So I was excited to make this week's tart because I had just
been to the farmers market and saw the plethora of plums available. It was
difficult to choose from the many different varieties, but after many samples,
I stuck with the tart Santa Rosa plums that the book calls for.
This tart was actually one of the easiest ones so far. There
are only three components: pate sucrée, almond cream, and plums. The crust
isn't even blind baked, just rolled out, filled with almond cream, and arranged
with plums on top. The almond cream I made the night before, fairly easy, no
cooking involved. The plums gave me a bit of a problem. I had a hard time
cutting them, removing the pits and slicing them into uniform pieces. The fruit
was so juicy and slippery that it was difficult to slice. The slices were also
difficult to place in a spiral pattern because they were so slippery, but I did
my best.
After the allotted 45 minutes baking time, the tart was
done. It smelled amazing, and although it didn't look as pretty as the book, it
tasted great. The sweet crust and almond filling are a good balance to the tart
plums. I did notice that after sitting overnight, the tart got very soft. I
wasn't able to slice it cleanly, since the crust had softened up quite a bit
from the juices of the plums.
Overall, a very easy and satisfying tart. The book suggests
you use any fruit, peaches or apples or whatever is in season, and that's a great
idea. Maybe sour cherries? Yum!
Jonathan
I made a lot of the pate sucre to practice before making the
tart. I used one portion for a quarter sheet pan size for my first plum tart
practice. For the second batch I made 10 individual 4.5" tarts in shells
for a dinner party. Rolling between two layers of plastic wrap was ideal for
maintaing the balance of ingredients without drying it out with additional
flour.
The almond cream filling was really simple and delicious but
I added the portion of pastry cream to make it frangipane (I just like it
more.) However Bouchon's frangipane has a higher moisture overall that what I
expected - next time I will try using just the almond cream.
I also put apricot glaze over the tarts as soon as they came
out of the oven. This helps make them a little shiny as well as seal the
moisture and fruit.
All in all this is a very simple item to make but I like
that much of it requires skill to perfect. Working with the pate sucre in 10
individual tarts was trying at first, but rotating dough in and out of the
refrigerator as I worked helped make it much more manageable - and easier to
handle. Now that I found a couple of the 8" professional steel rings, I
will make apricot tarts this week with the remainder of the pate sucre.
Guest Baker: Amy
11" tart, 75 minutes
11" tart, 75 minutes
I was really excited to make this one. It did not disappoint. I only had an 11 inch tart pan. So I used the large batch of pastry cream and
I'm glad I did because it's pretty tasty. Although, truth be told, I added extra 1/4c con sugar. But because I used
so much pastry cream it bubbled up through the fruit. I used A LOT of plums, but when the cream came
through the fruit I was scared I hadn't used enough plums. But there was still sooo much tart plum that
it balanced well. The recipe was
extremely easy to make. The almond
pastry cream was super simple. I already
had pate sucree. So it was easy to make
in no time.
I ate it piping hot even
though Thomas Keller said resist the urge.
I couldn't. I think it would be
soooooooo delicious with peaches. Because it was a larger tart than the book called for I had to bake for
about 75 minutes. I can't wait for my
husband to get home from work. This will
be right up his alley.
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