If you’ve ever cooked from any of Yotam Ottolenghi’s renowned cookbooks, you know that he has a knack for putting together ingredients that sometimes really make you scratch your head when you see them on paper, but then blow your mind when you cook them and make you wonder why you haven’t been pairing kohlrabi with sesame oil your entire life.
Ottolenghi is well known for things like grain salads with 47 rare ingredients, or his vegetable dishes covered in pomegranate molasses and caramelized onions and 23 types of chopped fresh herbs. But the dessert sections of all of his books also contain a myriad of treasures and should not be overlooked. Plus- his pastry chef, Helen Goh, is coming out with what looks like a delicious book of sweets this fall, and it’s high on my list of cookbook acquisitions.
There’s an entire section in Ottolenghi’s dessert chapter on tarts and tartlets, and I’ve been spending a lot of time there. Specifically in the tartlet section, because each filling uses up 1/3 of the dough recipe in the book, thereby encouraging me to try a few. My first test was raspberry and white chocolate ganache, which I thought was good, but my second attempt – hazelnut and banana – was the real winner.
You might ask yourself- hazelnut and banana with chocolate and apricot jam? Doesn’t that seem like an odd dessert combo? Yes, I’d respond, it does. But not surprisingly, just like all things Ottolenghi, it is somehow just right.
Not only did the flavor profile come out just right (sweet, rich, nutty and the perfect amount of tart), but the finished tartlets looked exactly like the pictures you see in Ottolenghi’s books of the front windows of his restaurants and shops, with the towers of bite-sized sweets. They’re downright professional. I couldn’t find pans that were exactly the right size on short notice, so I used a muffin tin and a round cookie cutter and it worked just fine.
The moral of the tart story is that maybe we could all do with a little more adventure in the kitchen, and dessert is no exception. So when the mood strikes, you can use the leftover tart dough that’s waiting in the freezer, get out your collection of seemingly disparate ingredients and whip up something that’s a little bit weird and a whole lot of wonderful.
Note: the dough recipe makes 3 times the amount you'll need for this recipe.
Ingredients
- 2 2/3 cups / 330g all-purpose flour + more for dusting
- Scant 1/2 cup / 100g confectioners' sugar
- Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup / 80g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- About 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted, for brushing
- 1/3 cup / 45g unskinned hazelnuts
- 6 tablespoons / 90g unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon / 100g confectioners' sugar
- 5 tablespoons / 40g all-purpose flour
- 2 large egg whites
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 tablespoons / 50g mashed banana
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 2 1/2 tablespoons / 50g smooth apricot jam
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 3/4 oz. / 50g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
Instructions
- First, make the shells. Put the flour, confectioners' sugar, lemon zest and salt in a bowl and add the butter. Rub it in with your hands or, more easily, using a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Or, you can do the job in a food processor. In all cases, you need to mix the ingredients until you get a coarse bread crumb consistency, making sure there aren't any large lumps of butter left.
- Add the egg yolk and water and mix just until the dough comes together, being careful not to mix any longer than necessary. You might need to add a tiny amount of additional water.
- Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and knead very lightly for a few seconds only, just to shape it into a smooth disk, 2 to 2 1/2 inches thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill until ready to use. The pastry will keep in the fridge for a week and for at least a month in the freezer. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
- Brush your tartlet pans with a think layer of melted butter, the leave it to set in the fridge.
- Cut the pastry into 3 parts- you'll only need 1/3 for this recipe. Meanwhile, prepare a wide, clean working surface and have ready a rolling pin and a small amount of flour. Lightly dust the work surface, place the pastry in the middle and roll out the pastry thinly, turning it around as you go. Work quickly so it doesn't get warm. Once the pastry is no more than 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick, cut out 6 circles using a pastry cutter or the rim of a bowl. Line the buttered pans by placing the circles inside and gently pressing them into the corners and sides. Leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line each pastry shell with a circle of scrunched-up waxed paper or a piece of foil. It should come 3/8 inch above the edge of the pastry (paper muffin liners are another great solution).Fill them with rice or dried beans, then place in the oven and blind bake for about 20 minutes. They should not quite be golden brown. Remove from the oven, take out the beans or rice and paper and leave the shells in the pan to cool.
- Next, make the filling. Scatter the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast for 12 minutes. Remove and allow to cool.
- Put the butter in a medium pan and cook over medium heat. After a few minutes, it should start to darken and smell nutty. Take off the heat and leave to cool slightly.
- Set aside about 1 tablespoon / 10g of the nuts. The rest (plus their skins) put in a food processor, together with 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon / 70g of the confectioners' sugar. Work to a fine powder and then add the flour. Pulse together to mix. Add the egg whites and work the machine very briefly, just to mix them in. Repeat with the vanilla and the butter. it is important to stop the machine as soon as the ingredients are incorporated.
- Mix the mashed banana with the lemon juice and the remaining 1/4 cup / 30g confectioners' sugar. Spoon about 2 teaspoons of this mixture into each prebaked tart shell (still in its pan). Top with the hazelnut butter. It should come to within 1/16 to 1/8 inch of the top. Place in the oven and bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until the hazelnut filling is completely set. You can check this with a skewer. Remove the tartlets from the oven and cool slightly, then carefully remove them from their pans.
- Put the apricot jam in a small saucepan, stir in the water and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and brush lightly over the tartlet tops. Coarsely chop the reserved nuts and scatter them on the jam.
- If using the chocolate, put it in a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water. Stir gently just until the chocolate melts. Use a spoon to drizzle the tartlets gently with the chocolate, trying to create thin, delicate lines.
Notes
From Ottolenghi
