Baking For Robby: Mastering the Art of French . . . . Baking

Robby and I went to the Library.

Guess what i got?

Don't know what it is?

Here is a hint . . . .

Can you see it?

MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING

Julia Child's famous first cookbook. (Yes, the one from the movie.)

This book is all encompassing, and does not have that many dessert recipes. I decided to make something simple and decidedly French (and hone my pie crust skills for thanksgiving) so i went with the Pear Custard Tart.

The most important thing about this post is going to be the making of the tart shell, as this will teach you how to make almost any pie/tart/quiche/etc. crust.

For a dessert tart shell it is called pate brisee.

Pate brisee

1 1/2 cups of flour

1/4 cup of cold filtered water

3 tbs butter

2 tbs shortening

pinch of salt

1 tbs sugar

People often seemed intimidated by pie crusts. Psssht . . . you shouldn't be.

Once you make them 2-3 times and master the technique you will be surprised at how easy fast and rewarding it is.

Step 1: blend salt sugar and the flour in a chilled bowl with wide rim.

(I really don't think we need any further instruction here.)

Step 2: "cut in the fats" (in this case the butter and shortening)

This is the second most important part of the process and there are many ways to do it. I use my grandma's rusty old whisk (don't worry the rust is only at the top).

You can also used two knives, a pastry cutter, or even your hands. It doesn't really matter as long as you keep the fat chilled while breaking it into little balls coated in flour.

Just jam away at the butter/shortening with your tool of choice, scraping it off with a knife as needed, until it looks like this . . . .

Step 3: moisten the mixture

I hesitate to even give a measure of how much cold water you will need as it varies depending upon a multitude of factors (such as the density of the flour). Start off with the 1/4 cup and slowly add to the mixture, stopping every tablespoon or so to mix lightly.

When the mixture is too thick and gummy to stir use a folding motion with your hand. Work quickly, as this is the most important point. You don't want to over mix the dough or heat it up with your hand. when you are done you should still be able to see chunks of butter and marbling from the shortening.

When all of the flour is moistened enough it will stick together in one unified ball.

(Note it should not be wet or sticky. If this happens you went too far so just add a little more flour to dry it out a bit.)

Step 4: rest the dough

Wrap he dough ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hr or overnight.

(You can also freeze it at this point for use in the next 2-3 months.)

THE DOUGH IS DONE.
GOOD JOB!

(preheat oven to 350)

The next part of the process is rolling out the dough and trimming it to your tart pan/pie crust.

This is also not nearly as hard as it seems. The trick is to roll the dough out between two sheets of plastic wrap. This keeps it from sticking to either your counter top or the rolling pin.

Use the bottom of the tart pan or your pie plate flipped upside down to get the right shape and size. Any extra pieces should be cut and added to the middle then pressed back into the circle.

When ready to put in the pan, remove one side of plastic wrap. Flip dough onto pan exposed side down. Press into shape of pan. remove plastic wrap. Then trim excess dough using the top of the pan as a guide for your knife.

ROLLING OUT THE DOUGH IS DONE.

For this recipe we need to partially bake the shell. This is especially common for tarts, not so much for pies.

I have pie weights but you can use any form of dried beans. Fill the shell up and place in oven for 10 minutes.

Remove and let cool while you prepare the filling.

For this recipe you'll need 4 large pears. I like anjou.

Slice the pears up into 3/16" slices. (Not 1/8" not 1/4" . . .3/16"!)

Mix with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.

arrange the pears in your par baked shell. I went overboard and beautified my arrangement bc i wasn't sure if they were going to poke through the custard. They won't don't waste your precious time!