Fig Frangipane Tart

A delicious combination of fresh figs, blackberry jam and almond cake encased in a rich, buttery shortcrust pasty. The perfect dessert for those with a sweet tooth. All the tart needs is a touch of ice cream, double cream or Greek yoghurt to send your tastebuds to heaven.

1 hr +

pastry 30 mins, final 1hr

200ºC pastry, 150ºC final

Ingredients

Pastry
175g plain flour
75g butter

- chilled
2 egg yolks plus 2 tbsp cold water
Filling
100g unsalted butter

- softened
100g caster sugar
100g ground almonds
2 eggs
1 tbsp self raising flour
8 ripe fresh figs

- sliced
1 tbsp blackberry jam

- warmed

Instructions

Pastry:
01 Either make by hand or place flour and butter in a food processor. Process until like fine breadcrumbs and bind together with egg yolk and water. Leave to rest 15 minutes in fridge and then line a well-greased flan tin. Bake blind in hot oven for 20-30 minutes. Allow to cool.
02 Brush heavily with warm blackberry jam (sides and base). Leave to onside to be filled with frangipane filling.
Filling:
03 Place butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and with an electric hand whisk beat together. Add eggs and fold in almonds and self-raising flour.
04 Spoon this mixture into your prepared pastry flan tin and place the quartered fresh figs on top – pushing them into the almond mixture with your finger.
Bake:
05 Place the tart into a cooler oven, temperature 150º C and bake slowly for up to 1 hour or until firm to the touch.
Serve:
06 Delicious hot, warm or cold either on its own or accompanied with a large spoonful of whipped cream, ice-cream or Greek yoghurt.

Notes

If the top of the tart is beginning to brown too much during cooking wet a piece of non-stick paper or greaseproof paper, squeeze out the excess water and lay it gently over the top of the tart. Leave it there until it has finished baking. This tart can be made the day before and looks even more spectacular if recipe is doubled up and baked in a larger flan dish. I recommend to use a 24 cm loose bottomed flan tin or attractive china flan dish (see images).