So today, I give you recipes for flaky pastry dough and for pastry cream. I made this in my class to produce a lovely raspberry tart.
Flaky Pastry Dough
For 1 Tart
4 oz butter (1 stick)
4 oz AP flour
2 oz cake flour (can use AP as well, just don't mix as much)
1/4 c powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking powder
1.5 fluid oz cold water
1) Cut the butter into cubes. Combine dry ingredients by rubbing in butter by hand or using a mixer on the lowest speed. It's not necessary to mix until the butter has disappeared, only until the pieces are less than 1/4 an inch in diameter.
2) Stir in water until dough holds together. Do not over mix. The flakiness of the final pastry depends on the dough having some flaky qualities.
3) Wrap in plastic. Chill until firm.
*Note: You don't want the butter to actually melt.
AP flour will yield more gluten than cake flour; however, you can use AP flour in place of cake flour but just be sure not to over mix.
The pastry school advises to use recipes that go by weight b/c it's more accurate. You may note that there's 1/4 c of powdered sugar there. That was my addition b/c it doesn't make any sense to have a crust that's not sweet for a dessert! I think this could have totally used more sugar. Perhaps next time, I'll use granulated sugar instead.
While that's chilling...
Pastry Cream
1 pint milk
2 oz cornstarch
4 oz granulated sugar
1 egg
4 yolks
2 oz butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 oz vanilla (1/2 tbsp)
1) Combine milk with sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2) In a separate bowl, whisk whole eggs and yolks into cornstarch.
3) Pour 1/3 of the boiling milk into the egg mixture to temper. Whisk the egg mixture into the boiling milk, stirring until the pastry cream thickens and returns to a boil. Boil about 1 minute, making sure to whisk constantly (or chunks will form!).
4) Remove from heat and beat in butter and vanilla. Pour cream into a stainless steel pan and cover with plastic wrap so that it directly touches surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill immediately until use.
*Note: You pour the boiling milk into the egg mixture to raise the temperature of the mixture. If you pour the eggs directly into the boiling mix, they'll cook and that's gross!
When I made this, we swapped out the vanilla for 1 oz of raspberry flavored vodka. It's a lot of liquid for the cream to hold, but we felt that much was necessary in order to taste it. To be honest though, I'm always a bit wary about having flavored alcohol in my food. Sometimes it's a little too overwhelming and in this case, I think the 1 oz was a bit overboard. I'm sure the vanilla would've tasted better and it's obviously the better choice if you're making this for kids.
To assemble...
1) Roll the dough into a circular disk and use it to line an 8-inch tart pan. Trim away the excess. Chill the dough (you don't want the dough to get too hot until you actually bake it).
2) To bake the shell, place a sheet of parchment paper over the dough and weigh it down with beans or similar weighty object. This is to prevent the shell from shrinking as it bakes. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until set. Let shell cool down and remove beans and parchment.
3) Spread pastry cream evenly in tart shell. Cover with fruit as desired. Can glaze with peach or apricot glaze.
*Note: I obviously used raspberries. The glaze is totally for shininess, but b/c the taste would've conflicted with the raspberries, my tart is unglazed.
Overall, it was pretty good, but not "wow". It was beautiful to look at. My only complaint is that I think we added too much alcohol so next time, I'll stick to the vanilla.
xoxo,
lemonie
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