Tarte aux Pralines Roses
Ingredients
- 150 g butter
- 95 g icing sugar
- 30 g almond flour
- 1 pinch vanilla powder
- 2 g salt
- 60 g eggs, at room temperature
- 250 g all-purpose flour
- 350 g pink pralines, crushed
- 350 g heavy cream (30% fat)
Pralines roses — almonds in a bright pink hard sugar shell — are the signature sweet of Lyon, and the tart is the simplest thing the city does with them: crushed pralines and heavy cream, in almost equal weight, boiled together until the mixture reaches 112°C and turns into a thick pink caramel. Poured into a blind-baked pâte sucrée shell it sets on cooling into a chewy, intensely sweet layer, and the pastry has to be genuinely crisp to stand up to it — which is why the dough rests overnight before it is rolled.
Method
Beat the softened butter until creamy, add the icing sugar and mix until homogeneous. Add the almond flour, vanilla, salt and eggs, mix briefly, then add the flour and mix just to combine. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, heat the oven to 175°C (347°F) and butter a 20 cm tart ring. Roll the dough to 2 mm, cut a circle and two long strips, line the ring with the strips, brush with water and set the circle in the base, pressing it to the sides.
Bake the shell for 15 minutes on a lined sheet, then cool and remove the ring.
Put the crushed pralines and cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly, for 7-10 minutes.
Lower the heat and keep cooking, still stirring, until the mixture reaches 112°C (233°F).
Pour the hot filling into the cooled shell and leave it at room temperature for several hours to set.
Decorate with crushed pralines and roasted almonds and serve at room temperature.
