Tarts! Eaux, how I do love them so. I was very excited about this week's recipe. Nothing new to see here, but it gave me an opportunity to work on some things we've made several times before: tart shells and pastry cream. Still in the middle of traveling, so mini tarts it was.
I gave Yellow Processor one more try with the tart shell dough. I finally figured out: metal blade ONLY for the processor when making dough.
Now if I can just figure out how to keep the blasted thing from coughing up flour...
I put them in the freezer while I made pastry cream.
For the pastry cream, I had a mind to do something different from the usual vanilla. Originally, I thought I would do the ginger pastry cream from the cookbook, but at the last minute I had two ideas for variations. I couldn't decide between them, so I made both in half batches.
1. St. Germain pastry cream
I followed Dorie's instructions for "liqueur scented pastry cream," adding about 2 teaspoons to the cream. It came out very light and smooth and bright yellow.
2) Madagascar Vanilla Tea pastry cream
I decided the best thing to do would be to infuse the tea flavor by steeping the leaves in the milk as it heated and boiled. I put a couple teaspoons into a tea ball, poured over the milk (in this case, a blend of whole, skim, and half and half) and let it go.
It was nice and dark when it got to a boil, and the resulting cream is caramel brown, deeply, aromatically infused with the vanilla black tea. It's deep and complex and rich compared to the St.Germain cream's airy brightness.
For testing, I decided to try both flavors with the berries and jam.
My pigginess only goes so far, so I combined both flavors in one tart, topped with berries, and glazed them with my favorite jam: a spiced ginger marmalade.
Both are fabulous. The berries, though not at their very sweetest yet, went well with each flavor, as did the plain shortbread crust. I had a tart the next day with just the tea cream and whipped cream and that was awfully tasty too. I think it would also be sensational with some sort of streusel, such as that on Dorie's darjeeling tart. The St. Germain tart filling tastes like a very pleasant vanilla at first and then the St. Germain hits you at the end. YUM. It's light and fruity and delicious with the blackberries. I noticed that the St. Germain flavor seemed to fade after a day or so, so next time I will be less dainty and light-handed and just slug some in. That one I think would go well with any number of fruits.
Today's thankyuhvurymuch for choosing this week's recipe goes out to Cristine. Hat tip to ya!
12 comments:
your blackberries look so lush and plump. a delicious looking tart!
Love both of your variations on the pastry cream, they sound really tasty!
Yum your tart looks so tasty! I like all your cooking goodies!
Your experience with the liqueur was similar to mine. Seemed to fade quickly.
Your tart is lovely with the whipped cream addition.
Your tarts look so good! That liquer sounds wonderful.
Sometimes I read your writing OUTLOUD to myself because it is so good.. I mean I love reading it. That part about St. Germain was the best. And the tart looks delicious.
The tea idea is great. I've done that with saffron before! What a neat idea!
I love your variations with the pastry cream! Your tarts look beautiful! Thanks for baking along with me this week!
So lovely! Beautiful job on this one!
Your tarts look beautiful, and what a great idea to combine the fillings. I have never heard of St Germain,but it sure sounds good so I will have to investigate that!
Fabulous idea on the variations! Thanks for sharing! The tart looks and sounds wonderfully delicious!
I only dream of how good your cream must have been !!
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