You’ll have noticed, the blog is feeling the wave of work and preparation linked to the start of the school year, and recipes are becoming scarcer. I haven’t baked in my kitchen (no, holiday-mode improvising doesn’t count!) since July. I feel all rusty! My in-laws came for lunch, so it was the perfect opportunity to get back into the kitchen and make a delicious cream tart. A recipe I’d spotted ages ago! It was published in issue 15 of Fou de Pâtisserie magazine.
This cream tart is the work of Benoit Castel and is made up of a pâte sucrée prepared in a food processor (usually the mixing is done with the paddle) to get an incredible crunch, a vanilla pastry cream and a chantilly cream that really tastes of cream, deliberately not very sweet and lightly vanilla-flavoured.
For the chantilly recipe, the chef uses equal parts whole cream and Isigny crème épaisse. It’s a slightly tangy cream due to the lactic ferments. I’d never tasted it before, and it’s true that the cream flavour is very pronounced — it’s really different from a traditional thick cream.
Admittedly, it’s not the lightest dessert there is (35% fat cream plus 40% fat Isigny crème épaisse), but I can assure you that the whole thing doesn’t seem rich at all. I wouldn’t say it’s light, but on the palate it’s delicate and indulgent. I was afraid I wouldn’t like it, because when I tasted the chantilly cream on its own, I wasn’t very convinced (that cream flavour is surprising, especially as it’s not very sweet), but the whole thing is truly harmonious. A lovely discovery!
Ingredients & Method
4 components · Full recipe
Sweet pastry (to start the day before)
Ingredients
- 150 g (5.3 oz) cold butter
- 80 g (2.8 oz) icing sugar
- 30 g (1.1 oz) ground almonds
- 50 g (1.8 oz) egg (about 1 egg)
- 250 g (8.8 oz) T55 flour
- 1 vanilla pod (I use homemade vanilla powder)
Method
1
Place the well-chilled butter cut into cubes, the icing sugar and the ground almonds into a food processor (mixer) and pulse to combine.
2
Add the beaten egg and the vanilla and pulse again in short bursts.
3
Finally add the flour and mix very briefly. The dough is ready when it comes together — it should not be sticky.
4
Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film, flatten it and refrigerate overnight.
5
The next day, roll the pastry out to 2–3 mm thickness. Cut out a 24 cm (9.4 in) diameter circle and line the ring with your fingers, making sure to create a right angle.
6
Refrigerate for at least 6 hours (ideally). Preheat the oven to 150°C / 300°F.
7
Once the pastry is thoroughly chilled, trim the excess with a small knife.
8
Place a sheet of parchment paper on top and add baking beans or dried pulses for blind baking (normally, if the tart shell has been in the fridge overnight, baking beans are not needed — the pastry won’t move).
9
Bake for about 20 minutes. The pastry should be golden.
Pastry cream (can be made the day before)
Ingredients
- 300 g (10.6 oz) raw milk (I use whole fresh micro-filtered milk)
- 60 g (2.1 oz) sugar
- 48 g (1.7 oz) egg yolks
- 30 g (1.1 oz) starch
- 18 g (0.6 oz) butter
- 1/2 vanilla pod
Method
1
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns pale.
2
Add the starch and mix.
3
Bring the milk to the boil with the vanilla seeds and half pod in a large saucepan. Pour three-quarters of the milk into the bowl in a thin stream, whisking continuously, then pour everything back into the saucepan with the remaining hot milk.
4
Whisk over medium heat until the cream thickens, about 3 minutes.
5
Add the butter and mix.
Whipped cream
Ingredients
- 130 g (4.6 oz) full-fat whipping cream
- 130 g (4.6 oz) Isigny thick cream
- 15 g (0.5 oz) icing sugar (intentionally lightly sweetened)
- 1/3 vanilla pod
Method
1
Place all the cold ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and whip, starting on low speed then increasing to medium. You should get a thick, glossy cream.
Assembly of Benoit Castel’s cream tart
Ingredients
- None
Method
1
Pour the pastry cream into a bowl and loosen it with a whisk.
2
Fill the tart shell with the pastry cream, smoothing it level with the edge using an offset spatula.
3
Pipe the whipped cream starting from the centre of the tart and working outwards to the edges.
Gallery
