Well, it’s (almost) Friday again. Let’s go to France with French Fridays with Dorie!
This week was the Orange Almond Tart, which to my delight, I had practically everything I needed to make it already at home. A couple of months ago, I picked up a bag of Almond Meal at Trader Joe’s and hadn’t even opened it yet. Perfect! I also had a ball of Dorie’s ‘Good For Almost Anything’ Pie Dough in the freezer. Now, I know the original recipe called for the Sweet Tart Dough in Around My French Table, but I figured the pie dough would work just fine (it did). All I had to do was defrost it the day before.
Verdict: This was delicious! I was going to bring some into work Friday, but after tasting it I changed my mind. Plus, it is a little messy to slice, so it is all for jwa and I this weekend! Hooray!
Anyway, things I learned/did while making this recipe:
1. Almond Meal from Trader Joe’s. I just used that for the Almond Flour..was I supposed to do anything special with it? I assumed I could just substitute.
2. I was about 2 tablespoons shy of the granulated sugar. I added two tablespoons of brown sugar to make up the difference. It was good.
3. Instead of dark rum I added 1 tsp amaretto and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract just to be wacky. Why choose just one?
4. I had leftover orange slices. I just snacked on those while the tart was baking!
5. I took the 2 day approach to this. Night 1: sliced the oranges and set them to dry out between paper towel layers in the fridge overnight. Defrosted the pie dough and made the almond cream. Night 2: Rolled out the dough and par-baked the crust, let it cool, put the tart together and baked it.
6. I baked mine for about 57 minutes. After letting it cool 40 minutes I tried slicing into it and it was just a little bit, not as firm as I expected it to be. Maybe I just didn’t let it cool enough? It tasted wonderful though, so I’m not too upset or concerned.
7. Upon looking at everyone’s at the LYL so far, I’m thinking the almond meal made my pastry cream a little heavier and that the small amount of subbed brown sugar that I had to use, made my almond cream darker.
Okay. Enough of that…on with the pictures!
Oranges about to be supremed.
Drying out a bit.
Almond cream in search of a tart.
Tart shell ready to be par-baked.
There was a little shrinkage. Oh well…
Putting it together.
About to go into the oven.
Waiting…
Finally! Ready to taste.
And…here are everyone’s posts.
As usual for these FFwD posts, the recipe is in the cookbook, Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan. You should get it if you haven’t already. But, if you are dying to try this (and you should be) but don’t have the cookbook yet, I did notice that the recipe is online here: Cape Cod Online.
Looks great! I used the almond meal from TJ’s too, I thought it was great.
Glad the pie crust and almond meal sub’t worked out well for you. Good tip on the almond meal.
Your tart looks GREAT!!!! I used TJ’s almond meal too!
What a beautiful tart…chock full of oranges!
Looks good. I used a block of dough I made earlier for another recipe from the freezer too. Cut down a lot of work for this recipe!
Almond meal and almond flour are really interchangeable in the this recipe. The finer grind doesn’t make a huge difference.
Love your pictures and your tart looks great.
Your tart looks like I want a piece…it is inviting me to your table…it looks great
Looks great! I bet the brown sugar added a bit of richness!
I love the substitutions you made. The amaretto was an excellent way to go. I used Grand Marnier in mine and that was good too. Your tart looks delicious!
Great post. I love Trader Joe’s as well- I am impressed you actually had the almond meal purchased without a recipe in mind- shows creativity ! Great photos- we also loved the recipe..big hit !
I ended up looking up the difference between almond flour and almond meal. According to wikipedia almond meal will have the skins of the almonds included while the flour will not. So only a difference in colour and with the brown sugar it just leaned a little darker – and delicious! Your tart looks so lovely. I like your writing – great post!
Thanks everyone! 🙂
Tricia: I picked it up a few months ago thinking I could use it for Macarons…(I haven’t yet)
Allison: Thanks for the info! I think the next time I make this (and I will), I’ll use the meal again plus the little bit of brown sugar! And thanks! 🙂
looks great! and if you haven’t already, you should definitely try out orange tart in “the new spanish table”.
its EXCELLENT, espsecially if you have some homemade marmalade!
You are brave! I am a wimp when it comes to substitutions, especially for baking stuff.
Good to know that Trader Joe’s almond meal worked so well…
your tart looks scrumptious!
Great photo! Isn’t it odd how different our experiences are with the same recipe? I had to use ground walnuts as my husband is allergic to almonds, and the cream tasted fabulous. But even though I baked the pie for 35-40 minutes, my crust was a bit darker than I thought it should be.
Good for you for planning ahead – much less pressure makes for more enjoyable baking:)
I like the tart. Now all I need is a proper tart pan:)
Oh, this tart looks delicious. Thank you for sharing!!
It looks delicious. I didn’t get to make this one as hubby is allergic to Almonds but I might have to for a girls afternoon with friends. Beautiful pictures