Tartlets Galore. Bite Sized Heavens.

The cutest day of pies & tarts so far...tons of tartlets (baby tarts!).

Who doesn't love miniatures? Kittens..... puppies..... cupcakes.... tartlets!

We each had to make four different types (eight at least of each).

-Lemon Curd

-Fruit (with pastry cream)

-Frangipane

-Ganache

Lemon Curd Tartlets

To make the lemon curd, you create a double boiler. And in the bowl over simmering water, place eggs yolks, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest. Whisk this until it becomes very thick, almost the consistency of pastry cream. Pass it through sieve and stir in the butter.

Spoon or pipe the lemon curd into the blind baked (cooled) tartlet shells.Top with a common meringue and then brown.

Finished Lemon Curd Tartlets

Fruit Tartlets

To prevent the shell from getting soggy, brush the bottom of the tartlet shell with melted chocolate.

Make your pastry cream as usual. Milk and sugar to a boil, temper into egg yolks,cornstarch, and additional sugar. Bring to a boil and heat until thick and creamy.

Cool the pastry cream before using. Pipe it into the shell over the chocolate layer. Fill to the brim. Then select desired fruits (berries, mandarin oranges, pineapples*,kiwi) and arrange in any desired fashion. To add sweetness, shine and shelf life glaze with a slightly thinned out heated apricot jam.

Finished Fruit Tartlets

Frangipane Tartlets

These are the only tartlets in which the filling is baked inside, rather than added after the shells have cooled.

To make this frangipane, cream the butter and sugar. Add the almond paste, eggs and then finally the cake flour. Pipe this mixture into the raw dough, top with slivered almonds (crush if desired) and bake until lightly golden brown and the filling is firm to the touch. Once they cool, garnish with powdered sugar.

Finished

Frangipane Tartlets

Ganache Tartlets

These tartlets are by far the easiest and (to chocolate lovers) the tastiest. You start with a basic ganache. Heat the heavy cream and pour over equal amounts (to the weight of the cream) of dark chocolate (or white) and a little bit of butter. Stir until it comes together. Pour directly into the cooled prepared tartlet shells. Before setting add any garnishes that will not stick by themselves, such as fruit or nuts. After it sets pipe with chantilly cream or dust with powdered sugar, if desired. (yeah, that's literally it)

Finished Ganache Tartlets

More Assorted Tartlets

And now, for the most EPIC tartlet EVER.

Why yes, that is ganache, pastry cream and chantilly cream. And yes, it was amazing.

My partner and I (both self proclaimed Fatties) got a litttttle excited. And made a snack for ourselves.

Pie overload...is NOT a bad thing...

It seems to me, that all I did in class on Thursday was finish pies and then eat them...

And much to YOUR dismay...that was basically true. We finished our lemon meringue pies with you guessed it...meringue and our cream pies with chantilly cream. We also made linzer dough (to be used for a linzer torte) and baked off some tartlet shells.

Linzer dough is a very strange dough. It has cake crumbs, lemon zest, glucose and ground toasted hazelnuts. We will use this dough next class. (Pictures another day.)

Finishing our Pies

To finish the lemon pie made the previous day, we created a common meringue with a one to one ratio (one part sugar to one part pasteurized egg whites). First we covered the whole pie with a heap of meringue and then piped up any design to peak in the middle. Sprinkle with sugar and torch to a deep golden brown. (It should smell like a campfire!)

Finishing the Lemon Meringue

My finished Lemon Meringue Pie

Finishing the Cream Pies

Spread an even layer of chantilly cream to cover the custard filling. And pipe any desired design using any desired garnishes (usually they match the filling).

My finished "Mounds" cream pie

(chocolate and coconut)

Panning Tartlets

Yes, tartlets are little baby tarts. SO CUTTTTTE, hows a girl not to love them? We used our Pate Sablee (or cookie dough), rolled it out to an eighth of an inch and cut a piece slightly larger than the tartlet pan. Using a balled up piece of dough, press the dough into every crevice of the lightly greased pan. Turn the pan over and press to cut the excess dough.Dock the dough and bake until barely golden on the edges. Cool before filling.

Panning the Tartlets

When I talk about pie overload, I MEAN it... we cut up at least FOUR pies on Thursday. I ate three (sorta small...) pieces. One was chocolate peanut butter cream,one was chocolate/vanilla cream and another was coconut. They also had out the lemon one but I was a little reluctant with all of that meringue and jello like texture.

Our pie buffet...(jealous?)