Seeking a specific sweet pastry crust

[stuartlikesstrudel]

Hey all,

In Melbourne (Aus) there is a bakery/patissiere (sp?) called Browns that makes generally high quality pastries, cakes etc.

Yesterday I tried 2 of their tarts, a Lemon tart and a raspberry tart, that both had a crust which I really enjoyed.

It's hard to really describe, but it's quite different to most crusts I've made myself, and i'm not sure how much of this is to do with my technique but i'm pretty sure the recipe is pretty different to what I often see.

Firstly, the crusts were soft but firm. So, when you were getting a spoonful, you could feel the difference between the lemon curd and the pastry, but a firm press would cleanly cut it, no chance of crumbling or shattering. There were basically no crumbs, so it was moist(ish) and i would describe it as dense.

The only thing I can think of is that it wasn't cooked very much, and perhaps had different ingredients than the usual flour/butter/water... maybe some cream, or even powdered sugar as part of it? The pastry was definitely sweet, but not intensely so.

Anyone got any leads on what this might be?

The raspberry tart also had a great custard layer that was so thick (not at all oozy, almost the texture of butter) but worked so well with the raspberries... i think it must have had lots of cream in it and something to make it extra dense (but not just a thickener). This is of less importance to me but would also be interested if anyone can think off the top of their head too...

cheers,

Stuart

[highchef]

Was it served cold?

[dockhl]

Check these out:

PATE BRISEE

and

CREME PATISSERIE

May be just what you need

[stuartlikesstrudel]

Thanks for those links dockhl.

However I think neither are quite right... It's hard for me to explain exactly what it was like, even though i paid careful attention as i ate!!

The pastry wasn't really crumbly at all, like the pate brisee i have made before (again, i'm sure that my pastry skills aren't the best but my understanding is that pate brisee is MEANT to be a quite crumbly and short pastry). The one i had wasn't at all like shortbread. I was thinking of more descriptions, and i guess it's a bit like a cross between a chilled cookie dough and a normal crust... so a bit firmer and crisper than dough.

As for the filling (not the lemon tart one but for the one with raspberries on top), it was seriously dense! Pastry cream is delicious and would work well (like in fruit tarts) but the filling in the raspberry tart it was so much richer and denser than any pastry cream i've had or made. In terms of denseness and firmness, it was a bit less than, but kind of like making a 1:1 chocolate ganache with cream, then chilling it in the fridge... it was SERIOUSLY thick and solid. Almost seems like it wouldn't be good, but it was!

And Highchef, both were served semi-cold... they are sold and stored in the fridge, but they came up to about room temp before we ate them.

thanks for trying to help

[hummingbirdkiss]

there is a German pastry that is almost like a light crispy sugar cookie ..in fact my friend who is German uses a standard sugar cookie dough (not a very sweet one) rolled out thin as a tart crust ..if this sounds like what you may want I can ask her for the recipe ...it is crispy and more like a cookie than a pie dough ..not a sweet cookie but a cookie she uses it for tarts and cheesecake actually

Edited April 6, 2008 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[gfron1]

The brisee that I make from Amernick's book sounds exactly like what you are talking about. She has you smear it on the counter with the heel of your hand for a while to build the structure. Those suckers are delicate but not flakey and not crumbly. I think I described it in detail in the Amernick topic.

[Tri2Cook]

The raspberry tart also had a great custard layer that was so thick (not at all oozy, almost the texture of butter) but worked so well with the raspberries... i think it must have had lots of cream in it and something to make it extra dense (but not just a thickener). This is of less importance to me but would also be interested if anyone can think off the top of their head too...

cheers,

Stuart

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When I make a custard or curd and set it with a bit of agar so that it can be sliced and hold it's shape it's similar to what you're describing. It looks like it's going to be too firm but actually it's still nice and creamy when you eat it. The Ideas in Food folks do something similar with custards using carrageenan but I don't know the exact details of what they do. They're awesome about sharing their ideas and discoveries but sometimes they just point you in the right direction and leave some of the discovery to you (which is fun in my opinion) and I haven't worked on that one yet because I've been happy with my agar versions. I'll get to it one of these days though.

[McDuff]

there is a German pastry that is almost like a light crispy sugar cookie  ..in fact my friend who is German uses a standard sugar cookie dough (not a very sweet one) rolled out thin as a tart crust ..if this sounds like what you may want I can ask her for the recipe ...it is crispy and more like a cookie than a pie dough ..not a sweet cookie but a cookie she uses it for tarts and cheesecake actually

←

would that be murbeteig? (sp)?

[rooftop1000]

This sounds so much like a crust I had recently in a fruit tart. The pie was a gift and I was warned the baker wasnt happy with the crust.

I know very little about types of crusts usually only making the basic shortening/flour/ice water type but I know what was wrong with this crust....

it was overworked which made it soft and verging on crumbly - almost roux like but it also had a great browned butter flavor.

On the whole it was one of the best tart crusts I have ever had

go figure

tracey