Dates and Almond Tart

Difficulty Level: Average.

Total Cooking Time: 50 minutes

Cuisine: Greek, Greece, European, Mediterranean.  

Ingredients:

For the Crust

Refined flour (maida) - 2 cups

Butter - 50 gm

Egg - 1 no

For the Filling

Unsalted butter - 50 gm

Castor sugar - 7 tbsp

Egg (beaten) - 1 no

Flour - 2 tbsp

Almonds (ground) - 1 cup

Orange essence - 1 tsp

Jam or Plum sauce - 4 tbsp

Dates (halved and stoned) - 8 nos

Apricots (dried) - 8 nos

Methods:

=> Sift together the flour and icing sugar and mix in the butter working with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

=> Add egg and 1 tbsp water and work to a rim dough that leaves the bowl clean. Use this dough to roll out the pastry on a floured surface and use roll-out to fit a baking dish which you will use for the pie.

=> The pastry should be larger than the baking dish, so that it covers the sides completely. Prick the base with a fork and then chill until needed.

=> Now to prepare the chilling, cream together the butter and castor until light. Beat in the egg and then stir in the almonds, flour, and essence and mix well.

=> Spread this mixture over the base of the pastry case evenly. Arrange the dates and apricots, cut side down on the almond mixture.

=> Bake in a preheated oven at 180^O for 10-15 minutes. Now after reducing the heat bake further for 10-15 minutes until light golden and set.

=> Transfer the tart to a rack to cool. Gently heat the plum sauce jam then press through a sieve. Brush the tart with sauce and serve.