La croustade dessert traditionnelle

This morning I went round to a friend's house to take pictures of the ingredients of the traditional tart made for the winter festivities, to illustrate the recipe which will appear in Lo Rajolet, our bilingual Occitan/French newsletter.

Simone explained that her mother used to make two of these enormous croustades, each one in this dish more than 50cm across, so large that they had to be taken to the boulangerie to be baked. The pastry is made with flour, butter and eggs, and the filling from pounded almonds and walnuts mixed with lemon zest and a cup of very strong coffee, the beans ground in the mill in the picture. The nuts were gathered in the countryside, and there had to be enough for a filling at least a centimetre deep. There were so many relatives staying or visiting for the fêtes that even these huge treats soon vanished.

Nowadays something similar to these croustades are made by the boulangerie for La fête des Rois (Epiphany) on 6th January.