The base:
You can find recipes now days in restaurants that use a sweet dough or sweet paste base, the advantage with this is that the base is strong enough and even is you mould it in a tart ring, (if is moulded properly) is not going to leak. To do this method you need a bit experience but don't worry there is several more easy methods to achieve a great pie or tart.
Is important to have a thin base if is sweet dough, you know is thin enough if you can cut with a fork with no effort. If you want to use digestive biscuits as long as is moist and have some crunchiness I don't really mind if is a bit thick!
Speaking of Pie or Tart, do you know the difference? Well I can tell you the difference on terms now is very confusing, globalization, fusion food and cross recipes are changing at the moment the terminology and use for names for dishes. 100 years ago a Pithivier was an upside down pie only use in pastry, now you can find it with savoury stuffing. Before a Pie was a pastry dough base sweet or savoury with a cover, the cover could be made of the same dough, cookie crumbs, or mash potatoes for savoury pies.
Tarts where a pastry dough base with a topping, that could be fruit, custards, creams and open with no cover.
Is very often to see de-constructed dishes including tarts, and here is where the food keeps in evolution, some time in future this tart might not look like we know it now, what to our eyes as a beautiful, satisfying dessert, might look as modern symmetrical and will be composed of foams, espumas, airs, jellies, caviars, crackelins and powders..... ha ha wait a minute we are already in that Era. Well as long as the purpose of the dessert is not lost, there is nothing wrong with a little Alchemy and Chemistry involved, at the end of the day that's what pastry is all about.
The filling:
Oh yes! the filling, it has so many dimensions to be described, is a bit acidic and bitter, it is sweet but refreshing, is light but creamy. Good lemon fillings contain a lot of eggs, some recipes call for whole eggs some just egg yolks, the secret and the most important thing is that the eggs should not taste, if it taste probably it wasn't properly cooked.
You can find lemon/lime custards which will not set as firm and it will be in sweet dough tart cases already cooked. A custard is a egg base flavoured with lemon / lime juice and is cooked over the stove, whisking to avoid the egg to scramble and adding cold butter to keep it creamy and smooth. This is an easy option, specially for mass production, as cases are pre baked ready to just pipe in the curd, place meringue, fruit or just the dust of icing sugar on top eh Voila!
The tricky one is a not cooked custard and cook it in the oven, again, you can find recipes with whole eggs or just yolks. Is very liquid and that's why here comes the skill and experience, if you don't have a lot of experience with tarts, use a pie mould, so even if the dough leaks don't go everywhere in the oven.
To roll and line a tart let me tell you is not that easy, I literally cried many times looking the filling running like a waterfall in the oven and making a dirty mess to clean after. So there is nothing wrong if the first time you have a little accident.
The Meringue:
To have a perfect meringue is not as easy as you think. Meringue is two ingredients: Sugar & Egg Whites. Sounds simple but if either have a little speck of fat or dirtiness the meringue can be ruined. Is a beautiful thing, Egg whites composition is mostly water, Is believed that egg whites can be last longer at room temperature because is contains just 10% of proteins but mainly doesn't go off because it doesn't contain fat.
I have seen some Chefs "teaching" me that to break down the Albumen from the eggs to add a pinch of salt, but the truth is that Albumen is just contain in egg whites.
It is very complex to explain why to whisk an egg white and turn it in to a foam will more stable in a cooper bowl than in any other material. I just can tell you that cooper usually react with many ingredients including dairy, funny enough not egg whites. The substitute for cooper bowl it will be to add an acidic agent to the egg whites.
Thank you to Wikipedia for this information:
Cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate) is an acidic salt that can be used to change the pH of the egg white to an acidic range by boosting the number of free-floating hydrogen ions in the egg white.
All this means is that it will be a foam or meringue stable and will hold longer.
Egg whites because of the water contain tends to loose this water by drying out so to have a perfect meringue you must have it in movement and never stop a meringue in process.
I remember having a trial in a very fancy place, for my surprise this "Pasty Sous Chef" stop my Meringue several times, because she had something important to say to her team. Well my meringue got flat... flat means that you see foamy egg whites, if 10 minutes have past and is still double the size and not 4 times and turning in to peaks and forms... that is your flat meringue. So never stop a Meringue, a meringue you have to build it, always divide the sugar in 3 times and always meanwhile you are adding the sugar keep it at medium speed. If you have it at fast speed the foam will form but all the sugar will not be dissolved, then this sugar is going to melt and will have airy pockets of unstable foam. Have you ever touch a meringue and suddenly just collapse loosing all the air. Well that is it.
After you have the base, the filling and the meringue, comes the final baking... you can either cook the meringue in the oven to make the outside crispy and the inside will keep soft and airy, but sweet enough to balance the tartness of the citrus.
I hope you have enjoy the insight of lemon tart... for recipes you can follow my passion fruit recipe just replace the passion fruit for lemon or lime juice.
Comments
Post a Comment