It's The Bees Knees - Honeyed Lemon Pine Nut Tart

For the final pastry in my refrigerator, I had decided to revisit one of my favorite Tarts. Lemon Honey and Pine nuts make a fantastic combination. I usually make this with a sweet Pâte Brisée, but figured it was time to expand my horizons a little and become a little more flexible.

This whole Pâte Sablée experience has been particularly challenging... I forgot that I should not blind bake it ahead of time, like Pâte Brisée, so my first batch of dough turned into a cookie before I could finish toasting the pine nuts on the stove... oops...

I quickly threw together another batch of Pâte Sablée, but since I was now out of Chestnut flour, I used the Hazelnut meal in my freezer. This is really nothing more than a large Lemon bar with Pine Nuts added...

Honeyed Lemon Pine Nut Tart

1 recipe Pâte Sablée
6 Large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Honey (Orange Blossom or Fig)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 lemons, juice and zest (about 1/2 cup)
pinch of kosher salt
1 1/2 cup Toasted pine nuts

Press pastry dough into a 9 - 10 inch tart pan.

Return to refrigerator to chill.
Meanwhile toast the pine nuts in a shallow skillet over medium-low flame.

Place eggs, sugar, honey and butter into a pan over low heat stir constantly until sugar dissolves.

Add lemon juice and zest; continue stirring and cooking over low heat until mixture thickens. (If it looks lumpy, run it through a mesh strainer)

Fold in Pine nuts and allow mixture to cool while preheating the oven to 400 degrees.

Transfer to your chilled shell.

Bake for 20 minutes. (it will be slightly puffed, but will sink as it cools)

Cool on a wire rack to room temperature then chill in the refrigerator.
Dust with powdered sugar

and serve with a dollop of Crème Fraîche.


Mangia!!
~~

A Sandy Bottom Isn't Always a Bad Thing - Pâte Sablée

Pâte Sablée, French for Sandy Dough, is VERY different from the other 2 types of pastry dough. It is remarkably similar to a shortbread cookie dough. The 3 commandments kind of get thrown out the window on this one... It's the Rebel of the bunch. But there is a method to the madness. You need soft butter to cream with the confectioners' sugar, and you need the confectioners' sugar or the pastry will be tough. The cornstarch in the confectioners' sugar actually tenderizes the dough a little.

The resulting dough is extremely sticky and must be refrigerated before it can be used. It is also virtually impossible to roll out, thus must be pressed into the pan that it will be baked in. AND it must be at least partially baked before being filled.

The texture, unlike the flakiness of Pâte Brisée or the crispiness of Pâte Sucrée, is very tender and grainy or "sandy", thus the name. And to be honest the method of construction is just like the process used to mix most cookie dough.

Pâte Sablée

4 oz (113g) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cup plus 2 TB (4 oz) (115g) Confectioner's Sugar, sifted after measuring
1 Large Egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups plus 1 TB (7 oz) (200g) AP flour
1/2 cup (1.7 oz) (50g) Almond flour or finely ground almonds (I used Chestnut flour instead, cause I had it)

Place soft butter in a medium bowl and sift powdered sugar over the butter.

In an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add egg and salt and beat until combined.

Whisk the Flour and Almond Flour together.

Then slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture,

mixing until just combined

Using a spatula, cause it's kind of... OK, it's REALLY sticky, dump the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap.

Fold the plastic over and smoosh (that is a technical term) the dough as flat as possible.

Wrap completely and chill for at least 4 hours.

When Ready to use, you will have to warm it up slightly, press it into your tart pan and re-chill it for 30 minutes before blind baking.

Strawberries & Silk - French Silk and Strawberry Tartlets

I wanted to post this last night, but it got too late... Like 2am too late. Then I was going to post this, this morning, but all I managed to do was edit the photos.... Figuring I could post it at lunch today, I emailed the photos to my work address, but the email never showed up. (I think it was stripped by the firewall) Oye...!! It's just been one of those weeks. I am SO glad this is a 3 day weekend... I need to BBQ and recuperate. LOL

So finally, I present the finished product for your perusal. A labor of love if ever there was one... Considering I only have 4 tart pans, and I had to make 12 shells.

Incidentally, I had to make 2 1/2 batches of my chocolate shortbread pastry recipe (pate sable) to make enough shells (12) for the double batch of Chocolate silk filling. But I have modified it here to make 6 - 4 1/2 inch tart shells. So it will match a single batch of Chocolate Silk Filling in the previous post. If you need to make 12, simply double this recipe.

French Silk and Strawberry Tartlets

OK, lets begin.... The filling is already chilling in the refrigerator, so it's time to make the pastry shells.

Chocolate Shortbread shells (Pate Sable au Chocolat?)
10 TB unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup Confectioners' sugar
6 TB Dutched Cocoa (Alkalized)
Pinch of salt
1 1/4 cup AP flour

In a medium bowl, beat the softened butter, powdered sugar, salt and cocoa on low speed.

Until it is creamy, but not so much that it gets all fluffy.

Add the flour about 1/2 cup at a time, mixing on low speed,

until a crumbly dough forms.

Using 4 1/2 inch tart pans with removable bottoms, press 4 TB of the mixture into the pan forming a solid shell.

Chill for 15, and preheat the oven to 325 degrees (I didn't have time to do this so I simply threw them in the oven; I needed to get the pans emptied so I could refill them again)
Prick the shells with a fork so they don't bubble as much.
Bake for about 15 -20 minutes.

Cool on a rack. (Mine pulled away from the side of the pan, just a little bit... because I didn't chill them first)


While the tarts are cooling... Make the Strawberry filling. I would have used balsamic, but I used the last of it on my BakeSpace challenge, and I didn't have time to run to Little Italy, during the week, to pick up some 2 leaf Balsamic.

6 oz Strawberry preserves
a couple grinds of Black pepper (fine)
a dash of Lemon juice

Bring to a simmer and then remove from heat.

Spoon 1 oz (approximately 1 TB) of the Jam into the pastry crust.

Spread with a small icing spatula.

Chill 15 minutes.

I would have preferred to brush the insides with Milk Chocolate first, to create a barrier against moisture, but I was out... I really need to make better grocery shopping lists... ;)

After they chill....
Fill a pastry bag with the Chocolate Silk Filling.

Pipe the filling into the shells. (trust me it makes it easier to spread in case the jam doesn't set properly)

Smooth the filling with a small icing spatula.

Chill until ready to serve.

Assembly before serving: (This really isn't a recipe, just a presentation)

Utilize a fine sieve to sprinkle dutched (alkalized) cocoa over the tarts.

Beat a little whipped cream (without Sugar) for piping.
Fan some strawberries.

Pipe the whipped cream, set a fanned strawberry on top.

Serve with a mint sprig if desired.

Then Dig in!!! The BEST part is when the filling oozes out from underneath the chocolate silk filling.. YUM!!!!

Surprisingly enough, even with all the issues I had with the Silk filling, it still turned out OK. It was slightly denser than it should have been, but still nice, and "silky" smooth. Melting quickly on the tongue, almost like a really high quality Chocolate truffle.

Mangia!!
~~