Yield: Ten 4” tarts
Farm.One ingredients: Wood sorrel (stems, leaves and flowers), fennel fonds, nepitella flowers.
Almond Tart Dough
- 55 g confectioners’ sugar
- 115 g all-purpose flour
- 55 g almond flour
- 1 g fine sea salt
- 1 g baking powder
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs
- 3 g vanilla extract
1. Mix confectioners’ sugar, all-purpose flour, almond flour, salt and baking powder briefly in mixer with paddle attachment.
2. Melt butter over low heat. Whisk together eggs and vanilla in a bowl, then whisk in the melted butter. Add all the liquids to the mixer and mix on low speed until just combined. Pat into a disk, wrap the dough in plastic wrap in a disk and refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Roll on lightly floured surface into ten 5 1/2” diameter disks and line 4” diameter X 3/4” high tart rings with dough. Place on silicone baking mat lined sheet pan and freeze for 30 minutes.
4. Bake 375°F until golden, about 10 minutes. Let cool, then remove tart rings before filling the tart shells with crémeux.
Wood Sorrel Crémeux
- 360 g heavy cream
- 20 g wood sorrel stems, calyx and leaves (reserve flower petals for garnish)
- 4.8 g silver gelatin
- 180 g Felchlin Grand Cru Opus Blanc
- 6 egg yolks
- 50 g granulated sugar
- 10 g lemon juice
1. Heat the cream to a boil with the wood sorrel. Let infuse 15 minutes off the heat.
2. Hydrate the gelatin in ice water for 3 minutes, then strain. Place the hydrated gelatin and the chocolate in a bowl.
3. When the wood sorrel has infused into the cream, cool and blend for 1 minute in a Vita Prep blender on high speed. Bring cream back to a boil in a medium saucepan.
4. Whisk the egg yolks with sugar and lemon juice until combined. Temper in egg yolks and sugar into the hot wood sorrel cream. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture reaches 180˚F. Strain through a chinois over the chocolate and gelatin. Let sit 1 minute, then emulsify with an immersion blender. Pour into shallow pan to refrigerate until set.
5. Pipe into blind-baked tart shells until full. Pipe the meringue over the cremeux, taking care to pipe to the edge of the tart shell. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Fennel Fond-Vanilla Meringue
- 175 g water
- 15 g fennel fonds
- 1/2 vanilla bean
- 350 g granulated sugar
- 4 g powdered egg whites
- 180 g egg whites
1. Heat the water to a boil with the fennel fonds. Let infuse for 15 minutes off the heat. Cool and blend for 1 minute in a Vita Prep on high speed.
2. Split vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds out with back of a paring knife into the sugar; place the bean in the sugar and rub to extract as many vanilla seeds as possible.
3. Place the vanilla sugar and bean in a medium saucepan, swirl fennel fond-infused water around the edge to saturate. Bring the syrup to a boil over medium-high heat, clip a candy thermometer to the pan and cook until the mixture reaches 248°F.
4. While the fennel fond-vanilla syrup is cooking, whisk the powdered egg whites into the egg whites in mixer bowl. Whip the egg whites at medium speed until they form soft peaks. Once the syrup reaches 248°F, remove the vanilla bean with tongs; gradually and steadily pour the syrup down the side of the bowl. Rest the edge of the saucepan on the edge of the mixer so that the syrup does not hit the whisk attachment and splatter. Whisk the meringue until stiff peaks form and the bowl cools down.
5. Place the cooled meringue in a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2” diameter open round tube. Place the tart on the center of a cake turntable. Steadily hold the pastry bag 1” above the crémeux to form a round puff the diameter of the tart while rotating the turntable; stop squeezing and pull off without pulling upward. Repeat until all the tarts have been piped. Torch lightly to brown the meringue.
Nepitella Syrup
- 1.5 g nepitella leaves (reserve flowers for plating garnish)
- 120 g granulated sugar
- 100 g water
1. Muddle nepitella leaves in sugar in a small saucepan. Add water and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and steep 30 minutes. Cool.
Plating
- Reserved petals from wood sorrel and nepitella flowers
1. Brush the Nepitella Syrup on the plate. Place the tart on plate. Sprinkle the wood sorrel petals and nepitella flowers around the tart.
