A few weeks ago, I celebrated my son’s birthday a little early. He was joined by the daughters of 2 friends who were also celebrating their birthdays. For the occasion, I made 3 cakes, one for each child, including this pistachio and orange blossom tart for a young lady who loves pistachio. As it happens, this tart didn’t get the fate it deserved. It unfortunately turned into a tarte tatin after my other half opened the boot and knocked the cool box onto the ground. I can tell you I could have throttled him on the spot!! When we got to my friends’ place, I patched up the cream with a trowel (or near enough) and swallowed my anger to celebrate our little ones’ birthdays as they deserved 😉 And to save my honour (all the same), I showed a photo of the dessert before it flipped over 😛
Despite its unflattering appearance that day, I can tell you that this tart was a huge success! The gentleness of the orange blossom (dosed just right) goes really well with pistachio. These are flavours I don’t like and so I’m not used to eating them, but I tasted it and I have to say I quite enjoyed my little mouthful, and that’s already something! If you’re a true pistachio lover, this dessert will win you over for sure.
For this recipe, I was inspired by the famous pistachio and orange blossom tart by Mélanie l’Héritier and Arnaud Mathez, a couple of young pastry chefs who founded Le Jardin Sucré (remember, I’d also tried their vanilla tartlet, which I simply adored!!).
I just built the dessert a little differently, in a large format and adding a soft pistachio sponge. For the first time here, I tried a 3 cm high tart ring (it’s a Debuyer fluted perforated tart ring) so I had the option of filling the tart with an extra texture. But it’s also made up of a pâte sucrée, a pistachio ganache, a pistachio praline and an orange blossom whipped ganache.
How do you get your tart base right?
I can already hear you saying “but my pastry always collapses in the oven” or “I can never make a nice tart base”. In fact, the secret to a successful tart base is resting. But let’s start at the beginning: to stop the pastry collapsing during baking, you need to take a few precautions when making the dough. First, use T55 flour, which prevents the dough from being too elastic. Also, don’t overwork the dough when incorporating the ingredients. The more you work the dough, the more you work the gluten (which is precisely what makes the dough elastic). So, as soon as all the ingredients have come together, stop.
Then, let the dough rest in the fridge for a few hours (you can very well prepare it the day before). Once the ring is lined, I also advise you to put the ring in the fridge for a minimum of 6 hours (again, I do it the day before for the next day). Letting the dough “skin over” in the fridge will ensure perfect baking and the edges won’t collapse. So be patient when making this pistachio and orange blossom tart and start your dough in advance
Ingredients & method
7 components · Full recipe
Pistachio praline
Ingredients
- 250 g (8.8 oz) unsalted green pistachios
- 125 g (4.4 oz) sugar
- 1 pinch of fleur de sel
Method
1
Toast the pistachios in the oven for about 15 minutes at 150°C / 300°F. Leave to cool.
2
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, make a dry caramel with the sugar. You want a deep golden caramel. Don’t take your eyes off it — it can go fast.
3
Pour the caramel onto a baking paper-lined tray or a silicone mat. Leave to cool.
4
Once the caramel and pistachios are completely cold, break up the caramel slab and place it in a food processor along with the pistachios and fleur de sel.
5
Blitz, pausing regularly (to prevent the paste from overheating and to scrape down the sides), until you reach a praline consistency. The longer you blend, the smoother and more liquid it will become.
6
Transfer to a glass jar. The praline can be kept at room temperature for several weeks or even months. If it hasn’t been used for a while, an oil layer may appear on the surface — that’s perfectly normal. Simply stir well before using.
Sweet pastry dough (start 2 days ahead or the day before)
Ingredients
- 150 g (5.3 oz) butter
- 95 g (3.4 oz) powdered sugar
- 30 g (1.1 oz) almond flour
- 60 g (2.1 oz) egg (1 large egg)
- 250 g (8.8 oz) flour
- a pinch of fleur de sel
- a knife tip of vanilla powder
Method
1
Place the softened butter and powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Add the almond flour, vanilla powder and fleur de sel and mix again.
2
Add the beaten egg and mix with a spatula this time (it will be easier than with the mixer).
3
Finish with the flour and mix with the mixer until a homogeneous dough forms. Don’t overwork the dough. Bring it together into a ball without insisting.
4
Wrap the dough in cling film, shaping it into a flat rectangle. Refrigerate overnight.
5
The next day, roll the dough out to 2–3 mm thickness using a rolling pin, then cut out a circle slightly larger than your tart ring.
6
Grease the tart ring and line it with the pastry, making sure to create a clean right angle at the base.
