Alliance Tart (tarte d'alliance)

About the dish

A festive puff pastry tart from the chapter 'Cakes for dessert' in 'Stor kokebok' (1914). The dough is made from scratch as puff pastry with equal parts flour and butter by weight, and the tart is filled with fruit compote and heavy cream right before serving.

How to make it

1. 1

   Make the dough

   Sift the flour and stir it together with just enough water to make a firm dough. Work it together quickly, weigh it, and let it rest 20 minutes.

2. 2

   Puff pastry

   Use the same weight of cold butter as the dough weighs, and treat the dough like puff pastry with folding and rolling.

3. 3

   Roll out the sheets

   Roll the finished dough out into two sheets, one 2 cm and the other 3 cm thick. Cut a paper pattern to match the platter the tart will be served on, and cut the dough about 4 cm larger in circumference than the pattern, since the dough shrinks during baking.

4. 4

   Assemble the base and ring

   Place the thinnest base on a baking sheet and brush it with egg white — the white must not run down over the edge, as that keeps the dough from rising. Cut a 3 cm wide ring from the other sheet, lay it on top of the base, and brush it gently with egg white.

5. 5

   Bake the base

   Bake the tart in a hot oven (about 220 °C (430 °F)) until nicely golden brown.

6. 6

   Make the lattice lid

   Roll out the rest of the dough 2 cm thick, cut strips with a pastry wheel, lay them in a lattice sized to fit inside the ring, brush, and bake the lid like the base.

7. 7

   Fill and serve

   Fill the tart with fruit compote, place stiffly whipped cream on top, and sprinkle with blanched, sliced, toasted almonds. Put the lid on and serve the tart at once.