Flower Tart
By: Anonymous
Published: Friday, February 12, 2010 - 2:06am

Ingredients




Sugared Flowers, Petals, or Leaves (separate recipe)
Pastry (recipe follows)
cup Slivered blanched almonds, toasted
cup Sugar
cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 lrgs Eggs
cup Unsifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Almond extract

Preparation

1 NOTE: This elegant tart with sugared-flower topping can be made with an almond filling for a spectacular holiday dessert or without the filling for a table or sideboard holiday display that will last several days. 2 Several hours or day before, prepare Sugared Flowers, Petals, or Leaves. 3 At least 45 minutes before, prepare Pastry. 4 Heat oven to 375'F. On floured surface, roll out pastry to 11 -inch round. Fit pastry into 9-inch fluted tart pan with removable bottom. Line pastry shell with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights or beans. Bake 10 minutes. Remove foil and weights; bake shell 10 minutes longer. Set aside. 5 If making for display, cool and fill with Sugared Flowers. Petals, or Leaves at this point. 6 In food processor fitted with chopping blade, grind 1 C almonds with the sugar until very fine. 7 In large bowl, with electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and almond-sugar mixture until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in flour and almond extract just until combined and stiff batter forms. 8 Sprinkle remaining 1/2 C almonds over bottom of tart shell. Gently pour batter over almonds. 9 Bake tart 20 minutes or until golden. Cool completely on wire rack. 10 Remove tart from pan; place on serving platter and top with Sugared Flowers, Petals, or Leaves. Cut into 10 wedges to serve. Pastry: In medium-size bowl, combine 1 1/4 C unsifted all-purpose flour and 1/4 t salt. With pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in 6 1/2 T butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle 2 to 3 T cold water, 1 T at a time, over flour mixture and mix lightly with fork until pastry is moist enough to press into a ball. Wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.