Fig Tart

This Fig Tart is pretty damn close to perfection. It’s not too sweet and has a nice balance of flavors.

The key to this tart is two-fold. 1) Getting your hands on great figs. 2) Getting the frangipane right. If you don’t know what frangipane is, you’re in for a treat. It’s basically a pureed mixture of butter, toasted almonds, sugar and egg.

For the frangipane:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup almonds


Assembling the Fig Tart

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/8 cup granulated sugar
• 1 stick butter
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Spread the almonds on a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes. Let cool on a plate.
3. Put the cooled almonds and sugar in a food processor and blend until fine.
4. Add the butter and egg and pulse until well combined.
5. As you will only need one-fourth of the frangipane, you can store the rest in the refrigerator for a few days or in the freezer for about a month.

For the Fig Tart:

Ingredients:

• 1 9-inch pastry dough
• 10-15 large figs, quartered
• 1/4 of the frangipane recipe (above)

Figs in the Frangipane

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Roll out pastry dough to a 10-inch diameter and spread frangipane on the dough, leaving about one-inch of the dough bare.
3. Arrange the quartered figs pointy end up in concentric circles on top of the frangipane.
4. Fold the edges in, pinching to make sure they stick.
5. If you want, brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
6. Bake 45 to 60 minutes or until edges are a nice golden brown.

Figs are very fragile, but they are worth working with when making this Fig Tart. It comes out flaky and will literally melt in your mouth.

Feel free to serve it a la mode, but it stands alone very well. You’ll forget all about Fig Newtons once you’ve had a piece of this Fig Tart.