Portuguese Caramelised Almond Tart

Portuguese Carmelised Almond Tart
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Recipe extracted, with permission, from Repertoire by Alice Hart

This is not so much a tart as an upside-down caramel almond cake. You’ll find many of these almond tarts in Portugal, but they can vary enormously and, upon asking in the kitchens of restaurants serving good ones, I found the chefs’ recipes to be … elusive. This is an amalgamation and imagination of every excellent version I’ve tried, balanced with salt to counter the caramel. You’ll need to track down ‘nibbed’ or slivered almonds: blanched almonds that have been cut into tiny match-stick shapes. Find them online or in health food stores.

Portuguese Carmelised Almond TartServes 8 | Preparation time: 15 minutes | Cooking time: 45–50 minutes

Ingredients

For the salted caramel layer

  • 75g (21⁄2oz) slightly salted butter
  • 75g (21⁄2oz/1/3 cup) unrefined caster (superfine) sugar
  • 5 tbsp double (heavy) cream
  • 1 vanilla pod (bean), split open and seeds scraped out
  • a pinch of sea salt flakes

For the caramel almond layer

  • 150g (5oz/2/3 cup) unrefined caster (superfine) sugar
  • 100g (31⁄2oz) slightly salted butter
  • 100ml (31⁄2fl oz/scant 1⁄2 cup) whole milk
  • 200g (7oz/heaped 11/4 cups) nibbed almonds

For the sponge layer

  • 120g (4oz) slightly salted butter, softened
  • 120g (4oz/heaped 1⁄2 cup) unrefined caster (superfine) sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 100g (31⁄2oz/heaped 3⁄4 cup) self-raising flour
  • 20g (3⁄4oz/scant 1/4 cup) ground almonds
  • 2 tbsp whole milk
  • 1 tbsp icing (confectioners’) sugar, sifted
  • vanilla ice cream or crème fraîche, to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C fan (180°C/350°F/gas 4). Butter the insides of a deep 25cm (10in) round cake tin with a removable base. Line the base and sides with non-stick baking parchment.

To make the salted caramel layer, put the sugar in a heavy-based pan and set over a low heat. Swirl the pan as the sugar begins to melt and turn golden, ensuring the syrup colours evenly. Once the caramel is a uniform amber colour, add the butter, cream, scraped vanilla seeds and scrunched salt, stirring to melt the butter and make a smooth caramel. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Preferably using an electric mixer or hand-held beaters, beat the softened butter and sugar together for 2 minutes until thick and fluffy. Add the eggs while still beating, one by one, and continue to beat for a further minute, then add the flour and ground almonds, beating on a low speed just until combined. Add the milk and combine briefly, then spoon a scant three-quarters of the mixture into the tin. Spread with the salted caramel – in reality this will mean covering as much of the surface as possible with half- teaspoonfuls of caramel and smoothing these out a little. Cover the caramel with the remaining cake batter, smoothing the top so that no caramel shows through.

Bake for about 20 minutes until risen and golden. A skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should come out with no wet batter sticking to it.

Meanwhile, make the almond topping so it’s ready to go by the time the cake is cooked. Place the sugar, butter and milk in a saucepan over a gentle heat, stirring until the butter melts. Turn up the heat to medium–high and continue to cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until boiling and like pale, molten toffee in colour and consistency. Stir in the almonds and remove from the from heat.

Pour the hot almond mixture over the cooked cake, using a spatula to spread the almonds out to cover the top evenly. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the almond caramel is dark golden at the edges. Leave to sit for 20 minutes to firm up, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack, almond-side up. Dust lightly with icing sugar and serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream or crème fraîche.