Fig and Frangipane tart the healthy way

This Fig and frangipane tart is the ultimate way to turn beautiful seasonal figs into a masterpiece.

What is Frangipane?

It is a filling made from or flavoured with almonds ’’Frangipane Italian pronunciation: [ˌfrandʒiˈpaːne] is derived from frangere il pane (Italian for “that breaks the bread”). It is normally made of butter, sugar, eggs, and ground almonds.

But I have adapted the recipe and made it more nutrient dense by using nut butter, coconut oil, coconut sugar and eggs.

Make this tart quick before figs are out of season. Figs are lusciously sweet, but my favourite part of figs are the beautiful colour palette that can instantly lift a salad or dessert to a whole new level.

This was one of my first recipes I experimented with gluten free flours and no refined sugar. Since then I have made many gluten free pancakes, cakes, scones and muffins.

I do have a wheat and gluten intolerance and I try to rather avoid baked goods and only bake occasionally. I am all for balance and variety and a lot of gluten-free products on the market is very high in sugar and very refined. So read your labels and rather bake a treat yourself once in a while with good quality ingredients then to fill your pantry with what you think is a healthy food choice.

If you want to experiment with gluten free baking, don’t over complicate it. If a recipe requires three or four different gluten free flours it often result in me not making it because I rarely have all three in my pantry at once. My favourite gluten free flours are Health riots, Cassava flour,  tapioca, coconut flour and ground almonds and most of the time I will use two of them together to replace the many functions of gluten. In this recipe I am only using ground almonds for the frangipane filling because there is no need for it to rise.

When baking without wheat you are also not baking with gluten. For a lot of people gluten is the ‘devil’ when it comes to their digestive tract but in baking it is the angel because of it’s amazing elasticity, it gives structure to baked goods and helps wheat flour morph into many different foods. When not baking with wheat use xantham gum or psyllium husk to replace the function of gluten. I still need someone to invent a gluten-free croissant that tastes like the real deal. But for the rest, there are great palatable options.

This Frangipane tart is a hybrid of at least three recipes combined to becoming a healthy nutrient dense tart which I may add is child approved because mine had at least two slices. It did not take long to make but I would recommend using a strong food processor.

Frangipane tart

• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 10 portions 1x

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Ingredients

Base

• 2 cups Any nuts ((I used a mix of macadamia and cashew nuts))
• 1 cup Dates
• 1 tsp Vanilla powder

Frangipane filling

• 1/4 cup Coconut oil
• 1/4 cup Almond butter
• 2 Eggs
• 1 cup Ground almonds
• 2 tbs Coconut sugar (or to taste)
• Zest of 1 orange
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• Pinch of Himalayan sea salt
• 2–3 tbs Date jam (see notes)

Decorations

• Fresh figs
• Raspberries
• Mint
• Flaked Almonds

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Instructions

Base

1. Preheat oven to 180°.
   Place nuts in the food processor and blitz until crumbly. Add vanilla powder and one date at a time and mix until you get a crumbly mixture.
   If for some reason it is to sticky just add more grounded nuts until you get a pastry like consistency.
   Press the ‘pastry’ into a round loose bottom tin (20cm in diameter) 

Frangipane filling

1. Crack two eggs in a mixing bowl and add the coconut oil and nutbutter. Mix until smooth.

   Now add the ground almonds, coconut sugar, orange zest, salt and vanilla. Stir through until smooth.
   Spread the date jam over the nut base and spread the frangipane filling on top of that.

Decoration

1. Decorate with fresh figs and flaked almonds, bake for 20 minutes in the oven and serve with fresh berries

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Notes

*Date jam

Boil 200g of dates in hot water until soft.

Drain all water and add 5 ml vanilla extract, now blend until you get a paste like texture.

Spread 2 -3tbs of jam on the base of the tart.

Keep the rest of the jam in a jar in the fridge.

Use on toast, in porridge and in smoothies when you want to add a hint of sweetness.

Photo credit: Marsel Roothman http://www.marselroothman.com/blog/