Crème Brûlée Tart
I first learned of Crème Brûlée Tart while working in the pastry department at Sign of the Dove in the 1990’s. The time-consuming recipe involved whipping egg yolks to a thick ribbon stage, combining with cream, sugar, and vanilla bean, then cooking over a double boiler for over thirty minutes. A small amount of butter was added at the end to provide additional body. The problem, in addition to the time, was that it wasn’t foolproof and occasionally resulted in a grainy cream that didn’t set.
When it worked it was sublime. Fresh berries scattered in a sweet dough (pâte sucrée) tart shell are enveloped in the vanilla custard which is allowed to set overnight. The next day, a light sprinkling of sugar is caramelized with a small kitchen torch, providing that classic crème brûlée crackle.
With that memory in mind, I wanted to create a less time consuming and more reliable procedure. My first thought was to cook the custard directly over a burner in a heavy-bottomed stainless-steel pan. A chef friend agreed with the procedure change but also suggested dropping the old Sign of the Dove recipe entirely and using the custard from my standard crème brûlée.
The next day I did a test batch, and voila – the re-worked recipe was successful and produced an excellent Crème Brûlée Tart, a wonderful and unique fresh berry dessert.
Crème Brûlée Tart
| Yield: 1 8″ tart | # of Servings: 6 to 8 |
Crust:
1 recipe Pâte Sucrée
Crème Brûlée filling:
2 cups (16 fl oz) heavy cream
2 tbl cup (.9 oz / 26 g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
4 large egg yolks
2 tbl sugar (.9 oz / 26 g) sugar
3 tbl (1.5 oz / 43 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
Fruit:
1¼ cup assorted berries, such as raspberries, blackberries1 or blueberries
Sugar topping:
¼ cup (1.8 oz / 50 g) sugar
Special tools and equipment needed:
- Tart pan with removeable bottom, 8″ by 1″
- Heavy duty 2-qt saucepan
- Fine-mesh stainless strainer
- Dried beans or pie weights
- Heat-proof spatula
- Instant read thermometer
- Small butane kitchen torch
Pre-recipe preparations:
- Before making the custard, set up a fine-mesh strainer, bowl for the cooked custard, and a larger bowl filled with ice water.
Directions
Tart shell:
- Roll out and the pâte sucrée to a â…›” thickness and drape over the tart shell. Gently, without stretching, press into the corners and drape over the tart shell.
- Use a rolling pin to trim off the excess dough. Let rest and firm up in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
- Pre-heat oven to 375°F.
- Place a parchment paper circle or aluminum foil sprayed with pan release against the pastry and fill with dried beans.
- Bake at 375°F for 20 minutes, or until the dough is set (no longer raw).
- Remove the beans and the parchment circle and continue baking until the dough just begins to color a light brown, about 10 minutes.
- Remove to a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature.
Crème Brûlée custard2
- Place the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla bean along with the scraped-out seeds into the saucepan. Stir well and place over medium heat.
- Bring just to the boil, turn off the heat, and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, just to combine, about 45 seconds.
- Temper the egg yolks by very slowly whisking in about ¼ of the hot cream.
- Return to the sauce pan and, over medium heat, cook until 185°F, or until it coats the back of a spoon.
- Immediately remove from the heat and whisk in the room temperature butter.
- Stain through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean mixing bowl and set over bowl of ice water.
- Stir occasionally until the custard reaches 55°F.
- Scatter assorted berries over the inside of the tart shell.
- Pour enough custard over the berries to cover up the edges of the pastry.
- Refrigerate overnight.
Finishing:
- Prior to serving, spread a thin layer of sugar evenly over the top of the tart.
- Caramelize the sugar using the torch.
- For maximum crispiness, serve within an hour.
Notes:
1 Large blackberries should be cut in half
2 There will be more custard than is needed to fill the tart. The extra may be placed in small ramekins.
