I know Father’s Day was a while ago but I would like to take minute and be grateful for my dad.
We haven’t always seen eye to eye. I was a bit of a difficult teenager with a temper. A temper I inherited from him. Our living room was the scene of many battles in which neither party won, even though we both thought we did. But as I got older and left home to study and later to work, he became my backup. Stuck with a question about taxes? Call dad. Need to buy a car? Ask dad for advice. Building an IKEA bed? Ask dad if you can borrow his tools.
My father was raised in a traditional, conservative way. He never learned to cook or iron a shirt. Call it romantic if you want but for my mother he decided to take on these challenges when he had to take early retirement and spend quite some time at home. He still doesn’t know how to iron a shirt but he does “all the straight stuff” like table cloths and sheets. And he’s also got a bunch of signature dishes that only he makes. One of these is a frangipane tart which he mastered while doing a cookery course for men back in the 80’s (at least I think that’s where he got it, I’m sure he’ll correct me if I’m wrong).
So this is his pie. Simple and tasty. But also a little bit special.
Frangipane Tart
(serves 8)
Ingredients:
200g puff pastry (shop bought is OK) or 300g if you want to make a nice lattice design on top
150g ground almonds
150g sugar
150g very soft butter
2 tbsp flour
3 eggs
Method:
1. Preheat the one to 180 degrees C.
2. Cream the butter with a electric hand mixer or a stand mixer with the whisk attached.
3. In another bowl, mix the almonds and the sugar.
4. Alternate between adding parts of the sugar-almond mixture and a whole egg to the butter making sure to mix well after every addition.
5. Fold in the flour.
6. Roll the puff pastry to about 2mm thick if it didn’t come pre-rolled. Gently place it into a round, fluted, loose-bottomed tart pan. Trim the edges.
7. Use a fork to prick the bottom of the pastry. Then add the mixture.
8. Make your lattice design and gently lay it on top of the mixture.
9. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the frangipane mixture is set and the pastry is golden brown.
10. Let the pie cool in the pan before removing it.
ENJOY!
