Piccole tartellette frangipane alla frutta

When the first flowers were born, the world was different. It was flat, for one, and much nicer than it is today, contrary to what geologists, physicists, archaeologists, conspiracists, cheesemongerologists and other -ists think. This may have been due to the fact that there were no -ists yet. The world was -ists-free, and therefore able to be itself without being constantly labelled or defined by bored, wandering -ists.
And so it was that the flowers of ancient times were very different. No -ist had yet said: "thou art a flower, and bees shall gather pollen from thee; and make honey for me." No. Flowers were much sweeter than they are today. Divine Cherry, who of course was there when flowers were still true flowers, sometimes yearns for the beginning of things. She longs for the time when the world was still itself, and when one could walk on water (because no one had yet said that water was liquid) or eat a cloud (because no one had yet said that clouds were not edible).
One day, then, when the longing became just too much to bear, she decided to make flowers the way they used to be. Now you may expect something extravagant, something weird, something grand and perhaps something mad… and you'd be right. Because flowers back then were made of glass, and the petals were made of frangipane tartelettes! In fact, if you look up from the text and focus your eyes on the magnificent picture that hovers above it, you might see a replica of that flowers used to be like. And if those were flowers, imagine what trees were like back then. Or rather don't. Focus on the tartelettes. Now some more. And some more. More still. And now stop. Look down. There. The recipe.

Pastry Adapted from"Pâtisserie!" by Christophe Felder

- 150 g plain flour
- 1 pinch of baking powder
-75 g sugar
-1 egg yolk
-75 g butter
-1/4 lemon (or orange) zest
-half a vanilla pod's seeds

Sift the flour, the baking powder and the sugar, add the soften butter. Mix the ingredients with your hands until it becomes crumbly. In the centre, add the yolk, 2 tbsp of water, the lemon zest and the vanilla seeds. Mix well until you get a nice ball. Wrap it in cling film and put it to rest in the fridge for at least 30mins.

Frangipane cream    Adapted from "il gattoghiotto" blog

-100g of peeled almonds
-100g of sugar
-100g of butter
-1/2 tbsp of rum
-1/2 tbsp of orange blossom water
-30g of cornflower
-1 egg

Ground the almonds with 2 tbsp of sugar (taken from the total) in a mixer until it turn to powder. Whip the butter with the rest of the sugar until you get a light cream, add the egg (slightly beaten), the orange blossom water and the rum. Keep mixing it with the electric whisks, add the ground almonds little at a time, as well as the cornflower. Voilà.

Tartelette  Adapted from"Pâtisserie!" by Christophe Felder

Grease a tray with butter and flour. Stretch the pastry dough thinly on a working plan. Cut it with a biscuit cutter in the same diameter as your moulds. Carefully ease the dough in the moulds, making sure that the borders stick well. Pour it in a tsp of frangipane cream.

Pear tartelettes (4 tartelettes)
-1/4 pear
-some coarsely ground almonds
Peel the pear and cut it into small pieces. Cut those in small triangles and put these, then, on the frangipane cream at the centre of your tartelette. Garnish with the almonds.

Strawberry tartelettes (8 tartelettes)
-1 small strawberry per tartelette
-some coarsely ground pistachios
Same procedure as with the pears above. Put the strawberry at the centre of your tartelette the garnish with the pistachios.

Prune tartelettes (4 tartelettes)
-1/2 prune
-raspberry jam
On the base of the pastry, before adding the frangipane cream, spread a small quantity of jam. Then cover with the frangipane cream and eventually garnish with small slices of prunes.

All tartelettes are cooked after 10mins in a preheated oven at 180°C.

Orange tartelettes
-1 unwaxed orange
-75 g of sugar
-150 ml of water
-30g of dark chocolate, chopped
- Cointreau
Prepare the oranges the day before. Cut the oranges in thin slices (with skin). In a pan, bring the water with the sugar to the boil. Turn it off as soon it starts boiling and add the chopped oranges. Leave it until the day after when you cut the slices into small pieces and drain the syrup for further use. Make sure you leave some slices uncut as you will need them for the final decoration.
Fill your pastry dough with frangipane cream and put some chocolate chips on top of it (be frugal). Bake them in the oven for 10mins at 180°C. When they are done (and are still warm), pour a tsp of Cointreau on them (again, be frugal). Since I was out of Cointreau, I mixed some of the orange syrup with rum and used that instead. When the tartelettes have cooled down, decorate them with the cut oranges (be generous this time) and form a small dome. On its top, put one of the small uncut slices to give it the final panache.

