Friday, July 11, 2008

Raspberry Tarts ala Z


This is great! Z does a great deal of the work, and I get to post the picture! We baked off the tart shells on Thursday the 26th of June, then painted the inside with chocolate to protect the crispiness of the baked shells. Then we packaged them up, and Z took them to eastern Washington along with a cooler filled with pastry creme, (some cookbooks list this as creme patisserie), raspberries, fresh mint, and piping bags. Then the assembly - pretty self explanatory really - fill tarts with pastry creme, arrange raspberries decoratively, pipe on some whipped cream, add a mint leaf or two and a shaving of chocolate and voila, you've got wedding dessert for 80 people.
Now I personally think you should always have a wedding cake, but this turned out wonderful. And we threw in a side serving of pine nut tarts!


Pastry Creme

1 cup milk
3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 t. vanilla
1/2 cup well-chilled heavy cream


Scald the milk. In a clean pan whisk together the egg yolks, the sugar, the cornstarch and the vanilla. Whisk in the milk and bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly. Simmer for 3 minutes -- it will be very thick --transfer it to a bowl and chill it, its surface covered with plastic wrap, for 4 hours or until it is firm. (May be made one day ahead.) Beat the heavy cream until it holds stiff peaks. Whisk the pastry cream until it is smooth, whisk in half the whipped cream, fold in the remaining cream gently but thoroughly.

10 comments:

Peter M said...

Lisa, way to go...these are lovely, classy and good enuff to eat 3!

Anonymous said...

Lisa, I am impressed, they look good and a pine nut tart...sounds interesting. Glad you are back and having fun.

Lisa said...

Peter - oh yeah, three is not too many!

Kim - wild weekend baking, but loving it. Your veggie supper looked divine!

Nina Timm said...

I cook for many people and I love setting up systems where things g fast, but still have maximum effect.

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

Oh my goodness...these look so good!

Anonymous said...

I sure hope this is the berry recipe you're submitting for the July contest! Because it sure looks fantastic :).

Sophie
KI Chief Blogger

Ann said...

Don't you just love little tartlets? There is something so fetching about them. These are really beautiful and fresh and summery....

....and addicting..... :)

Lisa said...

Nina - yep, nothing like a little production line with gorgeous and satisfying results!

lisa - thanks - I didn't actually get to eat one! Must remedy that this weekend . . . .

Sophie - eep! the month is zipping by so fast that I may end up with this one, though I do have others in mind!

Ann - hey, you're really back! yes, there's nothing quite like the charm of something that's bite-sized! Kinda like your pups! :)

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