mix, mix…stir, stir

Ten minutes of summer on a plate, well more like four minutes. So far this Strawberry Tart is the first sign of summer I have seen in the Northwest. It has been day after day of cool, gray, and rainy in these parts. Thankfully California is growing strawberries and shipping them North so we can have a little taste of what will hopefully be here at some point.

The delicious result of this week’s Tuesday’s with Dorie selection by Marie of A Year in Oak Cottage!  You can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspans Baking: From My Home to Yours I did play a bit with this assignment, beginning by making small tarts for individual servings. To better accomodate the small tart shell, I decided to slice and layer the berries. The it’s-what-I-have-on-hand syndrome was employed a few times as well, starting with using Rosemary Rhubarb Jelly rather than the suggested strawberry jam, which would have required a trip to the store. Of course strawberry and rhubarb are happy old friends so the flavors worked wonderfully and I was pleased to utilize a bit of my last jar of this precious jelly for such a fancy application. Thankfully it is rhubarb season so I can do some canning soon and re-stock my pantry to hold me for another year.

The next thing I know I am rooting around in my spice drawer and come up with a container of Grains of Paradise. Perfect! A little more floral and complex in flavor with less heat than black pepper. It fits into just about any application calling for black pepper, but I especially like to use it in dishes that have delicate flavors and in garnishing. When crushed, the seeds are creamy white on the inside making a beautifully speckled garnish. 

I played a bit in the spice drawer while making the crust as well. I added 1/2 teaspoon of Mahleb (see previous post) which added a warm nutty flavor that is not exactly identifiable, but just that little flavor of something in the background. Having read other baker’s posts about the crust being a bit hard and cookie-like I thought that could be troublesome with the smaller sized tarts making them rather difficult to eat. I didn’t want my tart shooting across the room when I try to dig my fork in for my first bite of summer. I replaced 2 tablespoons of flour with cornstarch and the crust was delightfully delicate and crumbly.

I was not lucky enough to be able to use brilliantly fresh local berries, so I employed a little trick I learned from Teller, yes, of Penn and Teller. Last year I had the good fortune to win a fundraising auction for brunch at his home. He made a wonderful brunch and shared the great tip of adding a splash of rose water to strawberries if they aren’t quite as ripe as you would like them to be. The rose water brought the most beautiful aroma to my berries which further fueled my delusions of summer for a brief, but delicious moment.

And for my husband, who does not share a love for strawberries, these tarts held rich chocolate pudding just fine!

All photos by David Peterman unless otherwise noted

Tags: Grains of Paradise, Mahleb, Strawberries, Tuesdays with Dorie

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