Italian fruit & nut tart
Serves 4
- 200g ready-rolled, all-butter puff pastry
- A little softened butter
- 100g unsalted butter, softened
- 75g caster sugar
- 125g ground almonds
- 50g plain flour
- 1 large egg [a large duck egg, in fact, would be perfect here]
- grated zest of 1 orange
- grated zest of 1/2 lemon
- A little grated nutmeg
- 1 tbsp Marsala
- 1 tbsp Limoncello
- ½ tsp vanilla essence
- 60g candied orange peel [bought already chopped]
- 60g chocolate chips [at least 70% cocoa solids]
- 40g pine kernels
- A little icing sugar
- Roll the pastry out thinly
- Line a 20cm x 3cm, well buttered tart tin. Trim the pastry edge, but leave it slightly raised above the rim of the tin, as it will shrink a little during the cooking. Also, prick the base of the pastry with a fork all over. Place in the fridge to rest until the filling is ready to fill the tart. Note: there is no need to bake the pastry blind for this recipe - and how nice is that
- Pre-heat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5; also, have a flat baking tray ready in the oven, too, which will help to cook the base of the pastry.
- Electrically beat together the butter and caster sugar until really light and fluffy; about 5 minutes beating on full speed.
- Turn down the speed a little and briefly beat in the ground almonds and flour until blended in, then beat in the egg as well.
- Now, using a rubber spatula, fold in the two zests, the nutmeg, Marsala, Grand Marnier, vanilla essence, orange peel and chocolate chips [do not add the pine kernels, yet].
- Remove the pastry-lined tart tin from the fridge and fill with the almond paste mixture. Now sprinkle the pine kernels over the surface.
- Slide into the oven, onto the pre-heated oven tray and bake for 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to 180C/gas mark 4 and bake for a further 30-35 minutes, or so, until the filling has puffed up, the pine kernels have become golden and the whole thing smells quite divine.
- Remove the tart, dust the surface with sifted icing sugar and then return to the oven for 2-3 minutes until the sugar has slightly glazed.
- Leave to cool for about 15 minutes then remove from the tin. Best eaten warm, with cold, thick cream.