Saveur Magazine's Torta Pisticcina, Chestnut Flour Tart
/Hello? How excited was I to find a recipe that uses chestnut flour? I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that I'd heard of such a flour, but I had forgotten about it.
Well, Saveur magazine reminded me of it in their May 2012 issue. Their article on Corsica was lovely and filled with a bunch of interesting recipes. I was pleased to find the Torta Pisticcina recipe so that I could add another gluten-free dessert to my repertoire.
I used unflavored almond milk instead of regular milk, which I figured was fine, since the recipe includes both blanched and slivered almonds in it. There were a few things I did do wrong, which made the tart turn out not exactly right, but still pretty good.
Two mistakes, which I hope you won't make: salted butter and a cake pan that was two small. Using salted butter instead of unsalted made the tart too salty. This is the second time this week that I've made that error. I've got to get some unsalted butter in my freezer. And, I also used an eight inch cake pan instead of the ten inch that the recipe calls for, making the middle of the tart too soft.
Even with these missteps, the tart was really tasty. The perfectly made one will make for a great mid-morning snack with a cup of tea.
Torta Pisticcina/ Chestnut Flour Tart
Ingredients:
- 12 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted, with more for greasing the pan
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup milk (I used almond milk here)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- Zest of 1/2 orange
- 2 cups chestnut flour
- 1/2 cup whole blanched almonds
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
Method:
- Heat oven to 375 degrees.
- Grease a 10" cake pan, set aside.
- Whisk butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, salt, and zest in a bowl.
- Add flour and whole almonds; stir until smooth.
- Pour batter into pan; sprinkle with sliced almonds.
- Bake until browned and set, about 25 minutes.
