Lemon Pistachio Tart

[Richard Kilgore]

Today I had a slice of Lemon Pistachio Tart at a local shop. Wonderful, wonderful. There was a layer of pistachio between the lemon and the pastry, but not sure how they did the pistachio layer. Anyone know of a recipe or an idea of how to do it?

[Suvir Saran]

What was the lemon like? Curd, slices, some other way??

It sounds wonderful.

Richard, I just realized I have a red colored EH pie dish. It is the smaller one, the 9 inch maybe. Certainly that dish cannot take 8 plus cups of fruit. You are correct.

[Richard Kilgore]

Yes, lemon curd over the pistachio in a rectanglar tart pan. But I could not tell what all was in the pistachio layer.

[nightscotsman]

Was the pistachio layer smooth like a cream, thick like a paste or cake, or crunchy like toasted nuts or pastry shell?

[Richard Kilgore]

I believe it was a thick paste with nuts in it, not exactly crunchy, but more so than a paste only.

[nightscotsman]

My guess is they just put down a layer of pistachio praline powder or paste before pouring in the lemon cream. To make praline powder you make a caramel and add nuts, spread out on a sheet pan to cool, then pulverize in a food processor - process less for a crunchy powder, more for a paste. You should be able to easily make your own by following a recipe for hazelnut or almond praline and substituting pistachios.

[Aurora]

NSM - is this giving you any thoughts?

RK - please describe the crust. Was it thin and crisp, somewhat thick, sugary and crumbly, more like shortbread. I'm curious.

Lemon and pistachios are two great tastes that I have never sampled together.

[rickster]

Pistachio (and hazelnut) praline paste is available from the King Arthur Flour catalogue, if you find making it yourself too challenging.

They could have used a commercial paste, which is very smooth, but blended in some chopped/crushed nuts for texture.

[Richard Kilgore]

Nightscotsman --- Thanks. I'll give it a try soon. Perhaps if I processed half of it to a paste and half a little less and then combined them it would give me what I am looking for.

Aurora --- The crust was medium thick and more like shortbread. Yes, the lemon and pistachio turn out to be a great combination.

I'll talk to the chef next time I am there. They were swamped yesterday, so I did not at the time.

[PastryLady]

Could be a frangipain. This is a very soft dough with pastry cream incorporated and nuts. Ours usually is an almond frangi.

[Richard Kilgore]

rickster --- thanks for pointing that out. How much taste difference is there between the prepared paste and doing it myself?

[Richard Kilgore]

A correction - the lemon appears to be lemon cream rather than a lemon curd.

[rickster]

rickster --- thanks for pointing that out. How much taste difference is there between the prepared paste and doing it myself?

Sorry, can't help you there. I've only used the prepared paste. I've tried making hazelnut paste in a processor in the past and not had much success, because I think the nuts you usually get at retail are not fresh enough (or I stored them in the freezer too long) and the moisture content is too low, so I turned to prepared hazelnut praline and then tried the pistachio one. The pistachio paste is very smooth without any chunks or pieces of nuts. I used it to make a pistachio-chocolate ganache to fill chocolates with, so the application is a bit different from what you want to use it for.

Edited August 19, 2003 by rickster (log)

[Richard Kilgore]

Can someone please refer me to a shortbread recipie to use for the crust on this?