Orange and Brandy Pithivier

By Denise Phillips


This is a delicious French sweet puff pastry round tart that is filled with orange brandy custard. It is the speciality of Pithiviers, a French town in the middle of the Orleans region.

Traditionally made with scalloped edges, it can be filled with either a sweet or savoury filling. I first made this at cookery school when we were learning how to make puff pastry; this recipe uses the ready-made version, making it a lot quicker and easier to make. You can either make one large tart or little individual ones – so long as the base is slightly smaller than the top layer and you leave a border of 1cm / ˝ inch all around to encase the filling.

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Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 - 25 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients
500g ready rolled puff pastry
25g margarine
100g caster sugar
100g ground almonds
1 tablespoon brandy
2 oranges, peeled and cut into segments
1 egg white, beaten
25g icing sugar

Garnish: 100g physalis or cape gooseberries
Dusting of icing sugar

Method
1) Line 2 baking trays with baking parchment paper.
2) Unroll the pastry and using a template (saucepan lid or cutter), cut out 4 12.5cm / 5 inch rounds and 4 12cm/ 4 inch rounds. Cover and chill in the fridge.
3) Preheat the oven to 220C/ 425F/ Gas mark 7.
4) Beat together the margarine, sugar, almonds and brandy. Remove the skin and pith of the oranges and cut into segments.
5) Take 4 of the smaller pastry rounds and divide the almond mixture between them, leaving a 1 cm/ ˝ inch border of pastry all around. Lay 3 or 4 segments of orange across each heap of almond mixture.
6) Using the back of the knife, make 7 crescent-shaped cuts, radiating out from the centre, in the remaining pastry rounds.
7) Brush the pastry borders with egg white, top with pastry rounds and press edges together firmly to seal. Pull edges up and flute. Brush tops with the remaining egg white and dredge with some icing sugar.
8) Bake for 20-25 minutes or until well risen and golden.

To serve the stylish way: Dust the plate with icing sugar and serve with some physalis.