One,Two, Three: Voilΰ!
Crust, cream and ripe fruit are all you need for a summer tart that's just
right for right now
LOS
ANGELES (By
Regina Schrambling, LATimes) August 25, 2005
Self help happens in the strangest places. One
day you're walking home from the farmers market with four pints of different
berries and you stop to pick up some cream to whip and the cashier is right
next to a glass case lined with Technicolor fruit tarts and you think: I
could do that, and better, for a lot less than $30. And I'm
pastry-challenged.
That wouldn't be just the berries talking, either. Fruit tarts are the right
dessert right now, a big step up from plain watermelon and a lot cooler on
the kitchen than peach pies, largely because the main ingredient is at its
peak. But the other two elements, the crust and the filling, are both almost
as effortless as finding perfect fruit.
Call it three easy pieces: You start with a tart shell that is simpler than
pie crust, more like one big shortbread cookie. You fill it with a one-two
pastry cream that makes instant puddings look turgid. And you finish with
what waning August brings in such abundance: ripe fruit with voluptuous
local flavor.
Pies are not my forte, but I've known tarts are a different story ever since
restaurant school, where half the motivation of most of the students was
finding ways to maximize profits on simple creations. Tarts are
show-stoppers that take very little in terms of time, money or skill. Even
the fruit is mostly a matter of garnishing arranging the berries over the
cream than the drudgery that pie filling involves in other seasons, all
that peeling and coring and slicing of apples and pears.
The best tart lesson in school was crθme patisserie, as pastry cream was
called by our Carκme-worshipping dessert teacher. Making it is so simple:
Heat milk and cream to a simmer, then whisk a little of the liquid into egg
yolks beaten with sugar and some form of thickener flour, cornstarch,
arrowroot and return that liaison to the pot and stir until it thickens.
In class, we used this magic mixture not only to fill tart shells to be
topped with berries or ripe peaches or plums but also to stack puff pastry
into napoleons, and pipe into cream puffs. Without the thickener, we could
dispense with the tart shell and just serve the berries either under or over
that rich, sweet cream.
Shell game
THE tart crust was always a lot trickier. I must have been dozing off
when it was explained, because for years I was afflicted with pastry just as
leaden as what lay sodden under my pumpkin pies. I could never get the
proper proportion of butter to flour right, or keep a cold enough hand in
mixing it and always wound up with more heaviness than flakiness.
Then I took a class with cookbook author Joanne Weir, of "Weir Cooking in
the City" TV fame, in which a shortbread crust was key, from a recipe she
had borrowed from Chez Panisse. It started with butter at room temperature
and encouraged mixing by hand; it took away the fear of over-handling. Then
it called for freezing the dough once it was in the tart pan, which
eliminates the need for lining the shell with foil and weights when you bake
it. I've made this repeatedly and it never fails. Even better, it is the
closest thing to my Belfast-born mother's Irish shortbread, which I have
never been able to duplicate.
Weir flavored the dough with lemon zest, and the original Chez Panisse
recipe used a couple of drops of vanilla and almond extract. Lime caught my
eye after I read a recipe by legendary cooking teacher Madeleine Kamman that
paired blueberries and bourbon with fresh lime.
Nearly flawless
MOST berry/fruit tarts are glazed with melted jelly, usually currant,
for both structural and appearance reasons the gleam adds to their appeal
and the sweet stickiness holds the berries in place. But I've lifted from
Kamman and used lime marmalade. The sugary tartness is just right against
the hypersweet late-summer berries.
The whole formula is pretty close to foolproof, but deconstruction is always
an option. If you want to skip the crust, you can serve the berries with
just the pastry cream spooned over or under. If you don't want to make the
pastry cream at all, make the crust and substitute whipped cream as a more
ethereal filling. You could even bake the crust and not fill it, just cut it
into triangles to serve as cookies with the fruit, either naked or
cream-coated.
Even if the unimaginable happens and the crust cracks or the filling is too
loose or too firm, you still come away with the rough equivalent of a
trifle: pastry, cream, berries.
No wonder tarts in summer are so empowering.
*
Summer fruit tart
Total time: About 1 hour, plus chilling and freezing time
Servings: 8
Note: Currant jelly may be substituted for lime marmalade,
available at Surfas in Culver City and at Continental Shop and Tudor House,
in Santa Monica, and the Cheese Store of Silver Lake.
1 cup flour
8 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly grated lime zest
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 to 3 pints raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries or a
mixture
1/2 cup lime marmalade
1. For the crust, combine the flour, 2 tablespoons sugar,
salt and lime zest in bowl. Cut the butter into half-inch slices and add to
the flour mixture. Using your fingertips, a pastry blender or two knives,
work the butter into the flour to make a fine crumbly mixture that starts to
hold together. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon cold water and toss until dough
hangs together. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and
chill 30 minutes.
2. Unwrap the dough and press it evenly into the bottom and
up the sides of a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. (If the dough
gets too soft to handle, return it in the pan to the refrigerator for about
5 minutes.) Place the dough-lined pan in the freezer for 30 minutes.
3. While the dough freezes, combine the milk, cream and 4
tablespoons sugar in a heavy saucepan. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks
with the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and the cornstarch.
4. Bring the milk mixture just to a boil over medium heat.
Ladle about one-third into the egg yolks and whisk until smooth, then beat
the egg mixture into the milk mixture in the pan, whisking until it thickens
and just comes to a boil, about 1 minute.
5. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Transfer the
mixture to a clean bowl and lay plastic wrap directly onto the surface.
Chill until completely cold.
6. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the tart shell in the
lower third of the oven until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool
completely on a rack.
7. Rinse the berries and hull if necessary. Pat completely
dry.
8. Scrape the pastry cream into the cooled tart shell and
smooth the surface. Carefully arrange berries on top, in alternating rings
if using more than one variety.
9. Bring the lime marmalade to a simmer in a small saucepan
and heat until melted. Brush lightly over the berries. Chill the tart at
least 1 hour but no more than 4 before removing the ring from the pan and
cutting the tart into wedges to serve.
Each serving: 463 calories; 5
grams protein; 63 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams fiber; 23 grams fat; 13 grams
saturated fat; 144 mg. cholesterol; 78 mg. sodium.
