Thursday, June 21, 2007

Tarte aux Framboise

So many raspberries, so little time. I am spending my first 2 hours outside each day picking raspberries.
This has gone on for the last 2 weeks and averaging a kilo and a half each day. The end is in sight. We have many bags of frozen berries in the freezer and a 20 some jars of raspberry jam.
Raspberries with fromage blanc and sugar is a nice instant dessert and really too good to be so simple.
I have a linzer tart recipe that I will print soon, but tonight I want to give the classic Tarte aux Framboise.
This is the tart that you find in season in all patisseries . It has to be fresh. It can be finished with a dusting of powdered sugar or glazed with a coating of thinned red currant jelly.
You need to make a pre cooked crust.
This is for a 25 cm tart. You really need a low tart pan for this! The kind with a removeable bottom is the best.
The Crust:
Mix together 125 g. of soft butter
250 g. of flour
100 g. of sugar
1 egg

Here's a trick, melt the butter first and let it cool so it doesn't start to cook the other ingredients and mix them all together fast. The dough should hold together in a firm ball. Press it into the tart pan and refrigerate for an hour.
Then bake the crust after poking it with a fork at 325 for a about 15 minutes, check to see that it is just begining to brown.

You need to make a batch of creme patissiere:
2.5 cl of milk
75 gr of sugar
10 gr of flour
15 gr of cornstarch
1 egg
a quarter teaspoon of vanilla

Mix together the sugar, flour, cornstarch and the egg.
Bring the milk to a boil and add the vanilla. Then add the sugar and flour, egg and cornstarch and cook it for 2 to 3 minutes. It will thicken. Cool it down and when it is cool, spread it in the cooked tart crust.
Then take your fresh raspberries and and cram as many as you dare, as esthetically as you can and dust with the sugar or glaze with the thinned heated currant jelly.
This tart is not made for tomorrow! Eat and enjoy it today!
Bon apetit, bien sur!

2 comments:

historymike said...

It will be another few weeks until my raspberries arrive, and they are one of my natural markers of the passing of time.

historymike said...

Here's a picture of my unripened raspberries, which are nothing but fuzzy cores at the moment.