This isn't an easy recipe, but it is worth the time and effort it takes. If you want to save time, you can use shop bought pastry. However, this pastry is delicious so I would urge you to have a go.
If you don't want the icing, you can sprinkle the frangipane with flaked almonds before it goes in the oven.
Ingredients:
Pastry:
175g plain flour
75g butter
25g icing sugar
1 large egg
Frangipane:
100g margarine
100g white sugar
2 eggs
100g ground almonds
1 tablespoon plain flour
½ teaspoon almond extract
Around 6 tablespoons of raspberry or black cherry jam
Icing:
115g icing sugar
1 ½ tablespoons milk
Pink Gel Icing
Remember that pastry is the complete opposite of bread dough. Whereas with bread dough, you knead it for a long time to release the gluten from the flour and make it sticky, the opposite is the case with pastry. You handle it as little as possible, in order to keep it “short”
To make the pastry, make sure the butter is nice and soft, so it will mix easily. If it is too cold, just cut it into cubes and then microwave it for 10 seconds. Then rub the butter, flour and icing sugar together until it starts to look like breadcrumbs. You can use your fingers or the whisk attachment on your mixer for this.
Then use the bread hook on your mixer or a large spoon and add the egg and bring the mixture together to a dough. Stop mixing as soon as it all comes together in a ball. You will need to get your hands into the bowl to get all the pastry together.
Pastry needs to be chilled before it is baked, to stop it from shrinking. I prefer to roll it first, put it in the dish and then chill it, as it is easier to handle than cold pastry.
Sprinkle the worktop with some flour to stop the pastry from sticking and roll it as thin as you can without it breaking. If you do break it, the beauty of pastry is that you can stick it back together, smooth over the join and when it is cooked, you will never know.
Grease the bottom of a 20cm cake tin with plenty of butter and then cover the tin with the pastry. Leave enough pastry around the sides to allow for some shrinkage. You can trim it when it comes out of the oven. Put the tin in the freezer for 10 minutes.
When it is nice and cold, place a round sheet of baking paper over the pastry and fill it with some baking beans or rice to hold it down in the oven. Bake at 190 degrees for 10 minutes. This is called blind baking and prevents a “soggy bottom”.
While it is cooking, you can mix the frangipane. Whisk the margarine and sugar together for a minute and then add the eggs and whisk again until it is properly combined. Don’t worry if it looks a bit curdled. It will be fine when it is cooked. Stir in the ground almonds, flour and almond extract.
When the pastry is cooked, take off the baking paper and baking beans and fill the pastry case with raspberry jam. You might find it easier to warm the jam in a microwave for a few seconds, to make it easier to spread.
Add the frangipane filling with a spoon, starting at the edges of the tin and working your way into the middle. If you add it all at once, you risk dislodging the jam and mixing it all up with the frangipane.
Bake for 25- 30 minutes at 180 degrees until the top is brown and firm. Leave it to cool down for a few minutes in the tin and then take it out by easing a knife underneath the pastry and tipping the tart into your hands. Allow it to cool on a wire rack.
To make the icing, mix the milk with the icing sugar and stir until all the icing sugar has dissolved. This will take a minute or so. Don’t be tempted to add more milk, as you don’t want the icing to be runny. Pour the icing gently over the top of the tart. Leave it to set in the fridge for around 15 minutes.
To make the pink pattern, squeeze some pink gel icing in horizontal lines across the tart, keeping the lines around 1cm apart. Then starting at the top of the tart, on far right hand side, drag a cocktail stick gently downwards across the icing in a vertical line. Then, do the same thing about 1cm to the left, but drag the cocktail from the bottom to the top, to make the pattern go the other way. Repeat across the tart.
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