Berry Tart
This berry tart tastes as good as it looks, and I don’t mean toot my own horn here, but THIS BERRY TART LOOKS AMAZING! I’m so proud of myself. I’ve been trying to think of what to write in this paragraph for about an hour now, and I find myself just staring at the the top photo. During the photo shoot this afternoon (me in my kitchen taking pictures with a semi cheap digital camera while my kids hang off of my legs in a desperate attempt to get my attention) I found that I couldn’t get a bad picture of this berry tart even if I tried. She is a natural beauty. I pumped up the volume of some 80s techno music to drown out my kids pleading screams and clicked away. Every angle worked. Every side glance was perfection. When I shouted, “show me glistening!” she did effortlessly. Before I knew it I had taken 50 some pictures of gorgeousness. Then, like all prolific, creative, and important food photographers, I went downstairs and played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with a 5 year old and soon to be 2 year old. I was Michelangelo.
There are two components to making this tart, and both can be made ahead of time. First, is the tart shell. The crust is a pate sucree, which is a tart dough that is sweet, rich, and crisp. Second, is the pastry cream. Pastry cream is a custard that is often used as filling in pastries and pies. Check out my “how to make pastry cream” post here. The pastry cream with this particular recipe is a bit different, but you’ll get the general idea. By the way, I got this amazing recipe from Williams-Sonoma.
To make the pate sucree, I used a food processor. I love making pie and tart dough in my food processor! My post on how to make pie pastry is similar to how I made the tart dough. Take a look at those photos here to get a better idea on how it’s done. One thing I did notice with this particular tart dough was that it was very crumbly. I found that kneading it a couple of times made it easier to roll out. Also, when fitting the dough into the tart tin, it helps to roll the rolling pin over the top of the rim. This cuts the pastry perfectly.
After you’ve made your pastry cream, and made and blind-baked your pate sucree, it’s time to assemble. Fill your tart with the cream then top with berries of your choice. Then sprinkle with some powdered sugar (I forgot to do that), and you’re good to go.
