My very first TWD event! I am excited for several reasons. First, I was bound and determined I was doing the challenge until I went into my library of cookbooks to find that I do NOT have the cookbook. I have been thinking that I did for some reason and I am usually not wrong about these things. . .So, I joined just several days before the strawberry tart event is due and drove several towns away to purchase the cookbook from the Barnes and Noble bookstore. I know, I could have waited and ordered the cookbook through Amazon and just started the group a week later, BUT when I get excited about something, I want to do it NOW. Okay, I get the cookbook, open the beautiful, glossy (Great! drool marks already) pages to 374 and let myself get intimated immediately. All I saw was a whole page of writing and a picture next to it. The crust recipe was located pages over. Did I mention that I also just bought flowers from my sister's nursery (traveled 4 hours total for the commute on Sunday) because I can buy flats at her cost and also had to finish unloading the car, all 124 plants, get everything ready for the work week and plan on attending a graduation ceremony after work Monday night? I really didn't think I could do it. Sunday night at 10 p.m., I sat down, took a deep breath, and read the whole thing out. Good grief! Do I feel like a goof! The whole recipe constitutes a shortbread crust that is baked and cooled, great quality jam for the bottom, fruit tossed with a little vanilla sugar (optional), and a little creme de casis (also optional), and a little creme fraiche on top (I used heavy whipping cream sweetened with a little more vanilla sugar). I ended up making the whole tart Sunday night.
- makes 6 servings -
Best-quality strawberry jam
1. Stir the jam to loosen it to a spreadable consistency or, if it's very stiff, warm it in a microwave
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oven for a few seconds. Storing: While you can bake the crust early in the day (or, in a pinch, the day before) and keep it at room temperature, and you can also cut and sugar the berries about an hour in advance, the tart should be assembled just before serving.
Sweet Tart Crust
- makes enough for one 9-inch crust -
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1. Put the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in—you should have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in,
process in long pulses—about 10 seconds each—until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change—heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might 
have escaped mixing. .jpg)
sure to peel away the film frequently, so it doesn't get rolled into the dough.If you want to use the press-in method, you can work with the dough as soon as it's processed. Just press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Don't be too heavy-handed – press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but don't press so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture.
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Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon (or prick it with the tip of a small knife). Bake the crust for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown, brown being the important word: a pale crust doesn't have a lot of flavor. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature..jpg)
up to 2 months. While the fully baked crust can be packed airtight and frozen for up to 2 months, I prefer to freeze the unbaked crust in the pan and bake it directly from the freezer – it has a fresher flavor. Just add about 5 minutes to the baking time.
