Fruit Tarts, Galettes, Crostata with the Seasons

[ludja]

Glorious fruit tarts--fresh fruits on top of pastry cream, simply cooked fruits on a galette, fruits nestled in frangipane, fruit jam beneath eggs, sweet butter and cream, fresh fruits en gelee... the myriad variations are delicious and beautiful to the eye and spirit.

I thought tt might be fun to 'follow' the fruits though the seasons and share our favorite experiences, ideas, recipes, etc.

To start off, what are some of your favorite incarnations using the bounty of spring and early summer?

Spring: rhubarb, strawberries, pineapples, mangoes, lemons, limes, ...

Coming up: apricots, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, gooseberries, huckleberries, nectarines, peaches, plums...

One of my all time favorites is a raspberry tart from Patricia Well's excellent book

Bistro Cooking ($$ for egullet if you order through link).

She credits this recipe to the Cafe du Jura in Lyons. The crust is a cookie-like sable crust (easy and delicious). The rest of the ingredients number only four: fresh raspberries, egg yolks, creme fraiche and sugar. In the finished tart the individual raspberries peak though the custard. The creme fraiche gives all a delightful tang but does not overpower the clear raspberry taste. As she mentions in the forward to the recipe; this is truly a sublime alternative to eating raspberries with cream and sugar.

(Cooking note: I make the tart in the 10 1/2 inch tart pan she recommends, but I increase the amount of raspberries by 50% and the amount of custard by 25% to fill the pan with a single layer of raspberries).

Edited May 3, 2004 by ludja (log)

[nightscotsman]

Here in Las Vegas we seem to be completely seasonless. At the Bellagio we make several types of fresh fruit tarts for the hotel restaurants:

- A mixed fruit tart (about 10-15 different kinds depending on who's making them that day), with Grand Marnier pastry cream on a breton sable base.

- A sugar free tart with mixed fruit in a puff pastry shell with berry mousse.

- A raspberry "tower" tart with pistachio pastry cream on breton sable. These were really tricky to learn, but I'm getting much better at making them. They feature about a half pint of beautiful raspberries on a 2 to 2-1/2 in base. The berries are piled into a high cone filled with cream and sprinkled with chopped pistachios. One of my favorite things to eat that we make.

- For the Petrossian afternoon tea we make these little strawberry tarts than are increadibly fussy. We slice a single stawberry paper thin vertically, fan out the slices and wrap them around a pistachio pastry cream filling. Then we carefully bring in the narrow tops to form cone around the cream on top of a 1-1/2 inch sponge cake base. sprinkle with chopped pistachios, place two white chocolate squiggles coming out of the top, and a single dot of gold leaf.

- The other tart we to for Petrossian is on a flat 1-1/2 square of coconut cake. Over a layer of coconut pastry cream, they each get 1/4 a strawberry, a cantalope ball, three tiny wedges of kiwi, half a raspberry, a blueberry dusted with powdered sugar, and a small mound of mango brunoise. Garnish with toasted coconut and a tiny white chocolate triangle colored green.

[Swisskaese]

Wow Nightscotsman, that sounds amazing. How about some pictures!!!!

What is mango brunoise? Can I have a recipe for the pistachio pastry cream?

BTW - I just ordered the Bruce Healey book you suggested. I think a pistachio cream filling would be good for my Crottin cakes!

Edited May 3, 2004 by Swisskaese (log)

[nightscotsman]

I keep meaning to take my digital camera to work, but I should have some photos later this week (my weekend starts tomorrow).

The pistachio pastry cream is just regular pastry cream mixed with pistachio paste and lightened with whipped cream. The proportions we use are:

1000 g cold pastry cream

40 g pistachio paste

200 g whipped cream (whipped very stiff)

In cooking, a brunoise is a very tiny dice - the mango we do is less than 1/8" cubes.

[KarenS]

I really enjoy making fruit tarts. We sell about 12 ten inch tarts in our espresso bar every day. I make assorted fillings-creme fraiche, buttermilk, rum, brown butter, lemon, almond cream, hazelnut cream, and use whatever fruit is "good".

[JFLinLA]

Well if you'll let an amateur chime in -- I'm planning on making a strawberry tart for Mother's day this coming weekend -- I'm using the recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets though I'm using Nightscotsman's recipe for strawberry marshmallows. Those are already made. I also made some lemon curd for the lime meltaways from S. Yard's book.

[Swisskaese]

Thanks Nightscotsman for the recipe!

[nightscotsman]

Well I finally remembered to take my digital camera to work last week, so here are some of the things we are doing with fresh fruit for restaurants at the Bellagio:

These are the the fruit tarts we make for Palio, the small coffee and lunch place near the Art Gallery entrance. The base is a sablé Breton and the filling is Grand Marnier pastry cream:

These raspberry tarts are also sold at Palio. They are about five inches tall and filled with pistachio pastry cream on a sablé Breton base:

These are some mini fruit tarts that are served at afternoon tea at Petrossian, the caviar and champange bar near the hotel lobby. They are about 1-1/2 inches square and the base is a coconut cake with coconut pastry cream:

And these are the really fussy-to-make strawberry tarts also served at Petrossian. The base is sponge cake and they are filled with pistachio pastry cream:

[SethG]

ludja, this thread is a great idea!

I made a rhubarb upside-down cake a couple weeks ago (from Baking With Julia). Anyone with his or her thinking cap on can find a picture of it somewhere on eGullet, but there's no way I'm posting a pic of that ugly cake here after nightscotsman's photos!

