Shortcrust pastry
500 g Dried prunes.
125 g Almond powder.
150 g Butter.
1 Egg
125 g Icing sugar.
2 tb Armagnac.
2 tb Flaked almonds.
Ts
1 Preheat the oven (gas mark 6 / 400F / 200C). Make some fairly strong tea,
and soak the prunes in it.
2 Grease a flan dish with butter. Roll out the pastry to line the base and
sides of the dish. Prick the base with a fork and bake for 5 minutes.
3 Now make the almond cream: soften the butter by pressing with a spoon,
add the icing sugar, then pour in the almond powder, egg and Armagnac,
stirring continuously. Mix together well, then pour into the pastry case,
still in the flan dish.
4 Strain the prunes. Remove the stones, and arrange the prunes on the
almond cream. Put the flaked almonds between the prunes. Return the tart to
the oven for 2 minutes until the almonds are golden. Sprinkle with icing
sugar. Allow to cool before serving.
In the 17th century, Frangipani, an Italian perfume-maker working in Paris,
composed a fragrance for perfuming gloves using sour almonds. Pastry cooks
later used his idea to make a cream.
Yields
8 servings