Red fruit tart, with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries
 | Marianne Vallet-Sandre Kitchen |
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| Ingredients |
1 sweet pâte brisée 1 cup heavy cream 1 teaspoon of real vanilla extract 2 tablespoons of confectioner's sugar |
2 tablespoons for dusting tart edges ½ jar of purchased lemon curd (optional) 1 cup of red currant jelly for glazing 3-4 pints of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries |
| Preparation |
Delicately wash, stem, and place the berries to drain and dry, on paper towels in a single layer. Do this in advance and refrigerate to give fruit maximum opportunity to dry. This tart differs from others in that the pastry case, Pâte Brisée for Sweet Tart, will be entirely baked alone, cooled, filled with a crème base, topped with fruit and eventually glazed, without returning to the oven. The cooking of this pastry is called "blind baking". Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place pastry in removable bottom tin and freeze uncovered, 10 minutes. Before baking, pierce the bottom of the shell with a fork tip here and there. Place a circle of foil in the tart shell, large enough to cover the rim, and weigh down with dry beans, peas, or baking pebbles. (This, and the piercing, will prevent the dough from puffing up.) Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 20 minutes, remove the foil and beans, and bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes till golden. Cool on a rack. Meanwhile whip the cream in a cold bowl with cold beaters, adding the vanilla extract and the 2 tablespoons of confectioner's sugar, until it is fairly dry and forms stiff peaks. If you choose to add the lemon curd, place it in a bowl and gently start folding a large spoonful of whipped cream into it, to lighten it up. Pour this lightened mixture back into the bowl of whipped cream and fold together gently to avoid breaking the cream bubbles. When the shell has cooled, coat the bottom evenly with the flavored cream (with or without lemon curd), and arrange the prepared fruit on top. Heat the currant jelly in a small heavy sauce pan until it liquefies, if necessary add ½ teaspoon of water. Allow the mixture to "start" cooling, but while it is still liquid, quickly "paint" the top of the fruit as well as the small spaces of white cream visible between the fruit, with a pastry brush. Do not hesitate to re warm the jelly to liquefy it once more, if it hardens before you are done. (My favorite pastry brush is a small, flat, natural bristle one from a hardware store). Remove the tart from the tin rim, keeping the metal bottom in place, and powder the edges with confectioner's sugar. Shell can be blind-baked, early in the day, but the filling should only be done 3to 4 hours before serving. Store in a cool place, or refrigerate. *A "crème patissière" (a light custard ) or a thin coating of melted chocolate can replace the whipped cream base, or the fruit can also be arranged directly on the pastry shell. |
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