With a step by step photo essay for Pâte Brisée!
Sitting here at the free wifi cafe “The Park” in Bijeljina, Bosnia, this August, I have an hour before Vanja picks me up and can finally post my French Strawberry Tart experience. Those of you who do not blog may not know that those of us who do that do have many posts, and in my case, over 100, that have photos in them and are ready to be written…. but there wasn’t the time to get to them. I have several waiting from our trip to Italy in 2011. For me, it is more important to write about food in season, and when I get the time to write about the travel food, I hope to so so. Some “food in season” posts never get posted until the next year, and by then I usually have made that recipe several times and have a book of images to use. Last year, I wanted to gorge myself on fresh strawberries from Prairie Gardens Adventure Farms as I had heard how good they were – but, it just didn’t work out. We did go and pick some, and they were absolutely scrumptious and the best I had ever tasted, so this year, I vowed to be there in time to pick a bushel!
It just was not that easy. Strawberries rear their heads in mid July, as a rule. A little earlier, sometimes. Apparently, this was not a good year for them. The weather didn’t cooperate and the farm could really only provide berries to their CSA farmers. There were not any available for picking during July (insert sad face, here) but, Tam Anderson very kindly offered to pick a couple of pails for me to come out and get. We had said ice cream pails, and I was hoping for 4, but somehow amid all of the people involved and the business of the season, I found myself with 4 very small pails, or two ice cream buckets equivalent. Who could complain. They were not honeyoye, but they were spectacular. Vanja just wanted to eat all 4 buckets sliced with a tiny bit of sugar to macerate them. They didn’t need sugar, truly.
I had other plans. I am a French Tart fiend and had now, for two years, imagined a French Strawberry Tart similar to my French Raspberry Tart:small, perfectly formed berries perfectly perched atop some beautiful French Crème Mousseline on a pâte brisée crust. When I developed my Fresh Saskatoon Berry French Tart, I was not disappointed. It is a gorgeous recipe regarding presentation, texture, flavour and a one I now crave and make at the beginning of every Saskatoon berry season. A new family tradition was born with that recipe.
Yet, these berries, though small, and perfectly shaped, gorgeous in every way, were too heavy and sunk into the crème mousseline! No matter how I tried, I could not arrange them aesthetically on top of the tart to create a visually stunning presentation. Hmmm….. (I am happy with the sliced presentation, above, but not “thrilled”. It doesn’t match my vision.)
Making the Pastry: Pâte Brisée in the Thermomix (A Photo Essay)
Instructions follow, in the recipe, below.
Making the Cream Filling: French Crème Mousseline (A short Photo Essay)
Instructions follow, in the recipe, below.
Putting it all Together
In this recipe, there is enough pastry and cream to make three medium large tarts or two really large ones. I filled the shells with the cooled cream.
And when I placed the strawberries on top, they sank into the cream filling. I had imagined the surface completely covered with berries, as the raspberry tart is, but this was not to be. I didn’t like the look. How to solve this “problem”?
A glaze should work nicely, but not a typical jelly simply heated. It had to be more substantial due to the nature of this tart. I immediately thought of the filling Grandma Maude used for our family famous Fresh Strawberry Pie that my girls made last month for their Dueling Daughters articl
I did pull together the “look”, especially with the smaller, individual tarts. They were more professional in appearance and I was “pleased” with them and would definitely make them that size, again. This tart was delicious, actually. The ratio of berry to cream to crust was perfect. More berries would have been too much, so the fact that they sank, was probably a blessing as the final product was just how I imagined the flavour and texture would be.
I just don’t like the look of the “slice” as much as I like the look of the whole individual tart, per serving. In any case, lesson learned, recipe worked and even Vanja gave it a 9 out of 10 and still had many, many bowls of fresh strawberries to gorge on the week after we picked them up. Next year, there is going to be a strawberry fest in this house!
French Strawberry Tart Glaze
This is the perfect topping for my take on a French Strawberry Tart.
Ingredients
- 1½ c c sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3 cups water
- 1 6 ounce package (large) strawberry jello (yes, I know: J-E-L-L-O!)
Instructions
- Cook first three ingredients until thick and clear, stirring constantly
- Add package of strawberry jello into hot liquid, stirring constantly to dissolve
- Gently spoon cooled to room temperature mixture over each tart, trying to not cover the edges or go over the sides of the tart shell
Pâte Brisée or Cookie Dough Pastry
Pâte brisée is a traditional French pastry used to make the Classic French Tart. It is not a flaky pastry, but more like a cookie crust. It softens as the filling sits in it.
