I have been experimenting lately with alternative flours, including Teff, an ancient grain that originated from Ethiopia in Africa. Teff is packed with fiber and iron, and is also gluten-free.
Because the flour is gluten-free, the dough is perfectly suited for a thin tart base that is held together with some added egg. Lemon zest is added to the dough, in addition to some ground almond flour, olive oil, sugar, and butter. The added fats provide some pliability to the dough when you are rolling it out, and they also add some flavor.
In this recipe, I have added blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries in the layers between the crisps with some simple homemade whipped cream, but you can add whatever you like.
The following recipe makes roughly four stacked dessert towers.
Berry Layered Tart with Almonds
I have been experimenting lately with alternative flours, including Teff, an ancient grain that originated from Ethiopia in Africa. Teff is packed with fiber and iron, and is also gluten-free.Because the flour is gluten-free, the dough is perfectly suited for a thin tart base that is held together with some added egg. Lemon zest is added to the dough, in addition to some ground almond flour, olive oil, sugar, and butter. The added fats provide some pliability to the dough when you are rolling it out, and they also add some flavor.In this recipe, I have added blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries in the layers between the crisps with some simple homemade whipped cream, but you can add whatever you like.The following recipe makes roughly four stacked dessert towers.
Ingredients
- 25 grams olive oil
- 25 grams butter (melted)
- 50 grams white granulated sugar
- ½ tsp 2 grams ground ginger
- ¼ tsp 1 gram ground cinnamon
- A tiny pinch of ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp 5 grams vanilla extract
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 30 grams egg (less than 1 egg, whisked together)
- 100 grams Teff flour
- 30 grams ground almond flour
- 6 strawberries (ends removed)
- 40 raspberries
- 12 blackberries (cut in half)
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tsp white granulated sugar
- 10 grains (a very small pinch of Kosher salt)
- 1 mint leaf (very finely sliced)
- 3 Tbsp slivered almonds (as garnish)
- A drizzle of honey (as garnish)
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, combine the olive oil, melted butter, white granulated sugar, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, vanilla extract, lemon zest, and part of one egg.
- Add the Teff flour and ground almond flour until the flours are fully incorporated with the remaining ingredients.
- Preheat the oven to 375˚F.
- Roll the dough out on parchment paper into a thin sheet, roughly 1/8 of an inch thick, or even thinner.
- *I like to use two pieces of parchment paper to do this, essentially rolling the dough between the two pieces of parchment. Be wary here, as the dough is very delicate when it is rolled-out.
- Cut the dough into circles using a small circular ring mold.
- Carefully remove the excess dough, which you can roll-out again and cut more tart circles to bake.
- When all of your tart dough discs are ready to go, bake the circles of tart dough in the oven at 375˚F for roughly twelve minutes, or until they are golden-brown in color.
- Remove the cooked discs of dough from the oven, and allow them to cool at room temperature.
- Cut the ends off the strawberries, cut the berries into thin slices, and set them aside.
- Wash and drain the raspberries and blackberries, and cut the blackberries in half.
- Set the cleaned and prepared berries aside.
- In a mixing bowl, use an electric hand mixer or stand mixer with the whisk attachment to whisk together the heavy whipping cream with the white granulated sugar, along with a few grains of Kosher salt.
- Whisk the heavy cream until soft peaks form, and set aside in the fridge for when you are ready to assemble your dessert.
- When you are ready for dessert assembly, add the tart base, followed by some whipped cream, fresh berries, and another tart crisp.
- Repeat until you have roughly three or four layers, depending on how large you would like your dessert to be.
- Garnish the top with the remaining berries, sliced mint, sliced almonds, and a drizzle of honey on top.
Notes
You can make the tart crisps in advance, and store them in an airtight container with some paper towels. When you are ready to assemble, simply stack up the ingredients, layer by layer. Melted or Microplaned dark chocolate would be fun to add here as a garnish at the end as well.
This recipe yields a bit of extra whipped cream, you can save it for ice cream.