Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (195 page)

A shell that is to be fully baked and then filled with fresh fruits must have something to weight down the center during baking. The traditional solution is
oiled paper and dried beans, but we think an oiled pan of some sort is far easier. Provide yourself with 3 guides, one for the outside circumference, one for cutting the inch-wide strips, and one for the area of the pan. After cutting edges and pressing them onto the dampened circumference of the pastry, prick interior of pastry, oil outside of pan, and set it in place. Chill at least an hour before baking.

To bake, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Then paint top of raised edging with egg glaze (1 egg beaten in a small bowl with 1 tsp water), and make cross-hatch markings in glaze with back of a small knife. Set the pastry, with pan in place, in middle level of oven. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, until edges of pastry have risen and begin to brown nicely. Lift off pan, prick interior, and bake 5 minutes more; look at tart, and if center is rising, prick again, and press down. If center is browning too much, cover loosely with foil. Baking will be 20 to 25 minutes in all. Slide shell onto a rack.

(*) Shell is at its best if eaten within a few hours; cover airtight when cold, or keep in warming oven, or freeze.

TARTE AUX POMMES—TARTE AUX POIRES

[Apple or Pear Tart Baked in French Puff Pastry]

This is a case where the most elementary method is by far the best: the raw tart dough is painted with apricot, slices of raw apple or pear are arranged closely on top, sprinkled with sugar, and the tart is baked. It is glazed with apricot after baking, and that is all there is to it. The combination of flaky, buttery pastry,
fruit, sugar, and apricot is quite heavenly.

A NOTE ON JUICY FRUITS

When you are baking raw fruits in a raw puff pastry shell you must be sure that you are using the kind of fruit that will not burst into juices before the edges of the pastry have puffed up enough to hold them in. Thus if you find yourself with soft or juicy varieties, slice them, sprinkle with sugar, and let stand in a bowl for 20 minutes so that excess juices will exude. Then drain the fruit, arrange in the tart, and add the juices to boil down with the apricot glaze.

For an 8- by 16-inch rectangular tart, serving 4 to 6 people

1)
Filling the tart shell

Either 3 to 4 large, crisp apples (Golden Delicious, Rome Beauty, or York Imperial);

Or
5 to 6 firm, ripe pears (Anjou, Bosc, or Bartlett)

A chilled 8- by 16-inch uncooked tart shell of
French puff pastry

About 1 cup strained apricot preserves in a small saucepan (apricot preserves pushed through a sieve)

A pastry brush

¼ cup sugar

Egg glaze (1 egg beaten in a small bowl with 1 tsp water)

A small knife, or table fork

Preheat oven to 450 degrees, and set rack in lower-middle level. Peel, quarter, and core the fruit; cut into lengthwise slices ¼ inch thick. Paint interior of chilled uncooked pastry shell with strained apricot. Arrange the slices of fruit closely together and almost upright in the shell, making lengthwise or crosswise rows, whichever you find more attractive.
Sprinkle the sugar over the fruit. Paint top of pastry (not sides) with egg glaze, and make cross-hatching in its surface with point of knife or tines of fork.

2)
Baking—40 to 45 minutes at 450 and 400 degrees

Set tart immediately in lower middle of preheated 450-degree oven, and bake for 20 minutes, or until sides of pastry have risen and begun to brown. Lower heat to 400 degrees and continue baking another 20 minutes, or until sides of tart feel crisp and rather firm. High heat is needed to cook the layers of pastry through; cover tart loosely with foil or brown paper if edges are browning too much.

3)
Glazing and serving

A rack

The remaining strained apricot

1 Tb sugar (or juices from macerated fruits)

A wooden spoon

A kitchen spoon or pastry brush

A serving tray or board

Optional:
crème fraîche,
sweetened
crème Chantilly
(lightly whipped cream), or
crème anglaise
(custard sauce)

Slide tart on a rack. Boil the apricot and sugar, stirring, for several minutes until last drops to fall from spoon are sticky. Spoon or brush the apricot over the fruit to glaze it. Serve tart warm, tepid, or cold, sliding it first onto tray or board. Cut into crosswise pieces for each serving. Pass optional cream or sauce separately.

(*) The tart is at its best eaten a few hours after baking; leftovers will be delicious, but never as wonderful as the freshly baked tart.

Baking the fruit in a round pastry shell

Use the same general system, but arrange the slices of fruit in a spiral, or in rows of diminishing width from circumference to center, like the spokes of a wheel.

Other fruits to be baked in puff pastry shells

Fresh pitted cherries, fresh apricot or prune-plum halves placed skin-side down, fresh sliced peaches, or well-drained canned apricots or peach slices may be done this same way.

Fresh fruits in prebaked puff pastry shells

Use prebaked
puff pastry shells
, just as you would prebaked shells made from pie-crust dough, as suggested in Volume I, pages 640–1, for strawberry tart and its variations. This has a pastry-cream filling, but you may use simply a waterproofing of the red-currant glaze, arrange the strawberries or other fresh fruits on top, and paint with more glaze; pass whipped cream or custard sauce separately.

JALOUSIE

[Peekaboo
Jam or Fruit Tart of French Pastry]

Very quick to assemble and delicious, because puff pastry turns anything into a treat, is this attractive tart with its jam or fruit filling. Translated literally from the French, it would be called the Venetian Blind Tart, since that is what
jalousie
means; peekaboo seems more appealing.

For a 6- by 16-inch tart,
serving 6 people