You know when you bite into a dessert, and that first tastes means you suddenly just want everything and everyone else to go away so you can luxuriate in every little morsel? So you can focus 100% of your attention of that perfect moment of enjoyment? That is what this Raspberry and Almond Pithivier does to you. Juicy, jammy raspberries, encased in soft almond frangipane, further encased in buttery golden pastry. I’m going to rename these ‘anti-social pies’. Hmmm, that doesn’t sound great. What about Bakewell puffs? No, not great either. Ok, I’ll have to stick with Pithiviers - which I still struggle to pronounce. It doesn’t matter though. It’s not like I need to offer one to anyone. I’ll just keep them all to myself. You may have noticed a few frangipane recipes lately. I’d been working on my Almond Croissant Twists over the past couple of weekends, and each time I looked at the leftover frangipane, I just couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. Hence the Chocolate Almond Banana Bread and these little delights. I may have gone up a notch on my belt, but at least I’m not being wasteful 🙂 I used ready-rolled, store-bought puff pastry for these, since I had some in the freezer. Simply a case of laying the pastry out, cutting out four small circles (approx. 6.5cm diameter) and four larger circles (approx. 11cm diameter). You don’t need special pastry cutters - just use what you can find around that size. I used my son’s fireman Sam glass, and a dipping bowl! Then smooth a spoonful of frangipane on top of the smaller circles (leaving a small border), top with a few raspberries that have been mixed with a little raspberry jam and cornstarch, top again with more frangipane (to cover the raspberries and prevent leakage) and top with the larger pastry circle. It will be quite a tall mound of frangipane and raspberry that you need to cover with the pastry - which is why the top pastry circle is so much bigger. Seal the edges of the pastry, and you could also crimp the edges if you wanted to. I did it by placing two fingers on the edge of the pastry, and pulling a line in using the back of a knife - like this:
Then just repeat around the whole pithivier. Brush on some egg wash, and if you wanted, you could decorate the edges with pieces of flaked almond. One almond sliver in each ‘fingerprint’. Then you need to make a little hole at the top of the pithiveir to allow steam to escape, and finally, you could gently score some curved lines to decorate the top. Totally optional. The pithiviers need about 20 minutes in the oven. After this, you can take out to cool. They taste great cold or warm and if you can’t wait for them to cool down, try pouring on some nice cold cream to cool them down a little straight from the oven…
The Raspberry and Almond Pithiviers Recipe:
Lemon Cream Cheese Puffs Almond Croissants Frangipane Mince Pies Caramel Mille Feuille Baked Churros Cherry Pastry Hearts Flaky Almond Croissant Twists
