The Culinary Review > Dessert

Fresh Fruit Tart with Smooth Pastry Cream

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:35:58 MST

8-10 servings

Pastry Cream:

2 cups half-and-half
½ cup sugar
pinch salt
5 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons butter, cut into ½ inch pieces, chilled
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 recipe Tart Crust, baked and cooled

Fruit:
3 kiwis
2 cups fruit (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries) (thawed, frozen fruit works fine)

Method:

1. In a medium saucepan, stir together the half-and-half, 6 tablespoons sugar and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and stir occasionally.
sugar.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, cornstarch and the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.

3. When the cream mixture is simmering, start to temper the eggs by adding one cup of the hot liquid into the egg mixture. Then slowly whisk in the tempered egg mixture into the hot cream (you want to make sure that the cream mixture is hot enough at this stage in order to produce a nice and thick cream). Whisk constantly, as the mixture will begin to thicken immediately and leave on the heat for about 30 seconds. Off the heat, whisk in the cold butter and the vanilla. Pour onto pan, lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly over the sauce and refrigerate until cold – about 3 hours.

4. Once the mixture is cold, spread it over the cold, baked pastry sheet and make sure it’s smooth and even. In a decorative fashion, organize sliced kiwi and the strawberries, raspberries and blueberries on top of the cream.

5. You can either serve this pie right away or let it set up in the fridge for an hour or more. To serve, remove the outer metal ring of the tart pan and slide the tart on a serving plate or a cutting board.

Lemon Tart

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:52:09 MST

A perfectly smooth, flavorful lemon tart that has a silken texture and vibrant color. Make sure to only utilize non reactive stainless steel or glass utensils, bowls and tools – you don’t want the tart to take on a metallic flavor. Also make sure to cook the curd immediately after the ingredients have been combined. Serve with some perfectly light whipped cream.

Ingredients:

1 tart shell, fully baked

Lemon Curd:

7 large egg yolks + 2 large eggs
1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar (7.9 oz)
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 4-5 lemons)
¼ cup finely grated lemon zest
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in cubes
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Method:

Make the tart shell by blind baking it for 30 minutes and then finishing it off for 5-8 minutes in a 374 degree oven.

Whisk together the yolks and the whole eggs until combines. Add sugar, continue to whisk, add lemon juice, zest and salt. Whisk until combined, then transfer mixture to a non reactive sauce pan, add butter and cook over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, until the temperature reaches 170 degrees, stirring constantly.

Strain the mixture into a non reactive bowl, stir in heavy cream. Pour the curd into warm tart shell and bake until the filling is shiny and the center jiggles slightly when shaken, about 10 to 15 min. Let cool on a wire rack about 45 minutes, until it reaches room temperature.

Ricotta Cheese Lemon Tart

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:40:02 MST

This is a crisp lemon tart made with ricotta cheese. The ricotta cheese creates a quite different filling – slightly “grainy” at first impression, yet creamy. It forms a firm, delicious custard which we flavored with plenty of lemon juice and zest, vanilla and almond extract. This tart isn’t overly sweet and works perfect in the sweet tart pie shell. Either serve as is, or with some lightly whipped cream or why not with a sweet berry sauce. This tart works nicely as dessert, with afternoon tea, or even as brunch.

Ingredients:

1 sweet tart pie shell
2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
¾ cup sugar
juice and zest from one lemon (about 1 heaping tablespoon of zest and 3 tablespoons of juice)
2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Method:

Prepare a sweet pie dough and blind bake it for about 10 minutes. Let cool.

Whisk the eggs, the yolk and the sugar together well. Add the lemon juice and zest, the vanilla extract, the almond extract and the salt. Incorporate the ricotta cheese until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the cheese mixture into the pie dish. Bake in a 350 degree for about one hour or until the pie is firm but still slightly wiggly in the middle. Let cool before cutting into it.

Homemade Fresh Pumpkin Pie

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:54:41 MST

This is a very simple and tasty pumpkin pie recipe. We used fresh roasted pumpkin, but you could of course use canned pumpkin. If you cook your own pumpkin, be sure to use a small pumpkin and roast it in the oven.

This recipe contains yogurt which makes a good custard. Spices provide good flavor and some maple syrup on top adds a little extra sweetness.

Ingredients

1 pound 3 ounces roasted cubed pumpkin
1 1/4 cups plain yogurt
3/4 cup packed, dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
5 egg yolks
Salt
1 (9-inch) deep dish Pie Crust
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the roasted pumpkin in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment. Add yogurt, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, yolks, and salt to taste, and beat until well combined. Pour this batter into the pie shell and place onto a sheet pan. Drizzle some maple syrup on top and possibly add some roasted nuts.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the custard reaches 165 to 180 degrees. Remove from oven and cool. Keep refrigerated after cooling. Serve with some whipped cream.

