Tarts. As most of you probably know, tarts are baked desserts that consist of two elements: crust and filling.
Today, I’d like to introduce you to some of the many opportunities that a cook has to make a pie’s crust an interesting part of the play. It might seem a little challenging at first glance but with a little planning and cunning, your final result will surprise and delight you.
There are so many crusts to choose from. One could fancy a fluffy, buttery puff pastry dough for a crunchy base; a sugar dough to complement a tangy filling; a “pâte brisée” for sweet fillings; an arlette for a thin, crunchy, sweet base like in the tartelette below, etc.
The filling is the most important factor in choosing your crust. I can’t overstate how important it is to find a perfect match between both elements. Think in terms of balance of flavors, sweetness, complementary textures, visual aspects and accents.
The classic example is the tarte tatin. The lukewarm, soft, generously caramelized and lightly spiced plump apples are calling for a crunchy light crust. Using puff pastry dough will give a perfect contrast in textures, without adding too much sweetness to the already sweetened filling (the apples).
With regard to accents, a good example is our “Tarte Exotique”. We are using an “Arlette” (puff pastry dough, rolled with spices, then flattened in powdered sugar) in order to add sweetness and crunch to the soft texture of the mango and lychees and the tangy flavors of the mango-citrus pearls. The filling is clearly the star of this tart, but the crust does not go unnoticed. A discreet but efficient smidgeon of spices allows us to perfectly tailor the flavor of the dough to our choice of fruits. Cardamom, freshly cracked pepper, cinnamon, are just a few examples of spices that can revamp a basic pie crust.
Also, be realistic about how much time you have at your disposal. For instance, puff pastry dough requires more wait time than a sugar dough or a “pâte brisée”, for the layers are the result of folding the dough and letting it sit in the fridge between each folding session. Generally, it is important to know that most doughs have to sit in the fridge for at least a couple of hours before you can roll them into a mold. Most can be prepared in advance and left in the freezer until needed.
Here is an easy recipe for a sugar dough that can be used with apricots, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, and other tangy fruits.
Ingredients :
125 g butter
125 g sugar
250 g all purpose flour
1 egg
1 vanilla bean
1 pinch of salt
2 tbsp of glucose syrup (optional, yet adds elasticity to the dough)
a pinch of fresh cracked pepper
Steps :
Cut the butter into small pieces. Knead the flour with the butter. Scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean.
Make a hole in the center and add sugar, syrup, vanilla, salt and the whole egg.
Mix the ingredients without lingering until you obtain a homogeneous dough, then form a ball and let it cool in the fridge for 2 hours.
Then roll and transfer onto a tart mold. The crust is ready for the filling!
