Pretty little peach & raspberry tarts

peach & raspberry tarts, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

OK another peach recipe. I used Julia's basic pate sucre pastry recipe for the crusts. Blind baked them. Then added the creme patissiere and finally topped the little tarts with fresh raspberries and sliced poached peaches. These tarts are so pretty and make a lovely presentation to guests. They just have to choose which one. Several years ago I used this recipe with a little tweeking and topped with strawberries. I entered them in the Orange County Fair and one 2nd place. I also won a first place for my key lime pie (a whipped cream version) and another 2nd place for my poached pears.

Pate brisee sucree (sweet pastry dough)

for 1 cup pastry flour

3/4 cup flour

1 Tbs sugar

1/8 tsp salt

5 1/2 Tbs fat, 4 Tbs. chilled butter + 1 1/2 Tbs chilled vegetable shortening

2 1/2 to 3 Tbs cold water

Place the flour in a food processing bowl, mix in the sugar and salt, add butter and shortening cut into small pieces until the mixture looks like cornmeal but with a little chunkiness to the butter. Through the feed tube add the cold water a little at a time until dough comes together. Punch down to a disk, wrap in parchment paper and chill in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes. Roll out. Mold in baking pans; add parchment paper cut to size and pie weights to keep bottom of pastry from bubbling up. Place in 400 deg oven for 8-9 minutes. Remove from oven; remove parchment paper and pie weights and return to oven until golden brown about 7-10 minutes. Cool.

Creme Patissiere (custard filling):

for 2 1/2 cups

1 cup granulated sugar

5 egg yolks

1/2 cup flour

2 cups boiling milk

1 Tbs butter

flavorings:

2 tsp vanilla extract

2-3 Tbs. St. Germaine liquor

With a wire wisk gradually beat the sugar into the egg yolks and continue beating for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is a pale lemon yellow. Beat in the flour. Beating the egg yolk mixture, gradually pour on the boiling milk in a thin stream. Pour back into the saucepan and cook over moderate heat wisking constantly, reaching all over bottom of pan. As the sauce comes to the boil it will get lumpy, but will smooth out as you beat it. When boil is reached, beat over moderately low heat for 2-3 minutes to cook the flour. Be careful custard does not scorch in the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and beat in the 1 Tb butter and then the flavorings. If the custard is not used immediately, clean it off the sides of the pan, and dot toop of custard with softened butter to prevent a skin from forming over the surface. Creme patissiere will keep for a week in the fridge or may be frozen.

Bon Appetit!