passover week 2025 - passover raspberry frangipane tart

passover week 2025 - passover raspberry frangipane tart

• 9 Apr 2025

At Passover I like to challenge myself by making a dessert which involves pastry. The most successful pastry recipe I've used is adapted from an Aran Goyoaga gluten free pastry recipe but unfortunately the link to the pastry recipe is broken. 

I use a combination of superfine matzo meal, almond meal and potato or tapioca starch. This year the superfine matzo meal was very dark and a little more grainy than usual. The pastry came together easily, rolled out quite well but when baked it was very fragile and crumbly and I was quite sure I had a disaster on my hand. Once the tart had cooled, I put it in the fridge and left it in there for a few hours after which time the crust had firmed up and I was able to unmould the tart shell and cut neat slices of the tart. The pastry was quite crunchy and whilst not unpleasant, it's not how it normally bakes. I blame the superfine matzo meal.

Initially I was going to make an apple galette but at the last minute decided to make a frangipane tart instead. The brown butter frangipane filling is adapted from a Natalie Paull recipe and you can top the tart with almost any fruit you like. Pears, figs, plums, oven roasted rhubarb, apricots and other berries would all work. Natalie recommends using frozen berries when making the tart as fresh berries won't hold up to the long cooking time. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes an 11 x 35cm oblong tart or a 2cm deep 16cm round tart. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Passover raspberry frangipane tart
Pastry 
125g superfine matzo meal
25g almond meal
2 tbs tapioca or potato starch
1 tbs caster sugar
pinch sea salt
110g unsalted butter, cut into 1cm pieces
1 egg 
4 tablespoons iced water

Frangipane 
120g unsalted butter, squidgy soft
100g caster sugar
1 tsp finely grated orange rind
1 room temperature egg 
110g almond meal
pinch fine sea salt 
1 tbs orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract or the seeds of 1/2 a vanilla bean
½ cup raspberry jam

For the topping
100g frozen raspberries
50 g flaked almonds
15 g unsalted butter
20 g raw sugar

Pastry
Combine the first 5 ingredients in the food processor and pulse to aerate. Add the diced butter and pulse ten times until butter is the size of peas. Whisk together the egg and 2 tablespoons of ice water. Add it to the dough and pulse until it comes together. Add more ice water if needed. Knead the dough a couple of times and wrap it in plastic wrap forming a flat disc and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Place the pastry on a floured surface then cover the pastry with baking paper and roll to 5mm thick. Carefully line either a 2cm-deep x 16cm-diameter tart ring or an 11 x 35cm oblong tin with the pastry. The pastry will break apart easily, but just press it with your fingers to bring it together. Trim and refrigerate the pastry for 60 minutes.

Frangipane
Start the frangipane by cooking half (60g) of the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it turns a foamy tan brown. Scrape it into the bowl of an electric stand mixer to cool for 15 minutes. 

Add the remaining butter, sugar and orange rind with the browned butter to the bowl of the electric stand mixer. With the paddle attachment, beat the ingredients on medium for about 8 minutes until the mix is pale and fluffy. Scrape the bowl down with a stiff plastic spatula twice during this. Add the egg in two additions, allowing the creamed base to re-fluff up between additions. If the creamed mixture separates from the temperature difference of too fast egg addition, just keep going, it will be dense but still delicious.

Weigh the almond meal and salt and set aside. Stop the mixer and scrape the mix off the paddle attachment. We are working by hand and using a stiff plastic spatula now. Add the orange juice and the vanilla and mix well. Tip in the almond meal and salt and stir thoroughly. 

To assemble
Spoon the jam into the base of the tart. Dollop the frangipane over the jam and level the frangipane with an offset spatula. Chill the filled shell, uncovered, for an hour (or covered overnight) before topping. 

To bake
Preheat the oven to 190°C, conventional and place a heavy baking tray on the middle shelf. 

Remove the tart from the fridge and place the still frozen raspberries over the top of the filling then pinch small fingerfuls of the flaked almonds and push them into the frangipane around and alongside the berries. Melt the butter and drizzle over the top of the tart with a spoon or pastry brush, then sprinkle the raw sugar over the top.

Place the tart onto the preheated tray in the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 170°C conventional. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the top and sides of the crust look deeply golden tanned. Place on a rack and cool completely. The crust will be very tender and will disintegrate if you try unmoulding the tart. When cool, place the tart in the fridge for a few hours or overnight until the crust is firm.

If you like, you can serve the tart topped with a few fresh berries and a dusting of icing sugar.

The tart was devoured by neighbours with nary a comment about the pastry so it all worked out in the end. Phew. 

See you all again tomorrow with another bake for Passover Week 2025.

Bye for now,

Jillian