Tarte crème d'amande et fruits exotiques

I stole this recipe from a cooking podcast I subscribed to when I was in France (Casse-croute). I first made the tarte when my cousin came to visit me after becoming engaged (to her then fiancé, now husband) while traveling in Italy. Mon colocotaire, mon cousin et moi ate the tarte on a balmy evening on our little balcony while drinking champagne and listening to stories of their engagement and their plans for their life and love to come...



Anyway,
It's a little difficult to make as the sweet pastry is a bit of challenge to get it rolled out properly. However, the most difficult part is easily avoided if you want to buy a pre-made shell at a grocery store. But it's fun to do it from scratch.
Bon Chance!

Quantity: makes one 9" circular tarte or about 14-16 cupcake sized tartes
Time: 75mins prep time, 3hrs wait time, 20mins bake time

Sweet pastry crust
(stolen from http://www.joyofbaking.com/FruitTart.html):
1 1/2 cups (200 grams) all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten

First, mix flour and salt in a bowl and set aside. Then beat together butter (make sure it's been sitting out for a while so its soft) and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the egg just until its incorporated, no more. Add in flour and mix until it forms a ball, but do not overwork or the dough will become tough and difficult to roll. Place in the fridge for about an hour before using.


La creme d'amande (the frangipane)
200g unsalted butter (just less than 1 cup)
200g ground almonds (store bought)
1.5 C icing sugar
3 eggs
50ml white rum (1 airplane bottle)

Second, Mix together the frangipane ingredients starting with the icing sugar and butter. You'll probably have to use your hands as it will just stick to a whisk. Once mixed, add the rum, eggs and almond powder. Mix very well et le mettre dans le frigo pendant 1 hour.

Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll it out flat (about 1/8 of an inch thick) and place it into a mold (I used a miniature loaf mold and muffin trays cuz that's what I had). Poke holes at the bottom of your pastry cups once in the mold to allow some air flow to bake evenly. Place your frangipane mix into the pastry mold only about 1/2 full as the mix expands. Place into a preheated oven at 350F for about 20mins.

Remove from oven and let rest for 5mins.

The third step is completely up to you. Select your favorite fruits and dice them up into aesthetically pleasing shapes. Arrange as you please. It's a little difficult to get very pretty designs but its more fun to design it yourself then to use a prettier store bought one I think. You can also glaze your tarts by purchasing store bought glaze packages or make your own by mixing equal parts (1 cup) sugar and water and a tablespoon of pectic or corn starch boiling for a minute in a small pot. Cover the fruit with the glaze and let sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Before serving remove from the fridge about 20 mins before serving.

Good luck and Enjoy!

In England a 'tart' is an insult

Chocolate Truffle Tarts

It only seems appropriate my first blog here (and ever!) is of tarts.

I stole and mixed this recipe from two other sites which i will post below, so technically this is 4 recipes (it's finite math, trust me), not just 1!

Crust site: http://www.jonathoncihlar.com/index.php?Post=fruittart

Filling site: http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=8907

This recipe makes enough dough for probably 8-10 tart shells and more than enough chocolate truffle to fill these cups sufficiently. If you have excess filling, consider covering your hand in the chocolate for a tasty treat for the grad student on the go!

Crust Ingredients

- 3/4 cups flour
- 1/8 cup sugar
- 1/16 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup vegan margarine
- 2-3 tablespoons ice cold water
- Apricot preserves

Crust Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Blend the flour, sugar, and salt until well-mixed.
3. Chill the flour mixture in the freezer for 15-20 minutes
4. Using a pastry cutter, fork, or your hands, cut the margarine into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles small pebbles.
   
5. Chill this mixture in the freezer again for another 15-20 minutes.
6. Slowly add water by the tablespoon incorporating it with a wooden spoon until it just holds together. Do not add too much water and definitely do not overmix.
7. Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes to relax the gluten.
8. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, and lightly flour the surface you will roll it out on. Take off a small walnut-sized portion for a 3-4 inch tart tin and roll it into a circle that is about 1" larger than the size of the tin. The dough should be about 1/8" thick.
   
9. Place the dough in the tart tin (I didn't have a tart tin so I used muffin tins) and press down lightly to fit the shape of the tin. Do not stretch the dough to fit the tin. Prick the dough with a fork to prevent excessive bubbling.
   
10. Bake the tart at 400°F for about 15 minutes. The edges should be turning slightly brown and the body should look dry and flaky. Remove from the oven and cool.
11. Once each tart has cooled to room temperature, brush a light coating of apricot preserves. This layer forms a barrier between the crème filling and the crust keeping the crust light and flaky.

Chef James’ Note: I didn’t do the apricot coating cuz I didn’t think it would jive with the chocolate filling, but might be worthwhile if you had a different filling.

Chocolate Truffle Filling

- 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp coconut milk, using thick cream (the junk from the top of the can, suggested you leave the can in the fridge, not shaking before opening and extract your portion from the top layer of coco milk, the fatter portion)

- 3 1/2 tbsp - 4 Tbsps organic unrefined virgin coconut oil (coconut butter) [I used sunflower oil cuz I couldn’t find coco butter]

- 3/4 tsp pure almond extract (or can use pure vanilla)

- 2 cups non-dairy chocolate chips (or can use non-dairy chocolate bars)

Directions:

1. In a double boiler (or fit a metal/glass bowl over a saucepan filled with several inches of water) over medium-low heat, combine coconut milk, oil, and extract, stirring occasionally for several minutes until melted.
2. Add chocolate chips (reserving a small portion, about ¼ cup), and stir until the chocolate chips are just about melted. Then, turn off the heat and add remaining chocolate chips and gently stir through.
3. Once just melted (do not overwork the chocolate), remove saucepan from heat and place in fridge to cool mixture while cleaning up.
4. After the filing has cooled slightly (maybe 10mins) pour the filling to the top of the cups. Place back in fridge for another 15mins to let the mixture solidify before arranging your own fruit mixture.
   

The incredibly artistic fruit decorations on the top (in case you didn’t notice i cut the strawberries into hearts as these were Valentine’s Day gifts) were my own creative genius. But I invite you to create your own designs! Possibly commemorating some other important days, such as Martin Luther King Day, Roshashana, or Waitangi Day (Feb 6, commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document). One can only imagine what innovative designs you can cut strawberries into to celebrate these momentous occasions!

Enjoy!

Chef James