Almond Tart Shell

This tart shell with a sugar-cookie quality, called pâte sucrée in French, is made from a combination of all-purpose flour and almond flour; the latter lends a subtle sweet, nutty flavor and creates a tender texture. Almond extract accentuates the almond notes, but feel free to omit it if you wish to keep the flavor more neutral. This very “short” dough cannot be rolled with a rolling pin; instead, we press it into the tart pan. To ensure evenly thick walls and base, we first form the sides using about a third of the dough. We then press the remainder into the bottom of the pan and smooth it with a flat-bottomed object, such as a dry-ingredient measuring cup. We typically use foil to line pie and tart shells before filling them with weights in preparation for prebaking, but multiple tries revealed that foil, even if greased, sticks to this pastry and pulls off thin layers upon removal. Kitchen parchment, crumpled up, then smoothed out (this softens the parchment so it better conforms to the shape of the tart shell), is the better liner in this instance. This pastry is a great option for fresh fruit and pastry cream tarts, chocolate fillings and our Lemon-Orange Tart.