Birthdays are a big deal in our house. When it is your birthday, the biggest choices you have to make pertain to the menu for the day. The birthday celebrity gets to choose a breakfast, their dinner and dessert. For YEARS, there was cake, maybe cupcakes, but then we started watching The Great British Baking Show and everyone's eyes were opened to a wider world of possibilities.
My mom was in Boston for her birthday this year and she got in on the birthday celebrations. She chose Greek food for dinner. Greco did not dissapoint! She also chose a raspberry cream tart for dessert. I had recently aquired a rectangular tart pan, but I had not made a custard tart yet, so it was a fun request.
For a fruit & custard tart you need three things:
- Great pastry
- Great custard
- Beautiful fruit
The beauty of the custard tart is that if you have a good recipe for the pastry, and a good recipe for the custard your possibilities are endless. You can use any kind of fruit you like. The custard can be flavored with citrus peels, vanilla bean pods, cinnamon, cardamom pods, whatever you think works well with the fruit at hand.
Here you will find a Pâte Sucrée recipe that worked beautifully followed by a pastry cream custard recipe that was divine. Seriously, this custard holds its shape even when you cut into the tart.
Sweet Crust Pastry
INGREDIENTS
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour (6 ¼ oz)
- ⅔ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter cold, cut into ½ inch cubes
INSTRUCTIONS
- Whisk together egg yolk, cream, vanilla in a small bowl or measuring cup and set aside.
- Place flour, powdered sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine.
- Place the pieces of butter evenly around the food processor and pulse 15 one second pulses. You want the butter combined with no large pieces.
- Slowly add the egg mixture, with the processor running. Process until it comes together and forms a ball, about 10-12 seconds.
- Form the dough into a small circle or rectangle depending on the tart pan you plan on using.
- Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.
- When ready to use, follow instructions in desired recipe.
For making and blind baking tart shell:
- Remove tart dough from fridge and let sit until it is workable (this will depend on how long it’s been refrigerated).
- Roll out - if using a 9 in circle you’ll want to roll about a 13 in circle.
- If the dough at any point is too soft to work with, rather than add more flour, place back in the fridge for 10-20 minutes until it is more workable.
- Transfer the tough to the tart pan by rolling over a rolling pin to pick it up. Then unroll it over the tart pan.
- Once placed over the pan, gently work the tough into the corners by lifting the dough with one hand, and pressing with the other. You want to press it until it is even all around. You can use extra bits of dough to reinforce parts that look sparse or thin, to make it even all around.
- Run a rolling pin or metal spatula over the top to remove any excess dough. Score inside of tart with a fork.
- Put the tart on a plate or small baking pan and freeze for 30 minutes.
- While in freezer, preheat oven to 375.
- Remove tart from freezer and place a large sheet of aluminum foil on the tart pan and fill with pie weights or beans. You want to make sure the foil is big enough to cover the edges so they don’t burn and you can easily remove the weights when the shell is still hot from the oven.
- Bake for 30 minutes, rotating 90 degrees at 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and very carefully remove the weight by taking the edges of foil and wrapping inward. Then lift up.
- Place back in the oven and baking 5 -10 more minutes, until golden brown.
- Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.
- Once completely cooled, fill with with tart filling of choice.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 vanilla bean or tsp vanilla bean paste
- pinch of salt
- 5 large egg yolks
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 tbsp butter optional
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a saucepan bring milk, vanilla, and salt to a simmer over medium heat.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch. It should be thick, creamy, and pale yellow.
- While whisking, slowly add ½ cup of the hot milk mixture to the egg yolk mixture to temper it. This insures that the eggs don’t overcook and curdle.
- Add the remaining milk mixture half a cup at a time, while continuously mixing.
- Return to saucepan and cook over medium heat until the mixture is thick and bubbling. If adding butter, add one tablespoon at a time and mix until fully incorporated before adding the next. Sometimes the butter separates a bit and makes the mixture greasy. If this happens, whisk continuously for a few minutes until it’s fully combined and cooled down a bit. It should recombine and no longer be greasy.
- Once everything if fully combined and slightly cooled, pour the mixture through a strainer into another bowl. This will make for a very smooth pastry cream and ensure there is no cooked egg in the mixture.
- Cover with plastic wrap, placing the wrap directly on top of the pastry cream so it doesn’t get a film on top.
- Then chill until ready to use, at least two hours or overnight.
