tropical tart.

This tart has regenerated my love for tarts again. Not that I've not been loving them recently, but just because I feel that making the crusts is such a pain. My food processor is so tiny that making enough pastry for only 1 9 inch tart is possible so I can't freeze the extra for future and convenient use.

But if all tarts were like this, I'll gladly go through the fuss.

What this tart consists of is a wonderful buttery crust, kudos to Pierre Hermé, a almond-coconut frangipane filling and a pile of mangoes on top. I took these pictures on a gloomy day so pardon the lighting. I had to do a lot of photoshopping- the original ones were horrendous!

Usually, frangipane contains a ton of butter. And if baked too long, the filling ends up being dry and cake like, which I don't quite fancy. What a waste of calories if that happens! So I figured, why not use applesauce to replace some of that butter? It would keep the filling nice and moist while slashing some calories. Plus, since it's relatively neutral, the almond and coconut would be more pronounced.

I'm glad to say that this idea totally works! And I'm relieved that it did too- since the frangipane is so good I could eat a bowl of this. I thought that the coconut overwhelmed the almond a bit so I would even out the ratios if I make this again. (It's good but there are so many more recipes to try out there so I don't see myself making this again in the near future!) Another thing I did to cut the fat was to substitute half of the heavy cream for evaporated milk. I think it's safe to use all evaporated milk next time, we'll see.

Even though the recipe didn't specify for par-baking the crust, I thought it would be better to do so since I didn't want a soggy bottom, especially with a wet filling like this.

This tart is definitely a winner! Pierre never lets me down!

Another blogger has posted the recipe here. Have a look if you're interested!