100% hazelnut tart by Marta Martin

We again welcome Marta Martín, a young pastry chef who already visited the pages of so good.. magazine three editions ago. And we find her with a new project on her hands, under the command of the also young professional Lluc Crusellas. Both are part of the workshop team of a small bakery in the town of Vic (Barcelona, Spain) called El Carme Pastisseria.

Lluc and Marta are good exponents of a generation of well-trained pastry chefs, with proven experience despite their youth and proud to belong to a special, different trade. They both had the chance to direct their steps towards the always more attractive and media-acclaimed savory cuisine, but they were caught by a discipline that combines rigor and accuracy with an artistic and creative side. This is, without a doubt, the most professional generation in history.

And since the best way to demonstrate an idea is with facts and practice, at so good #24 they present three creations, being sufficiently respectful of tradition, selective enough in terms of the quality of ingredients, and original enough to demonstrate a particular style, are good examples of all this.

‘The objective was to create a dessert 100% based on hazelnut and that really reflected the peculiar flavor of this nut. That is why we enhanced this flavor both with the filling of the tart (frangipane), and with the praliné enriched with pure hazelnut paste. And of course, with the caramelized hazelnuts that cover the entire surface’. Marta Martín.

Photos by Ivan Raga

100% Hazelnut

Almond pâte sablé

228 g butter
174 g confectioners’ sugar
78 g almond flour
360 g cake flour
48 g bread flour
3 g salt
84 g eggs

Combine all the ingredients, being careful not to overmix, just until the butter is fully incorporated. Roll out to 2.5 mm thick and line 16-cm tart molds. Blind bake at 160ºC for approximately 5 minutes.

Hazelnut frangipane

250 g butter
250 g confectioners’ sugar
250 g hazelnut powder
150 g eggs
30 g cornstarch

Cream the butter and gradually beat in the eggs at room temperature. Add the sifted dry ingredients. Pipe onto the pre-baked tart and continue to bake at 160ºC for an additional 7 minutes.

Creamy caramel

300 g sugar
100 g milk
30 g cornstarch
300 g cream, 35% fat
25 g liquid glucose DE 44
1 u vanilla bean
5 g salt
100 g butter

Dry caramelize the sugar. Infuse the vanilla in the cream along with the glucose and salt. Pour over the milk, previously mixed with the corns- tarch. Once the caramel is ready, deglaze with the liquid. At 45ºC, add the butter and reserve in the refrigerator.

Caramelized hazelnuts

45 g water
15 g invert sugar
145 g sugar
0,2 g citric acid
600 g hazelnuts

Combine all the ingredients, except for the hazelnuts, pla- ce over the heat and bring to a boil. Leave to cool down to room temperature. Mix with the hazelnuts and cook in the oven at 160ºC for approximately 20 minutes with no humidity. Allow to cool.

Enriched Héritage praliné

250 g Héritage hazelnut praliné
100 g pure hazelnut paste

Crush the caramelized hazelnuts with the robot coupe. Mix and reserve.

Montage

Once the tarts have been baked with the frangipane, pipe the praliné and caramel. Sprinkle the halved hazelnuts all over the tart, covering both the sides and the center. Place a 14-cm-wide milk chocolate plaquette on top, spray with dark chocolate and heat with the help of a hot-air gun so as the chocolate is molded to the hazelnuts on the surface.