I'd love to hear of other people's favorite pies/tarts to follow the seasons. I'm going to take a look at that Patricia Wells raspberry thing.

What else should we be making right now? In the northeast U.S., the rhubarb seems to be disappearing, and the strawberries still suck. This has dimmed my enthusiasm for a rhubarb/strawberry pie.

[Swisskaese]

Neil, those pastries are gorgeous. I would love to have a raspberry tart. Wow!

Tel Aviv to Las Vegas......hmmmmmm......

[beans]

Those are lovely Neil. Thank you for posting the photos.

I adore fresh fruit tarts/tartlets -- looking at, eating (read: snarfing them in a most unlady like manner) or making them!

[ludja]

I made a rhubarb upside-down cake a couple weeks ago (from Baking With Julia).  Anyone with his or her thinking cap on can find a picture of it somewhere on eGullet, but there's no way I'm posting a pic of that ugly cake here after nightscotsman's photos!

Depending where you are, it is kind of between seasons for peak fruit right now isn't it? We're a little ahead in CA so it is now pretty much full-fledged strawberry season and rhubarb is getting more difficult to find.

A few weeks ago I made a french rhubarb custard tart (Tarte a la Rhubarbe) that was great. I'll give a general description such that perhaps one could duplicate or adapt a recipe.

It had a pate sucree dough that also had some ground almonds in it. The dough is fit into a springform pan, with dough edge ~ 2 inches high and blindbaked. The rhubarb is stewed; drained of excess liquid and then layered into the blind-baked crust. Pour over it a very simple custard made by whisking together 3 eggs, 5 Tbs sugar, 1 1/4 cup creme fraiche, 1 tsp vanilla and 5 Tbs cooled and melted butter. Then bake at 375 deg for ~ 30 min. (Can also use cream rather than creme fraiche). To decorate I put a cicle over the tart such that ~ a 2 inch perimeter of cake showed; then dusted with confectioner's sugar to get a sugar rim.

I probably made this because I like the creme fraiche raspberry tart a lot...

Luckily??? I don't have a digital camera so I don't have to showcase my humble home creations with nightscotsmans!! Those look incredible; I had been trying to picture the raspberry cones. (This may get me down to Bellagio's as I'm still a Las Vegas virgin).

That said, I love the look of rustic tarts also. It will be cool to see both home and professional versions...

[ludja]

What else should we be making right now?  In the northeast U.S., the rhubarb seems to be disappearing, and the strawberries still suck.  This has dimmed my enthusiasm for a rhubarb/strawberry pie.

Don't know if the thread title will keep "pie" afficionados away, but I think it would be great to include seasonal fruit pies in the mix too. (and grunts, slumps, rolls, crumbles, cobblers....)

When I lived in colder climes back East and wanted fruit desserts at this time of year I often went to citrus--still good and abundant, or pineapple. I've always wanted to make a classic french tart with sliced oranges under glaze. Also--how are mangoes back East now? Here they are pretty decent.

Although strawberries are still on the horizon for some folks, I'd love to hear if any one has favorite strawberry tart/pie ideas. Not sure if any of them can beat strawberry shortcake though...

edited to add: Actually nightscotman's strawberry tarts sound wonderful to me--spongecake, pistachio cream, berries and pistachios on top. Maybe I will try them in a home form--single large tart--with strawberries flat!

Edited May 12, 2004 by ludja (log)

[SethG]

Cherries have just hit New York's markets in the past week, although they're still expensive.

Any favorite cherry creations?

(By the way, I noticed in one of nightscotsman's photos that his strawberries-- from Driscoll's-- are the same ones I get in NYC! I think they taste like styrofoam. Do they taste better after they're macerated in sugar? Does the quality matter less when they're glazed? I mean no insult to the Bellagio; I'm asking in all seriousness.)

[achevres]

nightscotsman Posted on May 12 2004, 07:40 AM T hese raspberry tarts are also sold at Palio. They are about five inches tall and filled with pistachio pastry cream on a sablé Breton base:

I should know better than to read the baking forum right before lunch. These tarts are trying to jump out the screen and into my mouth!

Questions: Do you pipe the pistachio pastry cream in a cone shape and then "glue" the raspberries on? How do they stay on in that gravity-defying shape? Yes, I'm asking for the secret...

Thanks for posting the photos.

[nightscotsman]

(By the way, I noticed in one of nightscotsman's photos that his strawberries-- from Driscoll's-- are the same ones I get in NYC!  I think they taste like styrofoam.  Do they taste better after they're macerated in sugar?  Does the quality matter less when they're glazed?  I mean no insult to the Bellagio; I'm asking in all seriousness.)

The strawberries we get in the kitchen from Driscoll's are usually quite good. Not as good and the wonderful berries I grew up with picking myself in Oregon, but better than most from the supermarket. They are almost always red-ripe and juicy. We go through a LOT of them, too. The chocolate room alone dips 1000 strawberries (more like 1500 on Saturdays) in chocolate every day.

Questions: Do you pipe the pistachio pastry cream in a cone shape and then "glue" the raspberries on? How do they stay on in that gravity-defying shape? Yes, I'm asking for the secret...

Those tarts were the bane of my existence for the first week or so I was on the fruit station. The trick is to get the berries packed together tightly enough that you see as little pastry cream as possible. You start with a glob of cream in the middle of the base and set a ring of raspberries around it. Then pipe in a bit more cream and another row of berries - and so on making each row a little smaller each time. Everybody has their own variation on the technique. Some people like to put a raspberry into the pastry cream in the middle of each level for structure and stability, but I find it's easier to form the cone shape without the berries in the middle.

Glad you liked the pictures!