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A tart fit for a King!

January 13th, 2013 | Posted by greg in Daily life...

Or a Queen if you’d ask me!

I know King’s day has passed, but I wasn’t actually doing King’s tart a few days ago, I was experimenting with puff pastry and butter. To me, this is like when you love playing guitar, for example, not following the notes, just jamming and just for the sake of playing because you love it!

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I wanted to see how 6 single folds would work on a rather soft detrempe (the base dough) and with 38% butter. The result was interesting, but because of the so many layers linked with an higher hydration ratio, the dough was not as crunchy as I would have liked. But no matter what, It was great fun, and the outlook in my opinion, was pretty good! ;)

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  • Henry Chow

    Absolutely beautiful! Food, and especially pastry, is really a form of art. I wish I could taste your Galette des rois! I’ve tried making frangipane using a mixture of sweet and bitter almonds which you can get from Chinese medicine shops. Correct me if I’m wrong, bitter almonds are actually apricot kernels and they taste much more almondy than ‘western’ almonds. When I made a frangipane using home-ground Chinese almonds, the flavour was so, so almondy compared to using commercial ground almonds (although not as smooth).
    One thing about puff pastry that I’ve always wondered about: is it possble to roll the dough out and cut the dough into, say, 3 sections before piling them up as a single layer? Why is it better to fold it like a business letter rather than simply cutting three equal parts and realigning them vertically?

    • http://gregoiremichaud.com Gregoire Michaud

      Thanks Henry! Yes, you are correct, the bitter almond are from apricot kernels and I love their flavor very much. It’s a good idea to add it in a frangipane to make it more almondy. Bitter almonds are often used to enforce the almond flavor naturally, without using chemical extract. We ground our almond normally and then we process them in a special machine to have them much thinner. As you said, the texture of the almonds plays a big role on the eating experience.

      Regarding your question for the folding, theoretically you are correct, however, I believe if you cut the dough, the layers will “move” when you roll the dough and the layering won’t be as stable and precise as if it was of one block. While pastry is an art, there is this technical precision in some recipes that makes it even more interesting! ;)

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