Frangipane Bars Recipes

Steps:

• Make the tart dough: Combine flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Work in butter thoroughly. Stir in egg yolk mixture and knead briefly until dough is smooth, then form into a flat disk.
• Roll dough to a large circle and lay it in a 10-inch/23-centimeter fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press in well (patch any cracks with extra dough). Refrigerate or freeze for 1 hour.
• Heat oven to 425 degrees. Blind bake tart shell until lightly browned, about 15 minutes. (You do not need to cover the shell or use pie weights.)
• Meanwhile, make the filling: Put almonds, flour and sugar in work bowl of food processor and grind to a rough powder. Add butter and pulse until well incorporated. Add eggs and almond extract and process until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. (Alternatively, use ground almonds and make batter with a mixer instead.)
• Pour almond batter into prebaked shell and smooth with a spatula. Press cherries into batter in a single layer. Sprinkle with a handful of sliced almonds. Lower oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake until golden, 30 to 40 minutes. (An inserted skewer should come out clean.) Cool on a rack and remove outer rim of tart pan. Place tart on a serving dish and dust with confectioners' sugar.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Place 1 piece of puff pastry on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Lightly moisten one of the short edges with water. Connect the end of the other puff pastry to the moistened edge. Press pieces together to form a long rectangle, trimming off loose ends with a dough scraper as needed.
• Cut the third puff pastry piece lengthwise into 1-inch strips. Moisten the outer edges of the long rectangle with your finger; stick the pastry strips on top. Poke shallow holes all over the bottom of the dough using a fork. Do not prick the raised border.
• Bake pastry shell in the preheated oven until it starts to turn golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Readjust the borders and push the bottom down with the flat side of a fork. Let cool completely while preparing the filling.
• Place butter and 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar in a bowl; smear together using a spatula until combined. Whisk in egg until mixture is creamy. Add almond flour, salt, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix thoroughly. Cut each pluot into 6 wedges. Fill pastry shell with the almond paste. Stick the pluots snugly, but not too deeply, into the filling.
• Bake in the preheated oven until browned and almond filling is set, 30 to 40 minutes. Transfer tart onto a wire rack and let cool completely, at least 40 minutes.
• Combine apricot jam and water in a microwave-safe bowl. Bring to a boil in the microwave. Let cool until warm. Brush glaze over the cooled tart.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350*. Lightly butter a 15x10x1" baking pan.
• TO MAKE THE CRUST:.
• In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Ad the butter and shortening and using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle with 1 tbls of ice water and toss with a fork until the mixture begins to pull together as a dough.
• Gather into a ball and place on a lightly floured work surface.
• Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the dough into a rectangle large enough to cover the bottom and reach up 1/4 of the way up sides of pan. (trim as needed).
• The crust will shrink slightly after it is prebaked. Fit the dough into the pan and press into place.
• Bake the crust for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.
• Cool on a wire rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 350*.
• If the cherry or strawberry preserves are especially lumpy, puree them briefly in a food processor until smooth. Spread in a thin layer over the cooled crust.
• TO MAKE THE TOPPING:.
• in a large bowl, beat the sugar, almond paste and butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Beat in the flour, the vanilla dn almond extracts and salt until smooth.
• Spoon the topping over the cherry preserves, using a small spatula to spread it inot an even layer.
• Bake for 30 minutes, or until lightly browned.(the frangipan will be browned on edges and slightly soft in the center).
• Cool thoroughly (the center will firm when cooled) on a wire rack before cutting into bars.
• Cut 7 acoss and 7 down.