Cruchy Almond Tart

Although I experienced quite a blogging drought, that did not correlate with a BAKING drought! Now, I have to make up for lost time, and fill in the blanks.

This is going back a while....

I tried David Lebovitz's version of the Chez Panisse Almond Tart for the first time. I've had my eye on it for a while... and it sure didn't disappoint! I brought it for dessert at the in-laws', and everyone loved it.

You should try it - although he describes it as being difficult to do, it isn't that bad. The pastry is quite different, and you aren't able to roll it and end up 'smushing' it into the tart pan:


The tart does require quite a bit of tending-to while in the oven; you need to break up the crust that forms on the filling every few minutes.

I now remember that the tart took a lot longer to bake than I had allotted, and as a result we were a few minutes late for dinner. BUT no one dared complain when they saw this sucker!...


We cut small wedges of it, and speared them into our bowls of vanilla ice cream. It was mentioned in the link above that the tart was taken off the menu at Chez Panisse due to people complaining they couldn't eat it with a fork.... Gimme a break! Pick it up - it's delicious.