Wednesday, January 6, 2010

APAW 4 - fig and walnut tart

Fig & Walnut Tart
I wanted to try something all-season to see if I could work on a "go-to" pie. I came across a few variations of this tart between Claudia Fleming's The Last Course, Alice Waters Chez Panisse Desserts, and Baking Illustrated.

I settled on the Baking Illustrated recipe and substituted Cointreau in, Brandy out.
The recipe called for the Italian dough "Pasta Frolla." I was excited to work with that type of dough as it's supposedly more forgiving.

Well long story short the tart was nice, homey, and tasty - but nothing great. I rolled out a slightly uneven crust which lead to some nice crackly sections and other cakey sections.

Next time, I'll substitute out half the walnuts for pine nuts, when they go down in price. Have you seen the price of pine nuts today?