Tag Archives: tart

Fig Tartlet – An Experiment

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I have been consuming many many figs recently. Though very tasty on their own, I wanted to try making a tart with figs and pastry cream. Searching online I only found recipes for either fresh tarts or tarts combining figs and frangipane. I thought that frangipane would overshadow the figs, so I decided to try it with pastry cream anyway and see what happens.

I made some pie dough and pastry cream and prepared myself to conduct a scientific experiment to determine which tart would be superior.

The tart shells were both blind baked at 190°C for 5-10 minutes, and then uncovered for another 5 minutes until slightly brown. The one to be used for the fresh tart was baked a few minutes longer, as it was not to be baked again. The oven was then lowered to 160°C.

Next, I filled both tarts with pastry cream and figs. I should note here that perhaps I should have used the same slice size for both tarts.

The baked tart was placed back in the oven for 5-10 minutes, until the figs darkened just a little bit and the cream appeared to be stiff. I would have liked to bake it longer but was afraid that the cream would be ruined. The tart was allowed to cool a little and then they were both examined.

The results are clear: 1 of 1 participants agreed that the baked tart was superior.

Baking the fig intensified its flavor, which was accompanied by a velvety bed of cream. On the contrary, in the fresh tart, the figs were almost non existent and everything was overshadowed by the buttery crust.

All in all a great way to conduct science.

Tarte Normande

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Few things are as comforting as baked apples. There are undoubtedly better tasting fruits than apples and more interesting combinations than apples and cinnamon – but apple pies carry the weight of representing and reminding us of the perfect home we never had.

This effect, however, is more prominent when dealing with American apple pies. When I hear the name Tarte Normande I think about sitting in a cabin in Normandy and drinking cider, surrounded by grass and cows. Needless to say, I’ve never been to Normandy – those are just visions induced by the visual appeal of sliced apples and the intoxicating smell of cinnamon.

Slicing the apples was a very meditative activity. For a moment it seemed like all existence consists of apples being skinned, cored and sliced repeatedly. I was somewhat surprised when there were no more apples to slice, and I was thrown back into reality. Apparently I should have sliced them lengthwise to get bigger slices, but it doesn’t matter that much.

When I baked the tart shell, I accidentally set the oven for 160°C which prevented the shell from browning nicely, and made the final tart too crumbly. Assembling the tart was fun but there are prettier ways to do it that I should learn.

And after baking:

It tasted good, but the texture was lacking, and so was appearance. I had way too many sliced apples so I made another one the following day:

And the baked result is at the top of this post. Quite better this time, the tart shell was properly baked and also the batter that covers the apples was better and browned nicely. However it wasn’t sweet enough (arguably an advantage) and the apples should have been a little softer.

Recipe (courtesy of Maayan)

For the tart shell (I think my tart pan is 24cm, so adjust if needed)

  • 150gr butter
  • 200gr plain flour
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp water

The technique here is similar to the pie crust here so I won’t repeat it. Refrigerate the dough for about 1 hour.

For the filling

  • Apples – I don’t know how many, I had too much
  • Some lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon
  • 90gr whipping cream
  • 36gr egg (about 3/4 egg)
  • 20gr egg yolk (about 1 yolk)
  • 20gr sugar
  • 1/2 tsp corn starch
Preheat oven to 160°C.
Skin, core and slice apples. Put the sliced apples in a big bowl, add some lemon juice sugar and cinnamon and shake to cover. The apples shouldn’t be completely covered in sugar and cinnamon, but they should brown a little and “sweat” some juices out after a while.
In a bowl, whip cream lightly, add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Arrange apples on tart shell, cover with cream mixture and bake for 20 minutes, until nicely browned. You may need to rotate the pan for more uniform baking.
Serve with vanilla ice-cream or crème fraîche.