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Tourment d’amour (Love's Torment)

Tourment d’amour (Love's Torment) is a traditional Guadeloupean recipe for a classic tart of a shortcrust pastry based topped with coconut jam and finished with genoise sponge. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Guadeloupean version of: Love's Torment (Tourment d’amour).

prep time

25 minutes

cook time

20 minutes

Total Time:

45 minutes

Additional Time:

(+20 minutes chilling)

Makes:

6

Rating:

Tags : Vegetarian RecipesDessert RecipesBaking RecipesGuadeloupe Recipes

The place to enjoy the original and best is in on two-square-mile Terre-de-Haut, one of two Guadeloupe islands known as Les Saintes. The coconut jam filling is probably the most well known, but they are also sold with guava jam, banana jam and pineapple jam fillings.

As the story goes, Caroline (a young girl from Terre-de-Haut, one of the five islands in the archipelago of Guadeloupe) and Freminville (a visiting ship’s captain) fell in love. But in the middle of their courtship, Freminville was given orders to leave immediately on an overseas mission. Unable to see her before he set sail, Freminville left Caroline a letter telling her the date he’d be back.

On the appointed day, Caroline baked a special dessert to celebrate his return. But the captain was delayed, and when days passed with no sign of her lover the distraught young girl took her own life. When Freminville finally did get back he found Caroline dead in her house, the pastry she’d lovingly baked for him still sitting on the table, now hard and stale. Legend has it that ever since then the women of Terre-de-Haut have made the dessert (which became known as Tourment d’Amour in honor of the tragic couple) when their husbands go off to sea, praying that they’ll return safely and in time to eat it while its still moist and fresh.

The Tourment d’amour is a tart of a pastry base, jam filling with a topping of genoise sponge. The recipe below lets you bake them at home.

Ingredients:

1 batch Pâte Brisée
coconut jam

For the genoise sponge:
120g Plain flour, sifted
120g Caster sugar
40g Butter, melted and cooled
4 large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Method:

Prepare the pâte brisée according to the recipe and chill in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

After this time, roll out the pastry and use to line the bases of 6 medium-sized loose-bottomed metal tart tins. Trim the pastry flush with the rim of the tart tin.

Prick the pastry with a fork then spread the coconut jam quite thickly over the base.

For the genoise sponge mix: Set up a bain-marie: Place a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water). Crack the eggs into the bowl and add the caster sugar. Using an electric whisk, beat the eggs and sugar continuously over the heat for about 5-7 minutes, until the mixture is pale, thick, and has tripled in volume.

Once the egg mixture is thick and holds its shape, take off the heat. Sift the plain flour and salt over the egg mixture and gently fold it in using a spatula. Be careful not to deflate the batter.

Drizzle the cooled melted butter and vanilla extract (if using) into the batter, gently folding until fully incorporated.

Spoon the resultant batter into the prepared pastry cases. Carefully transfer to baking trays then place in the centre of your pre-heated oven and bake for about 20 minutes, until the tops of the sponge tarts are deeply golden and springy to the touch and the tarts are cooked through.

Allow to cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack then unmould and serve warm.