WARNING: This tart is so delicious my husband Frank and I ate half of it within one sitting.
To begin my Ferrandi journey, I decided what better place to begin in this massive tome than at the beginning. My first challenge was a “level 1” strawberry tart. It seemed simple enough to begin with, a sweet short crust (that I had never made), a pistachio-almond cream (again never made) pastry cream (Thankfully I recognized that!) and then some beautiful strawberries topped with a strawberry glaze.
With that, I was ready to make the tart! Until, of course, I realized that I did not have half the ingredients/materials. Upon realizing that I do not own a tart pan, I decided to try a 9 inch springform pan instead. I was able to mold the dough just as well, and to make it pretty on the side used my thumb to make indents since i would not be able to get that crisp edge.
I also needed pistachio paste and holy cow was it expensive! 32 dollars for a small little thing of pureed pistachios. Instead, I economically bought some pre-shelled pistachios off Amazon for 22, which I then blended in my food processor. If you don’t have a food processor it’s totally worth the investment! However, I only needed 1 0z, and this gave me way more. Next time I will weight out the pistachios first. Now, I will have to find a recipe to utilize this paste, a chore I very much look forward to.
Link here for the pistachios:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002UVNF18psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Then I said ok is there anything else I need for this before I begin? I realized that it called for strawberry syrup and I a)did not have strawberry syrup and b)didn’t know how to make it. So, I did a quick search and found a great recipe for strawberry syrup. If you’re making this tart, do yourself a favor and use this quick and easy recipe below! Super simple, very hands off and very yummy! (Frank ate it on toast for breakfast this morning, until I told him how much sugar was in it!)
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/223462/simple-strawberry-syrup/
Ok FINALLY I was ready to go. I came home from work and rolled up my sleeves, the little one underfoot. After I made sure SHE had her apron on, I began with the pastry cream first. I started with this first because I knew it would have to cool and wanted to be able to assemble the entire tart in one night.
Making pastry cream is very simple, but I definitely recommend using a whisk that has a silicon or rubber handle. Otherwise, you will burn your fingers off as the heat radiates through it. Also, it was definitely my arm workout for the night. Other than that, the pastry cream came together in literally 5 minutes. The step by step instructions on page 196 of the Ferrandi cookbook were super clear and informative. I also took the advice of laying it out on a thin layer to cool it, and spread it between two silicon macaron mats on a baking sheet before putting it in the fridge.
I then moved on to creating the sweet crust pastry which came together using my kitchen-aid in literally five minutes. I handled it as little as possible and literally mixed until it was just combined. I also really think that using a kitchen scale for this was vital, including for the measurement of the egg. I would have dumped in an entire egg normally, but I followed the grams and measure out exactly. The result was such a crisp tart shell that I would not dare to go without a kitchen scale.
After the dough chilled, I actually rolled it right over my springform pan without the sides on, and then put the side of the pan on and used my fingers to push in a thin, one inch side. I used my rolling pin that has the levels so that the crust was even throughout. I then threw it in the freezer to chill it and while chilling it mixed the pistachio cream. This was the most straight forward part because all it took was dumping the items in my mixer and whipping it up.
Surprisingly, I was almost done! Everything just needed to chill now to come to temperature, so after baking the tart shell (closer to 40 minutes rather than the 30 it called for, and I took the sides off to really get the sides of the tart golden) I threw it in the fridge. Because I never had arranged fruit before, I took the outer ring of the springform pan and decided to practice it. This also allowed me to cut the strawberries in advance and know exactly how many I would need.
Feeling confident, I made the syrup. The only alteration I made with the syrup was instead of using gelatin sheets I used powdered gelatin because I found it is more accessible in store. The ratio of water to gelatin I used to soak was 4:1, so I weighed out 4 grams of gelatin and soaked it in 20 grams of water. This also called for a strawberry puree, so I blended some in the food processor as well.
Tada!
Reality:
Expectation:
Overall, I was very happy with the results! I found that the recipe was not difficult technique-wise, but was demanding with time. Making things ahead of time and breaking it up definitely made it easier. For example I was able to eat dinner and play with my daughter in between steps. All in all though, even with wait times, I began at around 4:30 and finished by 7:30.
My advice before beginning any of these recipes is to look at the ingredients list. Many things on the list (pistachio paste, strawberry syrup, and strawberry puree for example) required some preparation outside of the actual tart making.
Have you made this or a similar recipe? Let me know in the comments! If you want to follow along with me, here is a link for the cookbook.
Bon Appetit!
The Pastry Parent 