Almond Tarts

These are based on a recipe from King Arthur Baking. I made four 4-inch tarts (in my hamburger bun pan) rather than 6, so the amounts here are scaled to reflect the smaller size. I also added some seedless raspberry jam underneath the filling, and omitted glaze.

Ingredients

Crust

  • 53g granulated sugar
  • 75g unsalted butter softened
  • scant ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ⅔ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • ⅓ teaspoon almond extract
  • 120g all-purpose flour
  • 48g almond flour

Filling

  • 38g unsalted butter softened
  • scant ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 100g granulated sugar
  • 9g all-purpose flour
  • ⅔ teaspoon almond extract
  • ⅔ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 80g almond flour

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  2. To make the crust: Beat together the sugar, butter, salt, and extracts.
  3. Add the flours, stirring to make crumbs that cling together when squeezed.
  4. Press the crumbs into the bottom and up the sides of six 4½” mini tart pans; prick them all over with a fork.
  5. Freeze the crusts for 15 minutes, then bake them until they’re just beginning to brown on the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool while you make the filling.
  6. To make the filling: Beat together the butter, salt, sugar, flour, and extracts.
  7. Beat in the eggs, then add the almond flour, stirring just to combine. Spread the filling into the crusts.
  8. Bake the tarts for 18 to 24 minutes, until their tops are lightly browned. Remove from the oven, and cool in the pans.

Notes

31 October 2023: As mentioned above, I made four tarts in a hamburger bun pan (quantities above are for 4 tarts). Due to what I had on hand, I used salted butter for the crust (omitting the salt), and unsalted butter (plus salt) for the filling. I baked them on rack 3 for 12 minutes to brown the crusts, and then baked for 20 minutes after filling them. I spread a thin layer of seedless raspberry jam underneath the filling. I topped two of the tarts with slivered almonds, and two with chopped almonds.

16 November 2023: Today I made the same amount as above, but made it into 10 tartlets (using the Wilton mini-tart pan). The crust came out to 29 grams per tartlet. Even with a tart tamper, it was challenging to press the crusts evenly into the tartlet wells. It often stuck. Next time I will try putting a cupcake liner inside and pressing the tamper on that instead. It helped somewhat (on this warm morning) to keep the crust in the refrigerator while I was working on forming each shell. Once formed, I froze the crusts for 15 minutes, as usual, and blind-baked them for 11 minutes on rack 3. This turned out fine, although 10 minutes probably would have been enough. Once filled, I baked them for 17 minutes. For half of the tartlets, I put a teaspoon of raspberry jam underneath the filling; I used apricot for the other half. I indicated the filling with different nuts on top (chopped almonds for raspberry, slivered almonds for apricot).

11 May 2025: I made the mini-tarts again today. I made them basically like last time, although this time it was cooler in the kitchen and the crust did not need to be refrigerated while forming each shell. I used 29 grams of crust crumbs in each well, like last time, and I found it easiest to measure out the amount (by keeping the mixing bowl on the scale and subtracting 29 grams each time), filling the well with the crumbs, covering it with a small piece of plastic wrap, and using the tart tamper—first with the smaller side, and then the larger side—to push the crumbs into place and form them up the sides of the tart wells. It is still a tricky and fussy process, but it will eventually work out. A few times I needed to dampen my fingers and press here and there to straighten them up a bit. I docked the bottoms of each shell, and then froze for 15 minutes as directed. Baked them for 10 minutes on rack 3, which was perfect. I let them cool a bit while getting the filling ingredients ready, and then placed raspberry jam into each shell, about a rounded teaspoonful. (Use plenty!) Then I mixed up the filling (notice that the almond flour is mixed in last, not with the bulk of the ingredients), and filled each shell to the top using a tablespoon. There was some filling left over, but I didn’t want to overdo it, and this seemed like the perfect amount. I topped each one with a generous sprinkling of chopped almonds, and baked for 18 minutes on rack 3. (They were still looking a bit moist on top at 17 minutes.). I let them cool in the pan almost completely before taking them out. It worked well to put some slight pressure with a fingernail on the spot where the filling meets the crust, and tip them out of the wells. They all lifted out easily this way and nothing stuck.