Tarts

I make tarts a lot and prefer a sweet shortcrust. The recipe I use is from The Kitchn. For fruity things, I usually make a curd, which I adapted from Loko Kitchen. And then I often make egg tart custards, which I adapted from Guai Shu Shu. The fillings can be super customized to fit whatever flavor you want. Also, the crust works perfectly fine using a gluten-free all purpose flour. Just bake a little longer.

For this example, I’ll include 3 options: a pluot curd, a black sesame cream, and a matcha custard recipe.

1. Pâte Sablée: [for one 6-9in tart. 1.5-2x recipe for about 20 smaller 2.5in tarts]

  • 113 g (1 stick) butter, room temperature
  • 42 g powdered sugar
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 3 g (1/2 tsp) salt
  • 142 g all purpose flour
  1. Beat butter and powdered sugar until creamy. I’ve been using a stand mixer to avoid flour flying everywhere, but I’m sure a bowl and hand mixer would work. If my butter isn’t room temp, I throw it into a bowl and microwave in 10 second bursts until a little bit soft.
  2. Beat in egg yolk.
  3. Add flour and salt on low speed. Don’t overmix. If the dough seems dry, add some milk.
  4. Chill dough in plastic wrap for at least 1 hour in the fridge.
  5. Let soften a bit on the counter before rolling out. Roll out to a few cm to a size that’ll fit over the tart mold. I place the dough between some parchment paper or saran wrap and roll it out between this. Press into the tart mold.
    • This is what I’m still really bad at. The nice part about this dough, however, is that it’s easy to patch up if it cracks.
  6. Stab the bottom of the tarts with a fork and create a grid of holes to allow steam to escape while it’s baking. Freeze for at least 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 375F.
  7. Line the tarts with some parchment paper and use either pie weights or uncooked beans to hold down. Blind bake for 25 minutes or until starting to golden.
  8. Remove pie weights and parchment paper and bake for another 5 - 10 minutes. Lately, I’ve actually just lowered the temp to around 300F and baked for another 30 min so I can check it less often.
  9. Set aside and let cool.

2i. Pluot Curd: [for one 6-9in tart]

  • several pitted pluots/ plums, (I used like 5 or 6)// of ~150 g of puree/ juice
  • a few g of citric acid or lemon juice
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 large egg yolk
  • 100 g granulated sugar (you can use however much you like, this isn’t that sweet though)
  • 10 g corn starch
  • 43 g butter
  • 45 g vegetable oil
  1. Puree the pluots into a liquid and add in lemon juice or citric acid. The main reason for this is to maintain the color, since the pluots will probably already be a bit tart. For other fruits, citric acid also enhances the taste. Reduce the puree until it thickens. This will vary drastically depending on volume. I sometimes use a skillet, with an offset lid, low heat. Other times I use a sauce pan, high heat, lots of stirring. Key is to avoid burning.
  2. Once thick, sieve the mixture. If you have time, let cool.
  3. In a medium bowl, mix sugar, eggs, egg yolks, and corn starch. If your puree is still warm, add it in small batches to the egg mixture and whisk constantly to avoid scrambling of the eggs.
  4. Add to a saucepan over medium high heat and stir stir stir. Once it heats up, add in the butter and continue to whisk. Before you know it, it can go from liquid to burnt. So make sure to monitor. Once it thickens decently well (coats your whisk or spoon), you can strain. Note: depending on how thick you want the curd, you can just heat for longer. Don’t neglect to constantly mix, expecially once it starts to become thick.
    • Additionally, if you feel like the curd is too runny, take a few g of corn starch in a little bowl and add some curd to that. Mix thouroughly and then incorporate this back into the main batch of curd. Gelatin or agar agar also works (if it’s a last minute addition though, bloomed gelatin is easier to incorporate).
  5. Sieve the curd mixture again and then whisk in oil. Sometimes I have to use a hand blender to get the emulsion to work.
  6. Pour mixture into the baked tart shell. No need for post bake.
  7. Let cool in fridge.

2iii. Black Sesame Cream: [for one 6-9in tart]

  • 5 g gelatin powder
  • 25 g water
  • 3 large egg
  • 100 g granulated sugar
  • 180 g whipping cream
  • 40 g black sesame powder
  • 40 g butter, cold + cubed
  1. Bloom gelatin. Stir in water to get an apple sauce-like consistency.
  2. Whisk egg in a bowl. If you want a less yellow color, selectively first whisk egg yolks + half the sugar until it pales. Then add in the egg whites and mix.
  3. Add the cream, rest of sugar, and black sesame powder into a saucepan and stir and bring to a boil. (Shouldn’t take too long).
  4. Remove from heat and pour into the egg mixture bowl, whisking constantly so they don’t scramble. Pour back into the saucepan.
  5. Bring back to heat and stir until thickened. If you leave it while not being stirred, it will cook so whisk, whisk, whisk! Using a hand mixer helps!
  6. Add in the bloomed gelatin and cubed butter until fully dissolved and melted, respectively. Remove from heat.
  7. Sieve the mixture to remove any lumps. Pour into the tart crust and chill in fridge.

2iii. Matcha Egg Custard: [for about 20 2.5in tarts]

  • 330 g milk
  • 85 g granulated sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 5ish g matcha, sifted
  1. Heat the milk in a pot until simmering.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow. Add in egg whites and mix.
  3. In the bowl or cup where matcha is sifted, add a few ml of hot milk. Mix to get the powder into a paste or thick liquid. This well help incorporation. Add this to the pot of milk.
  4. Temper the eggs by slowly pouring hot matcha milk over, constantly mixing. Add the mixture back to the pot and stir over medium heat for a minute or two. I usually take it a little further so it thickens enough to coat my whisk or spatula a bit.
  5. Sieve the liquid mixture and the add the mixture to fill the tart shells to the top (about 25 g).
  6. Bake at 360F for about 20 minutes. The custard will inflate a little. Once you see this, you can stick a toothpick into the custard and if it holds without flopping over, turn off the oven and crack the door open. Let sit in oven for another 15 min.
  7. Unmold and enjoy. If the tarts aren’t unmolding, bake longer (this is often an issue I have when I make gluten-free crusts).

Decorating:

  1. For fruit tarts, I either add some whipped cream, fruit segments, and a fruit syrup drizzle or just cut up fruit. Loko Kitchen is major goals so check out her page for inspo.
  2. For cream tarts, I usually opt for a whipped cream. 225g heavy cream and 10g powdered sugar. Usually also a bit of piping gel to help stabilize it. You can pipe it out however you want.
  3. You really can do whatever you want with these. I’ve made tons of curds (pluot, mango, strawberry), creams (black sesame, Thai tea, hojicha, matcha, matcha, ube), and custard (matcha, regular, ube, strawberry) flavors. All I do is sub out the flavor portion. These recipes are pretty robust so they can tolerate these changes.

Curd:

Cream:

Custard:

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