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Rustic Fig & Hazelnut Frangipane Tart + How To: Flaky Sourdough Pastry

The pastry and frangipane quantity makes enough for one large tart or 2 smaller ones (one small tart is pictured here). Extra pastry can be saved for another day - use within 4 days if kept in the fridge or freeze for up to a month. The addition of the sourdough starter or yogurt creates an amazing light and flaky pastry with a slightly tart flavour. The natural lactic acid in the sourdough also assists to predigest the starch and gluten, especially if left overnight, therefore making it more digestible.

Ingredients

Sourdough Pastry

  • 1 cup unbleached white flour I used white spelt
  • 1/2 cup wholegrain flour - wheat spelt or buckwheat
  • 1 tablespoon sugar of choice I used rapadura
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 150 g cold unsalted butter cut into roughly 1 cm cubes
  • 3 - 4 tablespoons bubbly sourdough starter or natural unsweetened yogurt

Hazelnut Frangipane

  • 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts skins rubbed off as much as possible
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 60 g room-temperature butter
  • 1 heaped tablespoon honey
  • 1 small free range egg
  • pinch of salt

Topping

  • approx. 8 ripe figs or other seasonal fruit
  • honey to drizzle

Instructions

  • Make the pastry: Place the flours, sugar and salt in a bowl and use a whisk to combine. Add the cubed butter and use your fingers to quickly rub the butter into the flour until rough pea-sized balls are formed - it can be quite rough. Spoon over 3 tablespoons sourdough starter or yogurt and use a spatula to mix into a shaggy-ish dough. Don't over mix or worry too much about lumps the main thing is that the dough holds together. Shape into a flat rectangle, place in a lidded container, and then into the fridge for 20-30 minutes for the butter to firm up.
  • Remove the dough from the fridge. Lightly dust the bench and a rolling pin and roll the dough out into a large rectangle approx. 5mm thick. With the long side facing you, fold in the left side and then the right side to make a three-layer fold (like a business letter). Repeat this rolling and folding 2 more times finishing with a three-layer fold. Place back in the lidded container and chill for minimum 30 minutes, ideally overnight and up to 4 days. If leaving overnight or longer remove the pastry from the fridge approx. 30 minutes before using to soften for rolling.
  • Make the Hazelnut Frangipane: Place the hazelnuts and flour into a food processor and blitz for 1 minute until the hazelnuts are finely ground. Add the room temp butter, honey, egg and salt, and blend until creamy.
  • Preheat the oven 210C. Place a baking tray on the middle rack of the oven. *If you have a pizza stone or large ceramic tile, place it in the oven to bake the tart on so to cook the base from the bottom up.
  • On a lightly floured bench, roll out the pastry (cutting in half first if making two tarts) until 3mm thick. Place onto a sheet of baking paper and rustic-ly fold and squeeze the edges to make a rough border (see the uncooked tart above to see how I did this). Use a fork to prick the base several times. Spread the frangipane onto the base (using half if making a smaller tart) and arrange quartered figs evenly over the frangipane. Drizzle with honey or scatter with a little sugar. Slide onto the baking tray or pizza stone and bake for 15 minutes. Check that the base is golden, if not, bake for a further 5 minutes (especially if not using a pizza stone to ensure the pastry is cooked). Remove from the oven, cool a little then cut into wedges and eat immediately. The tart is best served warm but very edible cold too, enjoy!