Well President's Day is here again. How many of you know why we have
that holiday? And you call yourself an American.* Well it doesn't really matter
why we celebrate it as to what we'll be doing with it, and you know what I'll
be doing, eating Blueberry Tarts. It's true, these tarts are a labor of love.
First you have to make a crust, then pastry cream, and then macerate
blueberries, it's a lot of work. But it's so worth it. The combination of
buttery crust, smooth thick cream and sweet berries, I don't think there is a
better pie/tart filling combination. Well tied with bananas and cream and
cookies and cream but they're all close firsts. Anyways, besides being super
tasty, these aren't half bad to look at either. So I hope you guys check this
one out, scroll down so you can learn how to be the envy at this year's
President's Day party. Just a reminder, all of the ingredients for this and all
my other chow-fections can be found at the bottom of the posts. :)
Pate Sucree
Pate Sucree is just a fancy way to say we're making a sweet pastry dough. Pate
meaning paste, and sucree meaning sweet. The more you know.
Anyways, to begin
we're going to pulse together flour, sugar, and salt in a large food processor.
This way we don't have to waste another step sifting. You know how much I hate
sifting. Using COLD, ice cold, frozen butter, pulse on and off until most of
the flour has disappeared and course pea sized pieces begin to form. Add in an egg and pulse in long strides.
You don't want the butter to start to melt.
Dump the crumbs onto a square of plastic wrap and pack it into a disc. If some
of the flour is still visible just lightly knead the dough out. Chill the disc
for a minimum of two hours but I left mine in the fridge over night.
Now it's time to prep the baking pan. I know a lot of you do not have
this particular tart mold, in fact I don't even think this is a tart mold,
maybe it's meant for mini banana breads, whatever. I'm using it for tarts, but
if you have a pan that you want to use feel free, the recipe is the same from
here on. Take aluminum foil and fold it so that it comfortably fits the bottom
of the pan. You're basically making a sleeve that allows you to easily lift the
tart shell out of the pan after it's baked. I call this technique the Pastry
Quicker Picker Upper™. So clever. Spray with non-stick and set aside.
I'm gonna take my dough disc and divide it into eighths (cause I have
eight molds). While you're rolling out one of the crusts try to leave the rest
in the freezer or the fridge cause you don't want anything to melt too much.
Flour a clean work surface (I thought I had to say clean. You know some people
just aren't that keen.) and roll it out to 1/4 of an inch thick, that's about
the width of a pencil, a little thinner than that. Don't worry if something
rips while you're fitting the dough into the mold, you can just patch it up
with scraps. When everything is firmly pressed against all the sides and
corners, take a knife and cut away the excess hanging over the sides. If you
have a large enough freezer I suggest putting the entire mold into it just to
keep them cold while you continue with the rest of the batch. It's cumbersome I
know, but that's the price for deliciousness.
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Keep Going You're So Close
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When all is said and done it's not, because you still need to freeze the
tarts for at least 30 minutes, an hour would be even better, before you can
bake them.
In the meantime take aluminum foil (again I'm not sure what other foils
you can find in the stores) and lubricate it well with butter. When the tarts
are ready to go into the oven, tightly fit the foil, buttered side down against
the crust. This will prevent any major browning and allow the crust to fully
cook without getting too dark.
Bake at 375 on the middle rack of your oven for 20 minutos. After 20
minutes remove the foil and slide it back in for another ten. At this point you
want to just watch it. Do not worry if the sides get too dark. What you really
want to see is the bottom to be golden because a pale crust is a flavorless
one. Let them cool for a minute and using your Pastry Quicker Picker Upper™
sleeves, transfer to a wire rack.
Pastry Cream
Now let's talk fillings. Pastry Cream is one of those classic French things that any pastry or dessert chef should know. And rightfully so cause it's "snap your fingers" easy to make.
Take milk and vanilla and heat it on medium over a saucepan. Vanilla bean would
be ideal but since those are expensive and the donations have been pretty slow
this month I'm just going to use vanilla extract. Heat it just until it reaches
a roiling boil and take it off. In a separate bowl whisk together egg yolks and
sugar. Next sift in equal measurements of cornstarch and flour. Whisk till
smooth and wait till your milk boils. Next comes the tempering of the eggs.
This just means you want to slowly incorporate the hot stuff into the eggs
while whisking. Drizzle in a little milk and whisk. A little more and whisk. A
little more and whisk. Until the eggs are about the same temperature as the
milk, then you can just dump the whole thing in. If it wasn't clear enough, you
have to whisk all the time. You don't want the eggs to scramble.
Return the
mixture to the saucepan and cook, while whisking, until the mixture begins to
boil. At the second it begins to boil an amazing thing will happen. The
cornstarch and flour will do it's magic and the cream will thicken up oh so
beautifully. When this happens you want to continue to cook it for another 30
seconds. Whisk, whisk, whisk! You don't want the bottom to burn. Another danger
you can have is over cooking it. If the cream gets too thick, when it cools
it'll be so thick you won't be able to spread it into your tarts. A Chef Chow
tip to you. When something cools it gets stiffer. You should always remember
this if your final product should be eaten room temp or cold.
Using proper plastic wrapping technique, which is pressing the plastic
to the surface of the cream so it doesn't form a skin, refrigerate until cold.
Now I'm one of those guys who admittedly likes the crust on a tart more than
the stuff inside, but this pastry cream is definitely doing something right.
It's not overly sweet, nor is it too rich and you get that slight hint of
vanilla, it's just perfect. Or what Goldilocks would say, Just Right.
On to the last part of the pastry which are the berries. Really you
could use any type of berry you wanted. I chose blueberries because personally
they are my favorite, well besides its slightly more expensive cousin the
raspberry. The point is you could use any berry you wanted, the recipe is the
same. So all we're going to do is macerate our berries with a teeny tiny drop
of lemon juice, and a tablespoon of sugar. To macerate, for all those SAT prep
students out there, means to soften or become softened in a liquid. Which,
translated into foodie terms means it makes the berries sweeter and shinier. So
we're just going to let that do it's thing while we fill our shells.
I
don't know if any of you have noticed but, my piping skills aren't the best,
which is what is traditionally done when filling tarts. So instead of making
another kitchen related disaster, I let my little handy ice cream scoop do the
work for me. Three scoops, give or take, and using a knife spreading it to all
corners of the crust. Next scatter the blueberries, and top with powdered
sugar.
So basically half of your day is over now. But at least now you have Blueberry Tarts which will, and should be the envy of the community. Unless someone brings a Buche de Noel, then you're screwed. But seriously these tarts are really one of the best pastries we've made on this blog to date and hope you all give it a shot. I know Valentine's Day just passed but no one's gonna hate on you if you made these anyways. I mean if you gave me this I would be down for anything. So please look pass all the hard tedious work and just picture the reward. Thank you all for getting the end, I hope you have a wonderful *George Washington's Birthday Day (President's Day). And as always,
Chow!
Recipe
For Pate Sucree
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg
For Pastry Cream
1 1/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
For Macerated Blueberries
1 pint of blueberries
1 tablespoon sugar
