made by the Trappist Monks. Finally, you mix some more sliced almonds in with the reserved "sand," sprinkle it over the jam and bake for a little while longer.

This was a great dessert. The tart crust was sweet and tender with a nice almond flavor. The jam was sweet and tangy and the almond-crumble topping gave the tart a nice crunch. The Book suggests serving the tart with vanilla ice cream. This is not optional in my opinion. The ice cream is the perfect compliment to this dessert, and I think that it would be missing "something" if you had it without.

This recipe marks my first project-related injury. As I was trying to remove the tart from the pan, my finger got pinched between the removable bottom and the sharp edge of the pan's rim. There was some pain, and yes, there was some blood, but none on the tart, thankfully). It healed pretty quickly, and I'm back in fighting form and ready to cook some more.

Date Cooked: January 31, 2009
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Rating: A-

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