Stephanie from Stevens Point, WI (2018 Week 3: Tarts)

Baker

Stephanie

Location

Stevens Point, WI

Baking Challenge

Designer Fruit Tart

Give your tarts a name based on the flavors and decoration – and tell us about your recipe.

Red, White and Blueberry Tarts – I researched different recipes in each category. My tart/quiche pan got broken at Thanksgiving, so my first obstacle was to find a tart pan. No one in town had one, so I decided to go a different direction than originally planned. Ended up going with the star shapes for the holiday, found at the thrift store. Chose a recipe online, on The Spruce Eats for a French strawberry tart. Everything about this recipe ended in disaster. I first made the pate sucree according to the recipe. I had a bowl of lumps and dust. Had to had a lot more water to form into an actual dough. I was careful not to overwork it. The next day I rolled it out. It was 90 degrees here. Simply touching it melted the butter. I thought I’d rolled it thin enough but it ended up being far too thick for the small tartlets. Eyeballed the baking time because of differently-sized forms. The crusts shrunk in the pans which I didn’t anticipate. Next I made the creme patisserie. It seemed perfect but I discovered when I went to assemble the tarts, it had actually curdled. I put a layer of strawberry jam on the bottom of the large tart, and made a glaze with the jam and lemon juice. One of the blueberry tarts has berries rolled in sugar.

Now that you survived this challenge, what words of wisdom do you have to share?

Sweet pastry crust is tricky to work with. Try not to touch the dough with your hands when rolling or forming. Don’t bake when it’s 90 degrees with high humidity.

Tell us about how you added a Wisconsin twist.

The dough is loaded with Wisconsin butter and local organic eggs.

How did you do?

Totally failed … and still laughing.