Quince and Frangipane Tart, Two Ways
Classic and deluxe.
I had a very large container of four very large quince, all baked and suspended in their ruby sugar syrup. And my two quince cakes had made a very small dent in the fruit I’d need to use before more fruit could be picked.
Given the time-consuming nature of my first quince bake, I decided on a simpler option next. Natalie Paull shared her Fig Brown Butter Almond Frangipane Tarts, and given figs are also Fall, I figured quince was interchangeable.
I find shortcrust very soothing and enjoy the entire process - cold butter, into flour, onto bench, into disc. Rolling out the cold pastry as thin as you can; willing it to stay together as you drape it into tin.
Frangipane, however, is still very new to me - I have only made it once or twice. This particular recipe called for a generous glug of rum, and I knew bakes spiked with booze are superior.
As always, I am bored by presentation, and tiled the quince in random, kaleidoscopic patterns. There was no blind baking in the recipe, which made me nervous, so I cooked it for a quick 10 minutes.
That original recipe, however, made several small tartlets, as opposed to my larger, singular tart. As a result, my shortcrust definitely tasted underbaked - slightly gummy, but still edible, still yummy.
I reduced a small saucepan of the quince cooking liquid to a slightly more viscous syrup. It gave the fruit tart an unbelievable shine; the top was then garnished with roasted, flaked almonds.
I was slightly disappointed with the overall result but looking back, the tart was definitely very solid. I learned three important things: always blind bake your base, almond and quince are best friends, and so is rum and frangipane.
Question, though: My partner insisted that the sprinkling of nuts ruined the final presentation of the tart. He preferred the stain glass quince windows; I hadn’t considered this, do you agree?
TART DOUGH:
200g soft plain flour
140g unsalted butter, cold and thinly sliced
15g caster sugar
5g fine sea salt
60g iced water
FRANIGPANE FILLING:
140g unsalted butter, squidgy
120g caster sugar
100g egg (approx. 2 large eggs), room temperature
190g blanched almond meal
5g vanilla paste
2g fine sea salt
20g dark rum
A drop of almond essence
300g roasted/poached quince, and the syrup
100g flaked almonds
Make the crust by rubbing the butter slices into the flour and salt until they are small flakes and the flour is taking on a yellow hue. Toss the water in to form a shaggy dough. Tip it out onto the work surface and smear across the bench a few times. Add a sprinkle of extra water if needed. Bring together and squeeze into a flat disc lightly wrapped in plastic. Chill in the fridge if it’s sticky. If it’s cool and pliable, roll on a lightly floured surface and line tart tin. Keep cool.
Start the frangipane by cooking half (70g) of the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it turns a foamy tan brown. Scrape it into the bowl of an electric stand mixer to cool for 15 minutes.
Heat a fan-forced oven to 170ºC and place a heavy baking sheet on the middle shelf. The hot tray will accelerate the base cooking so soggy bottoms are avoided.
Add the remaining butter, sugar and browned butter to a bowl. Beat the ingredients for about 8 minutes until the mix is pale and fluffy. Scrape the bowl down with a stiff plastic spatula twice during.
Add the eggs in two additions, allowing the creamed base to re-fluff up between additions.
Cut the quince into desired pieces. Weigh the almond meal and salt, and set aside.
Start working by hand and plastic spatula. Add the rum, vanilla and almond essence and mix well. Tip in the almond meal and salt and stir thoroughly.
Spoon the frangipane mix into the chilled tart shell and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Start placing the quince pieces across the top to almost cover the frangipane. Leave a few spaces and in those spaces, place a pinch of the flaked almonds, and push them in a little.
Place the tart on the hot tray in the oven and bake for approximately 40-45 minutes.
The finished tart should look like a baked cake, not liquid batter – a hint of gooeyness is okay. With a thermometer, 95ºC is a perfect internal temperature.
My Quince and Frangipane Tart 2.0 (deluxe version!) had been long on my list of baking projects. It was inspired by an absolutely gorgeous concoction posted by up-and-coming Melbourne talent, Holy Sugar.
Her divine little slice showed four perfect layers, neatly compact and ingeniously combined. There was the tart base, frangipane dotted with fruit, baked custard, and a golden sugar crust. So clever!
Given my newfound marriage of quince and almond I knew the fruit would be perfect for this format. I bought a kitchen torch especially for the occasion, though it has long been on my wish list.
My pie dish is very shallow, so I knew the layers had to be quite fine. I rolled my shortcrust as thin as I could, blind baked and cooled, then spread a soft swoop of frangipane (rum spiked).
The frangipane was dotted with quince tiles, and baked up beautifully, leaving ample space for cooked custard. Patience is rarely my strength while baking, but I even let the tart set overnight (woohoo!).
I followed the iconic Marcus Wareing recipe, the custard tart he ‘served to the Queen’, for layer three. I wanted WOBBLE but KNEW the brulee would likely melt the mixture, so I played it safe and cooked until firm.
The tart was fridge-cold for the fourth and final layer: the hardened, caramelised sugar. I sprinkled a generous heap and blasted it with the blowtorch, nicking the crust in places, but otherwise, making my first creme brulee!
The heat definitely loosened up the custard, giving the mixture the soft wobble I had hoped for out the oven. In future, I would double coat the topping with burnt sugar, but the single layer still had a decent snap.
This bake was probably one of my best ever - texturally glorious, and flavour profiles perfectly harmonious. It was slightly tricky to slice in neat pieces (all the more credit to Holy Sugar!), but twice the brulee plus a hot knife would do the trick.
TART DOUGH: As above.
FRANGIPANE: As above, recipe halved.
CUSTARD:
9 egg yolks
75g of caster sugar, plus extra for brulee
500ml of whipping cream
Preheat oven to 130°C.
Bring the cream to the boil. Whisk the yolks and sugar together then add the cream and mix well. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug.
Place the pastry + frangipane case in the oven then pour the custard mix right to the brim. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the custard appears set but not too firm. Cool to room temperature, then move to the fridge.
When fridge-cold, sprinkle a generous heaping of caster sugar over the custard top. Caramelise with kitchen torch.