Versione Italiana:

Frolla - Da "Pâtisserie!" di Christophe Felder
- 150 g farina
- 1 pizzico di livito in polevere
-75 g zucchero
-1 tuorlo
-75 g butter
-1/4 buccia di limone (o di arancia)
-i semi di mezza bacca di vaniglia

Setacciare la farina, il lievito e lo zucchero, aggiungere il burro morbido a tocchetti. Lavorare con le mani in modo da formare delle briciole. Aggiungere nel mezzo il tuorlo, 2 cucchiai d'acqua e gli aromi, mescolare e ottenere una palla d'impasto. Avvolgere nella pellicola e mettere in frigorifero per un'ora almeno.


Crema frangipane - dal blog "il gattoghiotto"

- 100 g mandorle intere pelate
- 100 g zucchero semolato
- 100 g burro
- 1/2 cucchiaio di rum
- 1/2 cucchiaio di acqua di fiori d'arancio
- 30 g di fecola
- 1 uovo

Frullare le mandorle con 2 cucchiai di zucchero (presi dal totale) nel mixer fino ad ottenere una polvere. Montare il burro con lo zucchero fino ad ottenere una crema spumosa, aggiungervi l'uovo leggermente sbattuto, l'acqua di fiori di arancio e il rum sempre lavorando con le fruste, incorporare la farina di mandorle  poco per volta e la fecola (o maizena), continuando a montare.

Tartellette:  Ispirate da "Pâtisserie!" di Christophe Felder
Imburrare e infarinare una teglia per mini crostatine. Stendere la frolla molto sottile, ricavare dei cerchi con il tagliabiscotti dello stesso diametro dello stampo. adagiarlo nello stampo, facendo aderire i bordi. Mettere un cucchiaino di crema frangipane sulla frolla cruda.

Tartelletta alla pera: (4 tartellette)

- 1/4 di pera + granella di mandorle
Tagliare la pera sbucciata a fettine e ricavare da queste dei triangolini, adagiare i triangolini al centro della tartelletta farcita al frangipane, decorare con granella di mandorle.

Tartelletta alla fragola: (8 tartellette)
- 1 fragolina di bosco surgelata per ogni tartelletta + granella di pistacchi.
Mettere una fragolina al centro di una tartelletta farcita al frangipane, decorare con la granella di pistacchi.

Tartelletta alla prugna: (4 tartellette)

- 1/2 prugna + marmellata di lamponi
Spalmare un cucchiaino di marmellata sulla frolla, aggiungere un cucchiaino di crema frangipane e 2 fettine di prugna.

Cuocere le tartellette farcite e decorate per 10 minuti in forno caldo a 180°C.

 Tartelletta alla arancia: (8 tartellette)
- 1 arancia non trattata
- 75 g zucchero
- 150 g acqua
- 30 g cioccolato fondente, tritato
- Cointreau (facoltativo)

La sera prima preparare le arance. Tagliare l'arancia a fettine sottili (con la buccia). A parte portare a bollore l'acqua e lo zucchero. Spegnere appena bolle e immergervi subito le fette d'arancia. Lasciare raffreddere e trasferire in frigo per la notte. L'indomani, tagliuzzare a dadini piccoli le aranciarce scolate dallo sciroppo. lasciare da parte un paio di fettine per la decorazione finale.

Sulla tartelletta farcita con la crema frangipane, mettere qualche pezzettino di cioccolato (poco). Cuocere in forno per 10 minuti a 180°C. Quando le tartine sono cotte ma ancora calde, versare un cucchiaino di cointreau sulla superficie (io non avendolo ho mescolato un po' di rum allo sciroppo delle arance). Quando le tartellette sono fredde, decorarle con un cucchiaino abbondante di arance sciroppate, formando una cupola. Mettere sulla cima della cupola un triangolino di arancia.

Queste ricetta partecipa all MTC di Aprile.

Enjoy,
And Spread the Mess