Mirlitons de Paris
A few years ago, when working on my book Week.End.Eats Baking, I searched for French recipes with puff pastry (la pâte feuilletée). Something apart from palmiers, Galette des rois, Parisian flan or chaussons aux pommes. I wished for something more when I found a recipe for Mirlitons - puff pastry filled with apricot jam and almond cream. A true gem easy to make.
A few days ago, with some leftover puff pastry, I looked again for ways to turn it into something more memorable, and I found something. Something surprising is that in the book of 1958, there were not one but five versions of this delight. I changed some things, adding caramelised butter and more almonds to make it more marzipan-like, yet the idea is the same - puff pastry filled with cream and jam and topped with almond flakes, with the addition of the butter to the cream.
12 pieces
1/2 portion of my puff pastry or simple puff pastry
filling:
60 g almond flour
60 g powdered golden caster sugar*
2 medium eggs, room temperature
10 ml Grand Marnier or another orange liquor
pinch of sea salt
pinch of vanilla powder
25 g melted or, even better, caramelised butter
12 tsp apricot jam (I love it also with my cardamom plum jam)
handful of flaked almonds
Heat the oven 180° C hot. Use either a muffin pan or 12 other small tart pans.
Roll out the dough and press out rounds. If made in a classic muffin pan, they are around 9 cm in diameter. If using bigger tart pans, then make them bigger. Place the pastry in the prepared pan and prick with a fork. Put in the freezer or fridge while making the filling.
In a bowl, mix almonds, sugar, eggs, liquor, salt, and vanilla with a hand whisk. Add butter and mix again.
Take out the pan, fill it with almond cream and place 1 tsp of jam on top of the filling. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake in the oven, one rack below the middle, for 20 minutes until golden. Take out and cool until possible to handle. Carefully take out and serve either warm or cold.
* Or white sugar, but the golden caster gives another depth