Ingredients
- 11/2 cups (190g) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (170g) cold butter, cut into pieces
- 1/4 cup (65g) granulated sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla (optional)
- Dried beans or rice (for blind baking)
Instructions
Instructions for Pastry adapted by me for use with the Thermomix:
- Scale the flour and butter into the TM bowl; cut butter into the flour for 5 seconds on Turbo (will be fine crumbs)
- Scale the sugar into the TM bowl for 5 seconds on Turbo (see above photo)
- Add the egg yolks and for 3-5 seconds on speed 4-5 just long enough for the mixture to come together into a ball
- Pat into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill at least 30 min before lining tart pan, or refrigerate overnight
- Roll out and line tart pan (thickness of 1/4 inch and lip of 1/2 inch); chill again for 30 min before baking
- Pre-heat oven to 375°F; place tart shell on a baking sheet and blind bake the pastry by lining it with a generous piece of parchment filled with dried beans to the very top to give the sides support so they won’t shrink (this also ensures a crisper crust)
- Blind bake for 12 min.; remove to a heatproof surface and take away parchment and beans (preserve beans for future use); prick crust bottom all over with a fork and replace in the oven, turning the heat down to 325°F and bake for 13-15 more minutes
Instructions for Pastry:
- Mix the flour and butter with your fingers until they turn into fine crumbs; mix in the sugar
- Add the egg yolks and mix with your fingers just long enough for the mixture to come together into a ball
- Pat into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill at least 30 min before lining tart pan, or refrigerate overnight
- Roll out and line tart pan (thickness of 1/4 inch and lip of 1/2 inch); chill again for 30 min before baking
- Pre-heat oven to 375°F; place tart shell on a baking sheet and blind bake the pastry by lining it with a generous piece of parchment filled with dried beans to the very top to give the sides support so they won’t shrink (this also ensures a crisper crust)
- Blind bake for 12 min; remove to a heatproof surface and take away parchment and beans (preserve beans for future use); prick crust bottom all over with a fork and replace in the oven, turning the heat down to 325°F and bake for 13-15 more minutes
- If pre-baking a shell that will be filled, then baked, blind bake filled with beans for 15-18 minutes, until a tender brown; remove from oven to completely cool before filling and baking
Crème Pâtissière and Crème Mousseline
Using fresh strawberries to make a tart inspired by the Classic French Tart is successful when filled with this cream and topped with the strawberry glaze in this post.
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- half of a vanilla bean ( used the entire bean)
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1/4 cup heavy cream (I used 3/4 cup)
- 1 pound fresh strawberries (I didn’t weigh them, I just used what I had)
- 2 9- inch /23 cm cookie crust , baked or variation of size equivalents (see photo as one recipe made them all)
Instructions
Instructions adapted by me to make in the Themomix:
- Put the milk in a saucepan; split the vanilla bean, scrape the seeds into the milk and add bean into the pot
- Heat to a simmer, remove from heat, cover, and set to infuse 10 to 20 minutes
- Scale the sugar into the TM bowl and add the yolks; insert the butterfly and beat until pale for 10 seconds at speed 4
- With the time set for 10 seconds and the speed at 4, add the flour through the hole in the TM lid
- Strain the milk gradually into the egg mixture; set the time for 4 minutes and the temperature at 100°C, bring mixture to a boil at speed 4 and cook one minute (you will have to watch when the mixture comes to a boil and adjust time accordingly)
- Strain into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap; set aside to cool (this is Crème Pâtissière)
- When chilled, whip the cream and gently fold it in (this is now Crème Mousseline)
- Spread the cream evenly in the base of the tart and arrange the berries neatly over top
Instructions for Pastry Cream:
- Put the milk in a saucepan; split the vanilla bean, scraping the seeds into the milk, and add bean into the pot
- Heat to a simmer, remove from heat, cover, and set to infuse 10-20 minutes
- Beat the yolks with the sugar until pale; Beat in the flour
- Pull the vanilla bean from the milk and whisk the milk gradually into the egg mixture; pour back into the saucepan
- Bring to a boil, and cook one minute; remove from the heat and stir in the framboise, if using
- Strain into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap; set aside to cool (this is Crème Pâtissière)
- When chilled, whip the cream and gently fold it in (this is now Crème Mousseline)
- Spread the cream evenly in the base of the tart and arrange the berries neatly over top
The thermomix looks like quite a machine! Gorgeous tart too. I just found late summer strawberries so I may give it a try!
Oh, yes, indeedy, El! Whenever you decide that a Thermomix is for you, you know where to find me.
🙂
Valerie