Homemade Personal Apple Pies in Ramekins

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:56:33 MST

Apple pie is a tradition around the holidays in America. So we decided to make quicker, more personal versions of this classic dish for dessert one evening.

We used the ramekin form to serve and bake these treats.

4 servings

Ingredients

2 Granny Smith Apples Sliced Thin
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar
1 Pie Crust Dough Recipe

Method

Just like a regular apple pie start out by having your pie dough ready, splitting up the one disc into four smaller rounds and placing them in the ramekins, as pictured on the right.

Once you have rolled out the dough, place the ramekins back in the refrigerator until your filling is ready.

Filling - place the thin sliced granny smith apples in a bowl with the cinnamon, nutmeg and half the sugar. With a spoon toss the apples to coat with the mixture. Let sit for 20 minutes or so.

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees f.

Place the filling in the ramekins with the chilled dough. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar and back for 30-40 minutes. Serve with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Individual Peach Pies with a Hint of Amaretto

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 09:28:04 MST

Today we made some individual peach pies in our cute little ramekins that we get to use far too rarely. We sliced peaches thinly, sweetened them slightly with some sugar and gave them a splash of amaretto, and baked on pie dough.

The result was very good, the amaretto flavor hinted slightly in the background, although we feel as though these little pies needed a little something extra. Next time perhaps we need to add an additional element - some ginger, a pinch of salt, maybe another fruit to balance the flavor, or some more spice with cinnamon or allspice? Nevertheless, it was a very fresh dessert, full of summer flavor.

Individual Peach Pies (4):

1 batch of pie dough (listed below)
4 peaces
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of amaretto

Roll out the dough into 4 round pieces and place in low ramekins. Pre-bake in the oven at 450 degrees for 10 min. Slice the peaces thinly, and mix with sugar and amaretto. Once the ramekins are out of the oven, divide the peaches into the four dishes and place back in the oven for another 10 min.

We served this with some whipped cream, although I think the flavor would probably balance out better with some creme fraiche (or sour cream), or why not with a mix of mascarpone cheese and sour cream? I think such a slightly acidic addition would go nicely with the peaches.

1 batch of pie dough

Method:

Roll the pie dough out and place in a pie dish. Blind bake the dough in a 425 degree oven for 1o min, preferably with some uncooked beans in it to push it down. Sautee the onion and the ham. Take the pie dough out of the oven, and place the Brie slices on top, add the ham and onions, pour the batter over. Place in a 350 degree oven for about 30 min. Let it cool down for about 20 min before cutting it open.

1 batch of pie dough:
6 tablespoons butter, chilled
2 tablespoons Crisco, chilled
6 ounces (approximately 1 cup) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/4 cup ice water, or less

Cut butter and Crisco into small cubes and chill for 10 minutes or so. In the food processor, combine flour and salt by pulsing 3 to 4 times. Add butter and Crisco and pulse 10 times. Remove lid of food processor and add ice water. Replace lid and pulse a few times until it holds together. Place the dough in a zip-top bag, squeeze together until it forms a ball, and then press into a rounded disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer.

Homemade Blueberry Pie

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:08:49 MST

We had an abuncance of blueberries and pondered upon what to make. Well, blueberry pie seemed like an obvious answer - fresh blueberries, flaky crust, vanilla ice-cream... sounds wonderful, right! And I have to say that this home-made pie turned out lovely; the crust was so flaky and crispy, the blueberries were perfectly sweet with a slight hint of tartness.

The pie filled the whole kitchen with that home-baked-pie-aroma, and came out of the oven golden and bubbly. We served this pie with excellent vanilla ice-cream and had to stop ourselves from having too many servings. A quite perfect recipe...

Filling:

3 pints blueberries, we used fresh picked
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tbsp of butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Method:

Mix blueberries, lemon juice, flour, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Make two batches of pie dough, one for the bottom and one for the top (recipe below). Roll out half the dough to about 13 inches and place on the bottom of a 9 inch pie dish. Add the mixed filling of blueberries and top with butter cubes. Roll out the top dough the same as above and place it over the filling, crimp with a fork if desired.

We did not have any eggs for a wash so we did a little milk and brushed it over the crust, then added some coarse sugar. Then make a few slices with a knife to let the dough expand from the steam.

We placed the pie in an oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes then kept it in at 350 degrees for another 25 minutes.

Pie Crust (one batch - make twice the amount to cover for top and bottom):

6 tablespoons butter, chilled
2 tablespoons Crisco, chilled
6 ounces (approximately 1 cup) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/4 cup ice water, or less

Cut butter and Crisco into small cubes and chill for 10 minutes or so.

In the food processor, combine flour and salt by pulsing 3 to 4 times. Add butter and Crisco and pulse 10 times. Remove lid of food processor and add ice water. Replace lid and pulse a few times until it holds together.

I placed the dough in a zip-top bag, squeeze together until it forms a ball, and then press into a rounded disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes.