Vive la Tarte!

May 13, 2010

This past Wednesday morning on the Today Show, I demonstrated a variety of tart recipes from the Vive La Tarte story in the June issue of Martha Stewart Living on newsstands Monday, May 17^th. This mouth-watering story teaches the basics of what you need to know to create a French-style tart with relative simplicity. By filling a single flaky crust with plump berries, juicy fruits, or earthy nuts at the peak of ripeness, you can enjoy a most glorious dessert. And be sure to check out the graceful “plates” that frame our tarts in the magazine. They were created by Miyuki Sakai, using a straight-stitch sewing machine and a palette of 200-plus shades of thread. Amazing!

: The June issue of Martha Stewart Living, on stands May 17th, is full of terrific summer entertaining ideas, including the Vive La Tarte story.

: How delectable this looks! So puffy and delicious! And notice that nice raised edge?

: Milk Chocolate-Pistachio Tart – You’ll find pistachios everywhere in this dessert – embedded in the crust, in a paste layered beneath the milk-chocolate filling, and in a dusted coating on top.

: Ingredients for the Apricot-Cherry Puff Pastry Tart – The dough is simply placed on a baking sheet, loaded with fruit, sprinkled with a mixture of walnuts and brown sugar and baked.

: Tart pans come in so many shapes and sizes, making it really fun to bake tarts.

: By roasting the apple filling and then glazing the top with apricot jam, you add an unexpected twist to ordinary apple pie.

: Beyond the berry tartlets is the Sour Cherry Clafoutis, one of my personal favorites – sour cherries are dotted throughout a pudding-like filling, giving these tarts a juicy bite.

: Berries and Cream Tartlets – In these classic tartlets, colorful berries are married with mellow, sweet pastry cream in a crisp, sweet crust.

: Another look

: These are the ingredients for Roasted-Apple Tartlets. A mandolin creates perfect thinly sliced apples.

: The device on the left is an amazing cherry pitter. I have never found a pitter that works quite as well as this one. It’s a Leifheit High-Volume Cherry Pitter from Sur la Table.