Tarte à la Praline

Tarte à la praline is a tart from Lyon, notable for its vivid pink filling. Crushed pralines roses are cooked with cream and poured into a baked tart shell. Pieces of almond remain in the sweet cream, contrasting with the crisp pastry.

Pralines roses are a sweet made of almonds coated in pink sugar. Besides being eaten as they are, they are crushed and used in baked goods and brioches. In Gâteau de Saint-Genix, they are scattered inside and on top of a yeast-leavened dough. In the tart, this sugar coating melts into the cream, spreading its color and sweetness throughout the filling.

In one example, the tart shell is first blind-baked and left to cool.

The pralines, cream and butter are cooked in a pan, and once the mixture thickens it is poured into the shell and chilled. Because the filling is cooked separately, a baked shell can be combined with a soft layer containing dairy.

How far the mixture is reduced and the proportions differ from one recette (the proportions of ingredients and method) to another, and these also affect how firm the finished filling is. A description by the Tsuji Culinary Institute Group also includes a method in which crushed pralines are scattered over the tart pastry and baked, so that the melted sugar coating covers the surface.

In the method of Lyon pastry chef Sébastien Bouillet, pralines are added to cream and heated, and the mixture is poured into a blind-baked shell, which is then returned to the oven for a short time. The tart is then rested in the refrigerator before being cut. Its final heating differs from a finish in which the filling is simply poured in and chilled.

In Lyon, this tart can be found at pastry shops, bakeries and the local-cuisine eateries known as bouchons.

Sweets made with red pralines are also widespread in the surrounding Savoie, but the origin of the tart itself is unclear. Some accounts link it to the chef Alain Chapel, but when and by whom it was first made has not been established.

Glossary