Fresh Fruit Tart with Pastry Cream

I love tarts! I love how colorful and immaculate they look! I love being able to eat fresh fruit for dessert without it just being a boring bowl of fruit. So in order to get to the tart section of the book, The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts (by the French Culinary Institute), I may have skipped over a section or two that I'll write about later (flour, sugar, leavening agents, etc. and how they affect the end product).

There are 3 different types of tart doughs:
1.) Pâte Brisée (read: short pastry crust)
2.) Pâte Sucrée (read: sweet short pastry crust)
3.) Pâte Sablée (richest short pastry crust)

For my first tart, I chose the Pâte Sablée, or shortbread dough, which was delicious and tasted just like eating a shortbread cookie! Below is a time-lapse video of making the dough (bear with me as this is my first time making a time-lapse video as well as my first time editing one). Also, check out my brand new kitchen scale! So far I'm a big fan.

 

  Shortbread Dough Time-Lapse

After the dough was the Crème Pâtissière, which is basically a gelatinous custard that tastes deliciously of vanilla and not at all like eggs! This recipe called for whole vanilla beans, and since this is a learning experience, I bought some (ridiculously expensive) whole vanilla beans for the first time in my life. They were so fragrant and easy to use. I even love the way the pod seeds decorate the custard. You never get that with vanilla extract!

Crème Pâtissière spread out, covered,
and cooling between plastic wrap and aluminum foil

Once both the tart dough and the Crème Pâtissière cooled, it was time to assemble the tart. I had the hardest time rolling out the dough without it sticking to the counter or just crumbling. When making the dough, the consistency looked good, but once it got to the point of rolling it out, it didn't work quite right. In retrospect I think it may have been because I coated the counter with flour to prevent the dough from sticking. In the future I plan on using shortening, which will prevent it from sticking to the counter without drying out the dough.

After several attempts, I gave up on the flour and decided to roll out the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. I tried to avoid this method since the book subtly mentioned that this is pretty much the cop out way of making a smooth pastry dough. However, without this technique I don't think I ever would have been able to get the dough into the pan.

Once in the pan, the dough should be punctured with a fork several times to prevent the formation of air pockets...I forgot to do this. My excuse is that I was too upset with the dough to even think about anything but getting the tart in the oven as soon as possible in order to devour it!

I spread the cooled Crème Pâtissière over the uncooked tart shell, sprinkled it with graham cracker crumbs (this part seems odd, but it really adds a wonderful flavor and little crunch), and super carefully placed it in the oven. The recipe had the tart in the oven for an hour, but after 45 minutes the outside crust was beginning to brown so I whisked it away to add the best part....fresh fruit!

The now baked tart shell + Creme Patissiere was gorgeously dressed with a variety of my favorite fruits: raspberries (my absolute favorite), strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries (these were really good at filling the gaps between the other fruits).

Delicious, warm fresh fruit tart (although still in the pan)...mmmm!

Paint the fruit with an apricot glaze to make them nice and shiny, and voila!

Delicious tart!

Gorgeous light brown outer crust

Analysis of Product:

• Delicious when warm, but not as good after a day or two because the fruit gets a little old and mushy.

• The middle of the tart shell was still a little doughy. Next time I'll leave the shell in the oven for the entire recommended time (1 hour), but will protect the edges by wrapping the edges of the pan in aluminum foil.

•  Rolling out the dough was tricky because it kept sticking to the counter as well as crumbling, something that is quite the predicament. It seemed too dry, but I would add water and it would do the same thing. Next time I will use shortening instead of flour to coat the counter. This should at least not help dry the dough out more.

• The top could have used a few more berries to fill in tiny holes, but overall I think it looked delicious!

And the most important part in the analysis....

My guests loved it! 2 pieces each! Yumm!!

Next Up: Reverting back to sections I skipped + more tarts! (half the book is tarts...although all very different)