Tag Archives: Flaky Crust

Strawberry White Chocolate Mousse Tart

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I made my first ever tart this week!

The first thing I did was make the crust. It was a variation of the basic flaky pastry that we’ve been using so far. I also tried my hand at the vodka trick; the liquid in the crust was made my substituting half of the water for vodka. It’s a good thing I did this, because I think I might’ve added a little too much liquid to the pastry.

It was surprisingly easy to roll out the pastry. I then pressed it into the tart pan and folded over the edges in order to make a doubly-thick crust around the sides, as seen here:

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The crust was frozen for half and hour and then pre-baked for 45 minutes. Boom:

 

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The next part of the process was to make the white chocolate mousse. I used a double boiler method to prevent scorching while melting the white chocolate. After melting, the white chocolate mixture was set aside to cool.

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In the meantime, I beat the egg whites and the whipping cream mixture.IMG_1310

 

These were each folded into the melted white chocolate. This mousse was then poured into the tart shell and left in the fridge to chill.

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This is where the decoration part of the tart began. I cut the 16 oz of strawberries into thin slices and carefully arranged them into concentric circles on top of the mousse.

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I thought that the tart needed a little contrast in color, so I thought it would be a good idea to put some dark chocolate on there. I’ve always wanted to try making decorations out of chocolate drizzle, so I melted some semi-sweet chocolate pieces with shortening over a double boiler and made a makeshift piping bag.IMG_1315

I played around with some shapes and left them to cool/harden.IMG_1316

 

And then arranged them on top of the tart. I finished it off with the tart strawberry-jam-and-lemon-juice glaze, which gave the tart a shiny look.

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I’m happy with how it turned out!I was a little nervous about it, but everything went pretty smoothly and I think the final product looks nice. I hope it tastes good. I tasted the chocolate mousse and it was super sweet, so I’m hoping that the strawberries and the glaze add a little tartness to counteract the overwhelming sweetness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Experiment in Recipe Synthesis: The Thanksgiving Pie

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When we were throwing around the idea of ‘an entire Thanksgiving dinner baked into a pie’ in class, I laughed and appreciated the ridiculousness along with the rest of my baking buddies. But something about the idea took root in that part of my brain where thoughts like ‘how awesome would it be to make a  giant kit-kat bar’ and ‘I wonder if you can take cats for walks?’ flourish. Or it might have been the fact that I missed the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, green vegetables, something orange, and pie Thanksgiving while I was away in Turkey. Either way, the idea stuck, and even though no recipe for this existed online yet, I was not going to let that stop me.

First, I had to do a bit of research. That meant looking up every vaguely related recipe to this concept and picking up ideas from them. The first mockup of my internal schema for the grand design for this pie contained a layer of bacon mac & cheese. Upon consultation with my idea guy (read: girlfriend), that part was shot down as the flavor could be too overpowering in relation to the others, it could make the pie soggy, and layers of filling was something to be avoided, if at all possible. Onto Step 2…

I found the perfect approximation of what I wanted for my pie here. Unfortunately, they did not also offer a recipe. So, it was back to the drawing board to create my own. After viewing a few more recipes, I decided on the following concept:

  • A butter and shortening crust that would include craisins, savory herbs, and a bit of chicken stock baked in.
  • A filling consisting largely of mashed potatoes, with the other ingredients suspended within. (An excellent recipe can be found here).
  • Turkey, green beans, and sweet potatoes all simmered in a bit of stock, then mixed into the mashed potatoes.
  • A crumb-top crust of cornbread stuffing for the upper layer.
  • A bit of brown gravy to be poured over each slice upon serving.

Basically, doing that worked! The following is a series of pictures I took while baking that idea into life:
*Note: The measurements as well as rough directions are listed in the recipe section of this post.

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[The Crust, while it was cooling in the fridge; note the the Cranberries]

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[The Mashed Potatoes]

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[The Green Beans, Turkey, and Sweet Potatoes stew; note the small bit of thick Gravy]

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[The previous two items combined; this will be the Filling]

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[Raw Pie with Filling]

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[Raw Pie with Filling and Cornbread Stuffing Crumb Coat]

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[Freshly Baked Thanksgiving Pie]

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[Brown Gravy to Serve with the Pie]

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[Cross-Sectional View of the Finished Product]

Reflections: This experiment turned out pretty great, actually! I was a little worried that the crust would be too soggy, especially after a lot of it kept sticking to my utensils as well as the wax paper, but good flakiness was achieved. Next time I try the Vodka Trick, I think I’ll use slightly less liquid, haha. Other than that, another thing I might try differently is to not put in the filling and top crumb coat crust and leave it overnight. Perhaps doing both right before baking it in the oven would have achieved a flakier crust. Either way, it worked out, and the pie tasted delicious!