There are those moments where I have a culinary brain child that just hits on every single level of deliciousness and nostalgia, and this pie is 1000% that kind of recipe. Almond tofu is a popular Chinese dessert, made from Chinese almond powder(made from apricot kernels – it tastes exactly like almond extract, which does not really taste like an actual almond). This almond powder is blended with a liquid to form an almond milk, and usually set with agar to form this jello-like almond tofu situation. This tofu is usually served with either a simple syrup or fruits. However, I felt like almond tofu is sorely missing one thing: texture. Almond tofu on its own can be a little springy, jello-like, and with a subtly creamy finish. But it lacks something crunchy to make it inviting for another bite. So I thought, why not use this almond tofu as a filling for a pie? And it had been a hot minute since I last made some phyllo dough, so this felt like the perfect opportunity to combine the two, and do something truly special here. And the end result? Creamy almond tofu(I say creamy because I made mine more like a blanc manger flavored with Hong Kong almond powder) contained within a buttery, flaky crust. Pair that with a fresh fruit of your choice, like how regular almond tofu is served with fruit, and you have a dessert that could be served any season of the year. In this case, to pay homage to Hong Kong almond powder being used in this recipe/that powder being made from apricot kernels, I used apricots, which added a pleasant tartness to the whole pie!

Rating this recipe on a difficulty scale is tricky for me. Mostly because it requires you to make two to three components, being the phyllo shell, the almond tofu blanc manger, and brown butter-seared apricots. Three components is honestly nothing compared to some of the other EXTREMELY complicated recipes I have out there in this blog. However, it still requires a lot of patience, technique, and temperature control. I am making my own phyllo pastry for this recipe. If you do not want to do that, use premade. I won’t judge you, but I would judge myself if I used premade phyllo, given my now-televised experience with making it from scratch. The phyllo is brushed with brown butter to emulate a toastier flavor and baked into a thin, crispy shell. To prevent the shell from going soggy, I brushed the phyllo with Almond Inspiration, which is a naturally almond-flavored chocolate made by combining cocoa butter with almond butter. It is delicious and plays beautifully off the filling of the pie, being the almond tofu blanc manger. We already talked about almond tofu, but blanc manger is a French dessert, similar to an Italian panna cotta, made by thickening cream with cornstarch, and in this case, we are also using agar. I found that by combining this thickened cream with the almond tofu mixture, the end result filling tastes like almond tofu from the usage of the Hong Kong almond powder, but has this silky, velvety texture that just melts on the tongue like a mousse or even ice cream! That filling is poured in, then the whole thing is left to set in the refrigerator. To garnish, I seared some apricots in brown butter, but what is truly beautiful about this tart is that you can use whatever fruits you want, seared in brown butter or served fresh, and they will almost always go with this tart! It is kind of set up in a similar way to a restaurant dessert, where it can be run at dinner service during all times of the year, changing out the fruit with whatever is seasonal. And knowing that makes me love this recipe all the more than I already do.

For the phyllo dough:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
4 tbsp cold water
4 tbsp unsalted butter, browned

In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, and water together until a soft dough is formed. Split the dough into 9 balls and roll each ball into a 5-inch disk. Brush the top side of 8 of the disks with the brown butter. Stack the disks so that the top layer is unbrushed with brown butter. Roll the dough stack to be roughly 12 inches in diameter and transfer the dough into a lightly brown butter-lined 9-inch pan. Prick the bottom of the dough, and place down on top of the dough and sheet of parchment and baking weights. Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes. Halfway through baking, remove the weights. Let the pie shell cool down before removing from the pan.

For initial assembly:
3oz Almond Inspiration

In a double boiler, melt 2oz of the Almond Inspiration completely in a heatproof bowl. Take the bowl of heat and stir in the rest until melted in as well. Brush the Almond Inspiration around the inside of the fully-baked tart shell. Transfer the tart shell to the freezer to allow the Almond Inspiration to fully harden first before filling it.

For the almond tofu blanc manger:
1 cup water
1/3 cup Hong Kong almond powder
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp agar agar
a pinch of salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a blender, puree all of the ingredients, minus the heavy cream and vanilla together until smooth to form your Hong Kong almond milk. Pour the liquid through a sieve into a pot and whisk on medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes; the mixture should begin to boil and thicken slightly. Pour the thickened Hong Kong almond milk into a bowl and whisk in the other ingredients to form the blanc manger base. Pour the blanc manger into the prepared tart shell and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before attempting to cut into.

For the apricots:
2 apricots, cut into wedges
1 tbsp unsalted butter, browned

In a pan, sear the apricots on low heat in the brown butter for 2-3 minutes per flesh(not peel) side – you want each side to be golden brown. Allow the apricots to cool before using to garnish the edges of the tart with.