7
Refrigerate for at least 6 hours (overnight is ideal). You will have leftover dough that can be frozen. It’s always handy to have sweet pastry dough in stock 😉
Orange blossom whipped ganache (start the day before)
Ingredients
- 135 g (4.8 oz) white chocolate
- 175 g (6.2 oz) whipping cream (30% fat), for heating
- 10 g (0.4 oz) glucose
- 250 g (8.8 oz) heavy cream
- 8 g (0.3 oz) orange blossom water
- 2 g (0.1 oz) powdered gelatin (= 1 sheet)
- 12 g (0.4 oz) water (to rehydrate the gelatin)
Method
1
Rehydrate the gelatin in the water.
2
Break the white chocolate into pieces in a bowl (you can melt it slightly in a bain-marie or microwave).
3
Heat the 175 g (6.2 oz) of cream and glucose in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Off the heat, add the rehydrated gelatin and stir.
4
Pour one-third of the cream over the white chocolate and stir with a spatula to create an emulsion. Then add the second third, then the third, until you have a smooth, homogeneous mixture.
5
Add the 250 g (8.8 oz) of cold heavy cream and the orange blossom water, stir again. Blitz for a few seconds with an immersion blender to fully homogenise.
6
Cover with cling film touching the surface and refrigerate overnight.
Pistachio financier
Ingredients
- 35 g (1.2 oz) pistachio powder (I ground the pistachios myself)
- 35 g (1.2 oz) brown sugar
- 15 g (0.5 oz) egg whites
- 15 g (0.5 oz) egg yolks
- 10 g (0.4 oz) powdered sugar
- 0.5 g (0 oz) salt
- 45 g (1.6 oz) butter
- 25 g (0.9 oz) flour
- 1 g (0 oz) baking powder
- 55 g (1.9 oz) egg whites
- 10 g (0.4 oz) brown sugar
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 170°C / 340°F.
2
Melt the butter in the microwave.
3
In a mixing bowl, combine the pistachio powder, brown sugar, the 15 g (0.5 oz) of egg whites, the egg yolk, powdered sugar and salt.
4
Add the melted butter and stir.
5
Whip the 55 g (1.9 oz) of egg whites, adding the brown sugar gradually.
6
Fold the whipped whites into the first mixture gently.
7
Finally, fold in the baking powder and sifted flour.
8
Pour the batter into a 22 cm (8.7 in) diameter ring and bake for 15 to 18 minutes.
9
Once the sponge is completely cold, cut out a 16 cm (6.3 in) diameter circle, then use a cutter to remove the centre (the size of the inner circle depends on how generous you want to be with the pistachio praline) 😉
Baking the sweet pastry dough
Ingredients
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 g (0.1 oz) cream
Method
1
Lower the oven temperature to 160°C / 325°F.
2
Once the pastry is well chilled, trim the excess dough with a small knife.
3
Place a sheet of baking paper and fill with baking beads or dried beans to blind-bake (normally, if the tart shell has rested overnight in the fridge, the beads aren’t needed — the pastry won’t shrink).
4
Bake for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven, take off the ring and leave to cool slightly.
5
Smooth any imperfections with a microplane grater if needed.
6
Glaze the tart base and edges (inside and out) with a mixture of egg yolk and cream to make it shiny (the cream is about 10% of the weight of the yolk).
7
Continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes (the pastry should be well golden). Leave to cool on a rack.
Pistachio ganache
Ingredients
- 190 g (6.7 oz) white chocolate
- 190 g (6.7 oz) heavy cream
- 44 g (1.6 oz) pistachio paste
Method
1
Melt the white chocolate in the microwave.
2
Heat the cream in a saucepan then pour in 3 additions over the white chocolate, emulsifying each time. The chocolate should be smooth and glossy.
3
Add the pistachio paste and stir. Blitz with an immersion blender to fully combine. Set aside.
Assembly
Ingredients
- None
Method
1
Spread a thin layer of pistachio praline over the pistachio financier and place the sponge in the centre of the tart shell (the praline will help the sponge adhere to the pastry).
2
Pour pistachio praline into the centre of the tart up to the edge of the sponge. Freeze until the praline sets slightly.
3
Pour the pistachio ganache into the tart shell to fully cover the pistachio sponge (and the praline). Leave 1 cm (0.4 in) of headroom. Freeze for one hour (or you can do this step the day before). The next day, or one hour later, whip the orange blossom ganache with the mixer — it should be firm enough to pipe but still supple.
4
Spread whipped ganache over the tart base and smooth with a large spatula. Remember to run your thumb along the edges to remove any excess cream (it will look cleaner).
5
Divide the remaining whipped ganache between 2 piping bags: one fitted with a PF18 star tip and one with an 18 mm round tip.
6
Pipe rounds of whipped ganache over the tart, alternating between the 2 bags.
7
Hollow out a few cream rounds with a melon baller and fill with pistachio praline. Decorate with a few whole and crushed pistachios.
8
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
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