Strawberry Tart | Me

Dear Readers,

I’m sorry I haven’t been around…

I’ve been caught up in some of my business(which involved staring at textbooks and math equations relentlessly)…

If you’re a new reader, hello and welcome :)
Hope are enjoying it :)

This is going not going to be one of my usual posts, it’s going to be somewhat more quick and direct because at the moment I am busy, and I just wanted to post something quickly…

Also, some of you commented and emailed me for step by step pictures of each of posts, and here’s why I don’t want to do this:

I have nobody around most of the time to take pictures for me, so I’ll have to take them myself. No it’s not because I’m lazy, it’s because I will get involved in what I’m making and forget to take pictures, so you’ll probably end up with half of the pictures for all the steps…

I will try however :)

I know I’ve said this before, but just in case you don’t know: if some of you have questions about anything, feel free to email me, or just leave a comment below, and I’ll reply to your email and/or comment! My email is: thenexperiments@live.com. If you want to tweet me as well, go ahead! My username is @thenexperiments (there’s also a follow button on the side somewhere).

Now about this tart I’m supposed to be talking about… I’ve had this recipe, and these pictures for a while now, except I never got around to posting, and I forgot about it, until now when I realized it was strawberry season, and this would be perfect for use!

I really love this tart. Its crust is amazing, and ridiculously flaky and buttery. The pastry cream, isn’t fully solid but it ta

stes great, and it uses a only a little of heavy cream(I’m really attempting to find recipes for things without heavy cream, its notoriously bad for you! How ever I am being a little hypocritical, considering the tart shell, but I cannot not use that shell! its amazing!)…and the topping of the fresh

strawberries really just is great :) It adds a fresh taste to it :)

Hope you try and enjoy it!

Fresh Strawberry Tart

• 1 pack of strawberries(16 oz.) quartered.
• tart shell(recipe below)
• pastry cream (recipe below)

Use this recipe from David Lebovitz for the tart I followed the whole thing exactly, and he has pictures of certain steps as well :)

Pastry Cream

Modified from Barefoot Contessa in Paris via Culinate

• 5 large egg yolks at room temperature
• 3/4 a cup sugar(I didn’t fully fill each of the cups to minimize the sugar content in this  somewhat)
• 3 tbsp. corn starch
• 1 1/2 cups of scalded milk(scald the milk by heating it at a medium, until it develops a skin on top and that skin starts to rise and turn off the heat before the whole thing boils over. note: scald this right before you start the first step of this)
• 3/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract.
• 1 tsp. rum
• 1 tbsp.unsalted butter
• tbsp. heavy cream

1. Whip up the eggs and sugar, until it become a very pale, almost white-ish yellow and the mixture will be very thick.
2. If you are using a mixer, lower the speed of the mixer and add in the corn starch. if you are doing this by hand, simply mix in the cornstarch.
3. Then while constantly mixing pour the scalded milk into the egg yolk and sugar mixture. Don’t stop mixing, or the eggs may scramble.
4. Pour all of this, in to a medium pan, and put it on medium heat stirring with a whisk.
5. After a while this will start to look at though it is curdling, so at this point start stirring vigorously with the whisk.
6. after a while it will come together a little bit more and that is when you put in the rum, vanilla extract, butter, and heavy cream. Stir it in and continue to cook for a minute, then remove from heat.
7. Grab a strainer, and put it over a a bowl and strain the mixture.
8. Cover the bowl of the mixture, and put it in the refrigerator until it is cool.

To assemble tart:

1. make sure pastry cream, and the tart shell are cooled down completely.
2. pour the pastry cream into the tart shell. Be careful, the tart shell is a little delicate, and spread it out evenly.
3. top the whole thing with the strawberries, you can simply toss them on there, or arrange them like I did, what ever you like.

Note: this recipe for this tart can be pretty flexible.

So you say you want lime and coconut tart? Add approximately a teaspoon(taste and adjust) into the pastry cream, and a half cup of coconut, and top the whole thing with shredded coconut.

Or if you want a black forest gateaux inspired one, cut up some maraschino cherries, and mix them into the pastry cream, and replace some of the flour inthe tart dough with chocolate powder, and cover it all with a chocolate glaze perhaphs.

Be creative, and if you have any questions email me.

Hope you enjoy!

Daring Bakers | Apple Crostata

I don’t know why, but I always have the urge to make things that sound fancy, exotic and or french. Souffle? Creme Brulee? Tiramisu? Petit Fours? All of those are a result of this strange urge that I have.

And so, when I saw this month’s daring bakers I was immediately intrigued. Crostata? It sounded pretty exotic to me, and looked like a cross between pie and a tart, two things which i love. Immediately i started making the dough for thepasta frolla(the crust dough), mixing and kneading away happily. Then after I finished with that and put the dough in for a two hours, and decided to think up fillings. I started out wanting to make a creamy thick filling, so then i was thinking of a variety of pastry creams. Then I saw 3 perfect little apples sitting on the counter top, that stood out starkly due to their beautiful  golden and scarlet hues.

And obviously, those beautiful apples are what i used for this crostata, and it came out delicious, and very seasonally appropriate.

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

Oh, and happy late thanksgiving all!

I hope you had awesome thanksgivings and I hope you stuffed yourself like crazy :)

Apple Crostata

For the pasta frolla:

• 3/4 a scant cup of powdered sugar
• 1 3/4 a cup of all purpose unbleached flour
• a pinch of salt
• 1 stick(eight tablespoons) of cold grated butter(take the stick of butter out of the fridge cold and grate it using the larger holed side of a grater and then place it in the fridge again for ten minutes)
• the lemon zest of half a lemon
• 1 and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon(you can tweak this a bit, i just kept adding a little by little until i thought i would taste good, only problem was i didn’t know how much so i’d say approx. that)
• 1 large egg beaten lightly

1. Whisk together the powdered sugar, flour and salt.
2. add in the butter, and rub or cut the butter using a pastry cutter in to the flour mixture until like course bread crumbs.
3. make a little indentation in the bread crummy mixture and pour in the egg(remember to save a teaspoon to glaze the dough later when it’s being baked)
4. Add the zest into the little indentation, and mix it all together.
5. You will now have dough, that you want to knead it until it comes together in a ball. Then shape it into a circle and refrigerate wrapped in plastic wrap it for the minimum of 2 hours or over night.
6. two hours take the dough out and roll it out between two pieces of plastic wrap until it’s 5 mm thick, take off one side of the plastic and flip it over onto the dish that you’ll be baking it in. Delicately press the dough in to  fit the pan, and cut off any excess dough hanging over the edges of the dish and press it into the sides and middle.
7. Take a fork, and stab the bottom with it in several places(to let any air from air bubbles escape)
8. Make the filling(recipe below) and put the apples in however you like it. I staggered the apples in rows since my crostata was squared shaped, and there was two layers( i used an 8×8 pan).
9. Glaze whatever crust is exposed with that saved 1 teaspoon of egg.
10. bake at 375 degrees until the crust is golden.

Apple filling

• 3 small apples peeled, cut in half and then cut again into thin 2 mm slices
• 1/3 a cup of brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp of sugar (adjust this to your tastes)

Mix this all together in a bowl.

Tastes great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream :)

and one last thing:

My late thanksgiving list:

I’m thankful for

• My adorable and sweet little sister.
• My  loving parents.
• My amazing and slightly eccentric friends.
• My awesome food blogger friends, Adriana, Jeannie and Sheena.
• For living the way I’m living.

~Dee D.