St. Martin’s Tart

The St. Martin’s Croissant Tart is a pastry inspired by St. Martin’s delicacy. It is much quicker and easier to prepare and tastes exactly like the filling from St. Martin’s Croissants. Instead of semi-French pastry, there is a crust made of biscuits. You can also prepare the crust with classic shortcrust pastry. This is a recipe that every St. Martin’s croissant lover must try! You don’t need a meat grinder!
If you want to prepare traditional croissants then check out my recipe for St. Martin’s Croissants.
Recipe modifications:
- Biscuits: you can use any biscuits or cookies to prepare the base, I use Digestive biscuits. They are made from wholemeal flour, which gives them a characteristic structure and has more fiber. They have a sweet and salty taste, which distinguishes them from classic biscuits. Although the cookies are slightly salty, I still add a pinch of salt to them to emphasize the sweet taste of the tart.
- Dried fruit: if you are not a fan of dried fruit, you can skip them, but they are ground so you don’t feel them as much in the tart (confirmed by a family raisin hater 😉).
- Poppy seeds: I found various opinions on the Internet about whether white poppy seeds can be replaced with blue ones and what the differences are. In my opinion, white poppy seeds cannot be replaced. If you use blue poppy seeds, you will get a tart like Christmas Poppy Seeds Cake and it will not resemble the St. Martin’s Croissants in any way.
- You can replace honey with sugar or plant-based syrups.
- You can use plant-based milk or lactose-free milk to cook the poppy seeds. You can also use water.
- You can grind the almonds yourself and cook them with the mass. With or without the skin.
How to make poppy seed mass for St. Martin’s croissants?
You don’t need a meat grinder to prepare the mass for the tart. In this recipe, I show you how to grind dry poppy seeds using a blender. You cook the ground poppy seeds with dried fruit and then combine them with the rest of the ingredients and that’s it! The filling does not need to be cooled as in the case of croissants. It may be loose when poured onto the crust. However, it is important that the poppy seeds are cooled before mixing with the eggs, otherwise the eggs will curdle and there will be lumps in the mass.
Tip:
If you are using a tart pan with a movable bottom, place it on a baking tray from the oven equipment during baking, because the butter will melt during baking and may flow out of the pan.
The diameter of the tart is 26 cm. The proportions given below make about 10 portions weighing about 140 g. Read the step-by-step recipe on how to prepare the Tart à la St. Martin’s Croissants and watch the video below the recipe.
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Tart à la St. Martin’s Croissants
St. Martin’s Tart Recipe
Ingredients
Crust
- 250 g digestive biscuits
- 100 g butter (melted)
- salt
Poppy seed filing
- 150 g dry white poppy seeds
- 370 ml milk
- 50 g raisins
- 50 g dried apricots
- 50 g walnuts
- 75 g ground almonds
- 50 g powdered sugar
- ½ cup honey
- 2 eggs
- 25 g butter
- 1 tbsp almond flavour sugar (or a few drops of flavoring)
- 1 shot rum (ok. 30 g)
Instructions
Crust
- Grind the biscuits in a food processor. Melt the butter. Mix the ground biscuits with the salt. Then add the melted butter and mix. Transfer the biscuits with butter to a tart pan and carefully line the bottom and sides of the tart. You can line the bottom of the pan with baking paper to make it easier to remove the tart from the pan after baking. Place the crust in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. Bake the cooled crust for 5 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 °C (356 °F). Then set aside for a few minutes to let the crust cool down.250 g digestive biscuits, 100 g butter, salt
Poppy seed filing
- Grind dry poppy seeds in a food processor for about 3 minutes. Pour the ground poppy seeds into a bowl. Then grind walnuts, raisins and apricots in a food processor. A few seconds is enough. Add the ground poppy seeds and turn on the food processor for a few seconds to thoroughly mix the poppy seeds with dried fruit.150 g dry white poppy seeds, 50 g raisins, 50 g dried apricots, 50 g walnuts
- Boil the milk in a pot. Add the poppy seeds and dried fruit to the hot milk. Cook for 50 minutes on very low heat, stirring occasionally. Cook covered because bubbles form during cooking and the poppy seeds may splatter. Finally, add the butter and stir until melted. Uncover the cooked poppy seeds and leave to cool.370 ml milk, 25 g butter
- When the poppy seeds have cooled, transfer them to the mixer bowl. Add the ground almonds, sugar, honey, flavoring, and rum. Start mixing at low speed. Add the eggs one by one. Mix the mass thoroughly.75 g ground almonds, 50 g powdered sugar, ½ cup honey, 2 eggs, 1 tbsp almond flavour sugar, 1 shot rum
- Pour the mixed poppy seed mixture onto the cooled crust. Place in the oven preheated to 180 °C (356 °F) and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the baked pie from the oven and leave to cool. Wrap the cooled cake tightly in foil and place in the fridge for a few hours so that the filling is definitely well set. Only cut the cake after it has been well cooled. Enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet