Spring Treats: Lemon Curd Tart with Fresh Berries

Well, spring has sprung in New Jersey, and the weather has been nice enough that I have spent all my time working in the garden and not blogging!  This year, we are expanding our vegetable and herb gardens and have constructed three 4x6 wooden raised beds in our backyard for our little experiment.  So we have been weeding, leveling, sanding, nailing, composting, shoveling and tilling our little hearts out over the last month.  Now, with Mother's Day just around the corner and the last of winter's frost hopefully behind us, we are almost ready to plant. 

With the beginning of spring always comes a craving for fresh flowers and produce.  Those anemic bunches of fresh herbs at the grocery store pale in comparison to the lush basil plants you can bring home.  Fruit that tasted flat all winter, suddenly melts in your mouth with sun-kissed sweetness.  Farmer's markets begin to open and lighter seasonal fare is what is on the menu.

So when I was asked to bring a dessert for an Easter Brunch, I knew it was time to bust out a fruit tart.  The berries are just starting to taste like they should - even if they aren't local (we'll have to wait another month or so for Jersey Fresh blueberries) - and this was the perfect way to celebrate the beginning of Spring.  While this may appear time consuming, with too many separate components, the labor can easily be divided over a number of days if necessary.  Make the pastry dough one day.  Make the lemon curd the next.  Roll out and bake the dough yet another day, and assemble the day of.  Investing a few minutes here are there makes this a relatively stress free dessert that is guaranteed to get lots of ooohs and ahhhs!  Not sure what to do with 10 egg whites?  Stay tuned for a recipe for Chocolate Angel Food Cake!  Enjoy!

Lemon Curd Tart with Fresh Berries



Pastry:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
6 tbs cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Lemon Curd:

10 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
zest of 4 lemons, grated
12 tbs unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)

2 pints of strawberries, stem end of each cut flat
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup strawberry jam

Special Equipments: A 9-inch Tart Pan, preferably with a removable bottom, like this

Make the pastry dough.  Sift the flour and confectioners' sugar into the work bowl of a food processor and add the cold butter cubes.  Place the work bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes - cold butter makes for a flaky pastry crust!  In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk with the vanilla, 1 tbs of ice water and a pinch of salt.  Place this bowl in the fridge.  When the ten minutes are up, pulse the mixture in the food processor until the mixture begins to resemble oatmeal or bread crumbs.  Add the egg yolk mixture and process.  If you need more liquid, slowly add more ice water one teaspoon at a time.  Stop just as the dough looks like it is about to clump, not once it has.  When it looks about right, take it out and press it together to form a fat disc.  Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. 

Make the lemon curd.  In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan, vigorously whisk the sugar and egg yolks for about 1 minute.  Add the lemon juice and zest and continue whisking for about a minute more.  Set the pan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture has thickened to about the consistency of pudding (about 15 minutes).  If you have the heat too high, you will scramble the eggs - so keep it low and be patient!  Remove from the heat and stir in the butter.  Let cool, stirring occasionally, before transferring to an airtight container and refrigerating.  This makes about 2 cups - which should be more than enough to fill the tart.  Extra lemon curd can keep in a sterilized, airtight container for about a month.

Roll out the pastry.  Unwrap the disk of dough and roll out on a floured work surface - you want it to be about a 13-inch round.  Fold the dough over your rolling pin and gently carry the dough over the tart pan.  Carefully press the dough into the pan, letting it hang slightly over the rim.  Then, take your rolling pin and roll it over the edges to cut off the pastry at the top.  You can either proceed to blind bake it now, or cover it with plastic and refrigerate until later.

Bake the pastry.  When you want to bake, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place a baking sheet in it to warm.  Line the pastry with tin foil and fill with dried beans (to weigh the pastry down when baking).  Bake on the hot sheet for 15 minutes.  Take the pastry out of the oven, remove the beans and foil, and cut the foil into strips.  Fold a couple of foil strips on the edges of the crust so they do not burn.  Reduce the oven to 350 degrees and put the tart pan back in the oven (without the baking sheet) and bake for another 10-12 minutes or until it begins to color lightly.  Sweetened pastry dough burns more easily, so watch it!  Let the pastry cool completely.

Assemble.  When the pastry is cooled, spoon roughly 1 1/2 cups of the chilled lemon curd into the pastry shell and spread until smooth and even.  Stand the strawberries in the curd and sprinkle the blue berries over them.  In a microwave safe bowl, warm the jam to thin it.  Then, with a pastry brush, paint the berries with the warmed jam.  This will give the berries a nice shine.  Chill until the tart sets - at least 1 hour, or up to 6 hours.  Release from the tart pan and serve chilled.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Sometimes, life just gets you down.  The kids get sick. You lose your wallet.  Or your keys.  Or both.  The basement floods. Your child is on his fourth outfit and 5th major temper tantrum of the day.  And it's not even noon.  The toilet overflows.  The car dies.   The computer crashes.  The dinner burns.  Sometimes, the Man just crusheth.

You know what makes it better?

Chocolate. Peanut. Butter. Pie.

Seriously.  Was there ever a better match made in foodie-heaven than chocolate and peanut butter?  Or one more comforting?  Well. Cut yourself a little slice of heaven, pour a hot cup of strong coffee and enjoy a few moments of delicious solitude.

It may seem like there are a lot of steps to this dessert.  Each step, however, is relatively quick, straight forward and easy to do in advance.  So make the dough one day.  Roll it out and bake it the next.  Make the filling and let the whole thing sit in the fridge overnight to set.  Invest a few minutes over a couple of days and you'll have a show-stopping dessert that you can keep in the fridge all week - if it lasts that long...

Ingredients:

For the crust:


1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened coco powder, plus more for dusting
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks), chilled, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 tbs, plus 2 tsp of ice water

For the filling: 

1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Special equipment: 12-inch round tart shell, preferably with a removable bottom.  

Directions:

Make the pastry.  Combine the flour, powdered sugar, coco, salt and baking soda in the work bowl of a food processor.  Pulse a few times to blend.  Add the cold butter chunks and pulse until it forms pea-sized crumbs.  Add the ice water and pulse just until the dough comes together.  Turn out the dough and shape into a disk.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Roll out the dough on a sheet of parchment paper dusted with coco powder.  Add more coco to the surface of the dough, or the rolling pin, to prevent sticking.  Gently fit the dough into the tart shell, paper side up.  Peel off the paper and carefully press the dough into the pan.  Roll the rolling pin over the top of the shell to cut off the excess dough.  Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Preheat the over to 350 degrees.  Butter a piece of aluminum foil large enough to cover the tart and place the foil butter-side down on top of the pastry dough.  Weigh the foil down with dried beans, rice, or pie weights.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until a tooth pick inserted in the dough comes out clean.  Let cool completely.

Make the filling.  Either by hand or with a mixer, whisk 3/4 cup of the heavy cream in a large bowl to stiff peaks.  Transfer the whipped cream to another container and refrigerate.  In the same large mixing bowl, add the cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth (4-5 minutes).  Using a spatula, gently fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture.  Spread evenly into the chocolate pastry shell.  Cover the tart with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic wrap against the filling (to prevent a skin from forming).  Refrigerate for several hours, until set, or overnight.

Put the 6 ounces of chopped chocolate in a medium bowl.  In a small saucepan, heat the remaining 3/4 cups heavy cream to a boil.  Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate.  Whisk until smooth and allow to cool to luke warm.  Pour the chocolate over the tart and smooth with a spatula.  Refrigerate until the chocolate sets (about 1 hour), or until ready to serve.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

I am always amazed how a taste or a smell can instantly transport you back to a long-forgotten time or place. That food can evoke such strong emotions and memories within us is a testament to just how fundamental a part it is in our history, culture and daily lives. When I think of summer, I think of fresh, ripe, mouthwatering sweet strawberries. We used to grow them in our backyard when I was a child – hearty little plants that would sprout and quickly escape the confines of the flower bed. Those little white flowers were always the harbinger of summer, a prelude to the luscious red fruit to come. We as consumers have become accustomed to enormous, bright red, California strawberries that are available year round. Ironically, the sweetest and most flavorful strawberries are always the smallest. They also make the best pies.

I have always enjoyed baking. Yet somehow, the one dessert that has always eluded me is pie. Specifically, my problem is the crust – finding the right combination of butter, shortening, flour and sugar is surprisingly difficult. While the ingredients are simple enough, making good, flaky pastry is more of an art than a science. Experienced pie bakers know how pastry dough should feel and how to adjust ingredients to achieve the right texture. These are not skills I posses. So I have been looking for the perfect recipe for a novice pie baker.

Note the very unprofessional lattice-job. My friend

Siu-Li has since shared with me the secret of a perfect

lattice,which I will share with you with the next pie!

A good strawberry-rhubarb pie is a thing of beauty: sweet yet tart and tangy, a little slice of summer. More importantly, it always reminds me of Oregon summerswhere I grew up and where rhubarb is plentiful from April to July. This recipe is heavy on the rhubarb (4 cups), which makes it perfectly tangy. Don't worry, the two cups of strawberries and cup of sugar balance out the rhubarb nicely for a sweet yet punchy pie. When I first looked at the recipe for the crust, I was surprised to see cream cheese in place of shortening. Without the shortening, the crust looses the flaky quality that many pie bakers prefer. What the crust lacks in the flake department, it makes up in taste. This crust has oodles of flavor and you would never suspect cream cheese as a major ingredient. It is also really easy to make - perfect for a novice pie baker like myself.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Adapted from: Art Smith's Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family.  Hyperion. (October 2001).

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt.

Divide the dough into 2 thick disks, one slightly larger than the other.

For the filling:

4 cups chopped rhubarb (about 1 1/2 lbs)

1 pint strawberries, quartered (about 2 cups)

1 cup plus 1 tablespoons sugar

1/3 cup all-pupose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grate zest of one lemon

1 large egg, lightly beated with 1 teaspoon of water

Make the Dough.  In the bowl of a stand-mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until well blended.  Add the flour, sugar, and salt and mix just until the dough just starts to come together. It should be crumbly, but when pressed it will hold together.  Shape into two disks, one slightly larger than the other.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Make the filling.  Preheat to 400 degrees.  Roll out the larger of the two disks to roughly 1/8-inch thickness.  Gently transfer to a pie-pan and refrigerate while making the filling. 

In a large bowl, combine the rhubarb, strawberries, 1 cup of the sugar, flour, vanilla, and lemon zest. Let stand until the fruit begins to release its juices - about 15 minutes. Pour into the pie shell.

Roll the second disk of the dough into a 1/8-inch thick circle, and cut into strips with a pizza cutter, pastry wheel or sharp knife.  Carefully arrange the strips across the top of the pie in a lattice pattern.  Fold the edges of the botton crust over the ends of the strips and, using a fork, seal the dough together. Brush the lattice strips with some of the egg white and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar. Place the pie on the baking sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes, Reduce the oven temperature to 350 derees and bake until the juices int he center of the pie are bubbing, about 45 to 55 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.