Clearly, I can’t bring myself to accept that we’re (already) in autumn. I’m still preparing desserts with the last fruits of summer like strawberries or raspberries. They’re still very easy to find on our market stalls so I’m making the most of it and I’m revealing to you the recipe for my red berry and pistachio tart with a vanilla mascarpone cream.
For this tart, I started from the idea of Isa from the blog Pourquoi pas?, who had made the same dessert but with blueberries. Apart from that detail, the recipe is the same. Well, almost, because I’d made my life a bit easier by using a shop-bought pâte sablée, something I never usually do. Well, my work colleagues noticed the difference. ^_^ Nothing beats a good homemade pastry, so I give you a pâte sucrée recipe further down.
Taste-wise, I really liked it and so did my colleagues. The vanilla taste in the mascarpone cream wasn’t pronounced enough, so I advise you to use 2 vanilla pods. The pistachio sponge was perhaps a little thick, which left less room for the vanilla cream. So be careful when pouring the pistachio sponge batter into your mould (and never mind if a tiny bit of batter is left over).
By the way, you’ll probably have some vanilla cream left over, so if you don’t like waste, like me, make some little verrines 🙂 On the vanilla cream, I had added a brunoise of strawberries “seasoned” Michalak style with a little strawberry jam, a few raspberries, a little lime juice and some zest. On top, I added cubes of pistachio sponge because I had some cake offcuts left over. These verrines were even more popular than my tart 😀
Ingredients & method
4 components · Full recipe
Sweet Pastry
Ingredients
- 150 g (5.3 oz) soft butter
- 100 g (3.5 oz) icing sugar
- 2 g (0.1 oz) salt
- 50 g (1.8 oz) eggs
- 300 g (10.6 oz) flour
Method
1
Place the soft butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and incorporate the sifted icing sugar and salt. Add the egg, then the sifted flour and knead briefly until the dough comes together into a ball.
2
Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using.
3
Preheat the oven to 160°C / 325°F.
4
Roll the dough out to 2–3 mm thickness using a rolling pin. Prick the dough lightly with a fork and cut out a circle larger than your tart ring.
5
Place the dough in the ring (the holes made with the fork go on the underside).
6
A few tips for lining a tart ring well: bring the dough inside the ring and, using your index finger, form a right angle all around the pastry. Create a slight inner rim, run the rolling pin over the top to trim the excess. Shape a neat upright edge by pinching the pastry (video tutorial available).
7
Place a sheet of baking paper on the tart base and add ceramic baking beads or dried pulses on top, then bake for 15 minutes. Leave to cool.
8
Once the tart base is baked and cooled, use a microplane grater to smooth any imperfections.
Vanilla Mascarpone Cream (Pierre Hermé recipe)
Ingredients
- 250 g (8.8 oz) whipping cream
- 2 vanilla pods (from my partner La Case à Vanille)
- 2 egg yolks
- 65 g (2.3 oz) sugar
- 2 gelatine leaves
- 230 g (8.1 oz) mascarpone (for the final stage)
Method
1
Soak the gelatine leaves in very cold water.
2
Heat the whipping cream with the vanilla seeds and split pods. Stop just before boiling point and leave to infuse for about ten minutes.
3
Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar.
4
Heat the cream again, then pour it through a sieve over the egg yolk and sugar mixture, stirring well, then return everything to the heat. Cook to 85°C / 185°F, stirring constantly with a spatula. Take care not to let the cream boil.
5
Off the heat, add the squeezed-out gelatine and stir. Blend the mixture smooth with a stick blender, cover with cling film touching the surface and leave to cool before refrigerating.
Light Pistachio Sponge
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 20 g (0.7 oz) sugar
- 25 g (0.9 oz) flour
- 25 g (0.9 oz) pistachio paste
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F.
2
Using a stand mixer or an electric whisk, beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture is pale and thick.
3
Add the pistachio paste and whisk again.
4
Gently fold in the sifted flour using a spatula.
5
Pour the batter into a 20 cm (7.9 in) diameter tin and bake for approximately 10 minutes.
6
Once baked, leave the sponge to cool on a wire rack.
Assembly
Ingredients
- 500 g (17.6 oz) red berries
- zest of a small lime
- pistachio powder or crushed pistachios
Method
1
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the mascarpone briefly to loosen it, then add the well-chilled vanilla cream. Whip everything together like a chantilly until the cream is firm and airy.
2
Place the tart base on the serving dish. Pour in half the vanilla cream and smooth it level.
3
Scatter lime zest over the entire surface, then place the pistachio sponge in the centre and press down firmly to remove any air pockets.
4
Cover with the remaining cream and smooth with a spatula.
5
Arrange the red berries over the top. In a bowl, mix a little raspberry jelly (or other red-fruit jelly) with a tiny bit of water until the texture is more fluid, then use a pastry brush to glaze the tart. If you do not have any, you can make a simple sugar syrup by heating 20 g (0.7 oz) water and 20 g (0.7 oz) sugar in a small saucepan. Leave the syrup to cool, then brush the fruit with it. (I did not do this — I dusted the fruit with icing sugar instead, but I find it less attractive.)
6
Zest a lime over the fruit and scatter pistachio powder around the edges of the tart. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
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