Recipe: Gluten-Free Nectarine and Pistachio Tart

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PIE-A-DAY # 9

Today’s recipe is another tart (sigh….), a gluten-free fruit and nut tart from Aran Goyoaga, who blogs at the stunningly beautiful Cannelle Et Vanille and whose first cookbook, Small Plates and Sweet Treats, will be released this October.

Read below for Goyoaga’s Nectarine and Pistachio Tart, and for her gluten-free and dough-docking strategies. Click here to enter YOUR delicious pie (or pies) in the 4th Annual Good Food Pie Contest on Saturday, September 8th at LACMA.

There are lots of different recipes out there for gluten-free pie dough. How do you choose your ingredients?

Before selecting the ingredients for the dough, I think about what the filling will be so I can have complimenting flavors and textures. Quinoa flour in savory tart doughs, millet is great for both savory and sweet, nut meals add a lot of texture and make the dough a bit crumblier when baked, and so on. I have a basic dough recipe that I modify for each recipe.

Are there any other fruit and nut combinations you like?

I think anything really goes when it comes to fruit and nuts. Apples with hazelnuts, strawberries and pistachios, pears, chocolate and pecans…

In your instructions for this tart’s crust, you describe docking the dough with a fork before you put it in the oven. Could you describe that more?

Once the mold has been filled with the dough and has had time to rest, it goes in the oven to prebake without the filling. This is because the filling cooks quicker than the tart dough will take to bake. I gently pierce the bottom of the tart dough with a fork so that when it bakes, air escapes, prevents bubbles in the dough and also keep helps keep its shape. We cover it with a piece of parchment and fill the mold with dry beans or pie weights. This ensures there are no air pockets and the base stays put. Then we remove the beans and parchment, add the filling and finish baking.