Strawberry Tart

When I went grocery shopping this week I saw 2lb packages of strawberries on sale. I thought, these can't possibly be good, they're probably selling them at a discount because they're about to go bad or something. Surprisingly though, they looked really good! Then I had to figure out what the heck I was going to do with 2 lbs of strawberries! 

A visit to Confessions of a Tart and the gorgeous photos of her fresh strawberry tart gave me a pretty good idea.

The recipe starts with a Sweet Tart Dough that is frozen before you bake it so no pie weights are necessary (although I just got some at a bridal shower that I have been dying to use)

Ingredients: 

1 ½ Cup all purpose flour

½ cup confectioner's sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 stick plus 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 large egg yolk

1. Combine flour, sugar and salt. Scatter butter pieces over dry ingredients and combine with a pastry cutter. (Confessions of a Tart has directions for doing this with a food processor. I am not lucky enough to have one, but it works just as well by hand.) Stir egg yolk to break it up and add to the dough.  Turn dough onto a work surface and very lightly knead dough to finish incorporating dry ingredients.

2. Butter a 9 inch tart pan (I have an 11 inch, it worked really well, so either would be fine) and lightly press dough evenly into pan. 

3. Prick dough with a fork 4-5 times. Freeze for 30 minutes or preferably longer.

4. To bake crust, center a rack in your oven and preheat to 375˚. Butter the shiny side of aluminum foil and fit, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake crust for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully remove foil. If the crust has puffed, press down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake for another 8 minutes without the foil until firm and golden brown.  Transfer pan to a rack and cool to room temperature. 

The next part is a Pastry Cream. I've never made a pudding or custard, except from those instant pudding packages that you really can't mess up. I'll admit that the first batch I tried of this sat, sadly liquid, in the fridge with me hoping it would magically firm up. It ended up going down the drain. I guess while waiting for your milk to almost boil is not the most opportune time to begin talking to your fiancé about where you may someday move for some job that you don't even have yet. The second time when I actually stayed in the same room as the stove, the custard turned out just right. 

Ingredients: 

2 cups whole milk

½ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

2 large eggs

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

¼ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Pour milk into a heavy saucepan. Add salt, place over medium-high heat and cook until just before boiling point, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, whisk together cornstarch and sugar. Add the eggs and whisk until smooth (don't let the eggs and sugar stand for long). 

2. When milk is ready, slowly drizzle a third of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking continuously. Pour the egg- milk mixture back into the hot milk and continue whisking until the custard is as thick as lightly whipped cream, about 2 minutes. 

3. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a sieve into a bowl. Stir in vanilla extract. Let cool 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

4. Cut butter into 1 tablespoon pieces and whisk into pastry cream 1 tablespoon at a time until smooth. 

5. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, pressing directly onto top of cream to prevent skin from forming and put into fridge to cool.

Then assemble the tart! 

Fill the tart shell with pastry cream

Hull and slice 1 lb of strawberries (more for an 11in. tart pan), reserving one perfect strawberry for the center

Arrange strawberry slices in circles on top of the pastry cream. Put the reserved whole strawberry in the middle. 

Crepe-stravaganza!

I know I told myself no Julia recipes on here, but crepes are just so fun (and seem so foreboding) that I had to post this.

Quick sidebar- the first gift from our registry has been bought and it is- TA DA! the KitchenAid!!! Now, before you go thinking I'm trolling our registry lists trying to keep tabs on what people buy us, my mom called to tell me to check on what color I wanted because Bed, Bath and Beyond had sent her a coupon, plus they were offering some kind of rebate and a year's subscription to Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. So it wasn't cheating.... she told me she was buying it, so I had to go on there to see the validation, really, that's why...

So back to the crepes. When I went to France in college I had my first Crepe. It was divine and glorious and I immediately wanted to make them when I got home. My mom said it couldn't be done. My mom doesn't really like to bake or do crazy stuff in the kitchen, so I don't really know why I believed her when she said this.

I didn't have too hard of a time with them, just followed Julia's instructions to the letter. Generally, I think if you can figure out what she means exactly (some times she is really specific, to the point of including illustrations- and then at times she is frustratingly obtuse) following her instructions to the letter is a guarantee of things turning out perfectly.

We just put some strawberries on our crepes and rolled them, but Dave tried them with some pear & pumpkin butter this morning and said that was good too. They are also good with just a little powdered sugar dusted on top.

Sweet Crepe batter (for stuffed crepes)
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup cold water
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons orange liqueur (I left this out- could have sworn we had some in the house, but we didn't)
1 cup flour
5 tablespoons melted butter

1. Place ingredients in blender in the order they are listed. Cover and blend at top speed for one minute.

2. If bits of flour adhere to the sides of blender, dislodge with spatula and blend 3 seconds more.

3. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.

4. Just before you wish to make the crepes, beat 3 egg whites and a pinch of salt until stiff. Fold half into the batter, fold in the other half, then make the crepes.

The Julia method for crepe-making (word for word more or less, just to preserve her fantastic writing voice)

The first crepe is a trial one to test out the consistency of the batter, the exact amount you need for the pan and the heat.

1. Rub an iron skillet or a crepe pan with a 6 1/2 inch to 7 inch diameter with a piece of fat bacon, pork rind, or a pastry brush dipped lightly in oil. Set over moderately high heat until the pan is just beginning to smoke.

2. Immediately remove pan from heat and, holding the handle of pan in your right hand, pour with your left hand a scant 1/4 cup of batter into the middle of the pan. Quickly tilt the pan in all directions to run the batter all over the bottom of the pan in a thin film. (Pour any batter that does not adhere to the pan back into your bowl; judge the amount for your next crepe accordingly.) This whole operation takes but 2 or 3 seconds.

3. Return the pan to heat for 60-80 seconds. Then jerk and toss pan sharply back and forth and up and down to loosen the crepe. Lift its edges with a spatula and if the under side is a nice light brown, the crepe is ready for turning.

4. Turn the crepe by using 2 spatulas, or grasp the edges nearest you in your fingers and sweep it up toward you and over again into the pan in a reverse circle; or toss it over by a flip of the pan. (I found it much easier to do this by hand than with the spatulas, and couldn't get it to flip- probably because of the pan I was using.)

This one needed more batter, but still tasted great!

5. Brown lightly for about 1/2 minute on the other side. This second side is rarely more than a spotty brown and is always kept as the underneath or nonpublic aspect of the crepe. As they are done, slide the crepes onto a rack and let cool several minutes before stacking on a plate.

6. Grease the skillet again, heat to just smoking, and proceed with the rest of the crepes. Crepes may be kept warm by covering them with a dish and setting them over simmering water or in a slow oven. Or they may be made several hours in advance and reheated when needed. (Crepes freeze perfectly.) As soon as you are used to the procedure, you can keep 2 pans going at once, and make 24 crepes in less than half an hour.