Prune And Almond Tart Food

PRUNE AND ALMOND TART

Steps:

• At least one hour before preparing the tart, pour the hot tea over the prunes and set aside to marinate.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Prepare the cream filling. In a spice grinder or the bowl of a food processor, grind the almonds to a fine powder. Thoroughly blend the almonds with the egg, sugar, brandy and cream. The mixture should be very smooth.
• Thoroughly drain the prunes, discarding the soaking liquid. Carefully arrange the prunes in the cooled, prebaked tart shell. This will seem like a lot of prunes, and you may have to arrange them in two layers. Pour the cream filling over the prunes and place the tart in the center of the oven.
• Bake until the cream filling has set and the tart shell is nicely browned, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

FRANGIPANE-PRUNE TART

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375. In a bowl, pour the hot tea over the halved prunes, and let the fruit rehydrate while you make the almond filling.
• Put almonds, sugar and salt in a food processor, and pulse just until ground (be careful not to overprocess, or the filling will become a hard paste). Add the butter, eggs, brandy and almond essence, if using, and pulse just until smooth.
• Drain prunes well, pressing out any excess liquid with your hands, and place in the tart shell, more or less in an even layer. Spoon on the almond mixture, smoothing it with the back of the spoon, then sprinkle over remaining sliced almonds. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is a nice golden brown. Dust with icing sugar, and let cool before serving.

PRUNE, CHOCOLATE AND ALMOND TART

Steps:

• Line a 30 cm tart tin with pastry and prick with a fork. Bake blind in the oven at 180°C for 15 minutes or until done.
• Meanwhile tip the prunes, demerarra sugar and wine in a saucepan and simmer for 5 - 10 minutes or until the prunes have absorbed the wine. Set aside to cool, then stuff each prune with broken chocolate.
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale, beat in the eggs one at a time until well incorporated.
• Stir in the ground almonds.
• Spoon the almond filling into the cooked shell and scatter around the prunes, pressing down lightly. Bake the tart in the oven at 180°C for 20 - 30 minutes or until coloured.
• Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before removing the tart. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon.