Having a heart to heart with tarts

One of the things I might be tested on during my CAP practical is tarts. I haven't made them since school, since they're not really Plaza Athénée worthy I suppose. So since I had some lemons sitting around, I figured I'd make a lemon meringue tart. Easy enough. To be honest, I was feeling a bit lazy and bought some pre-made tart dough from Picard. I mean everything seems to work out at Picard right people? Wrong.

Well folks, as we all know, being lazy doesn't pay off. I had just bought a new tart ring from Mora. We used these types of rings in school and just baked directly on a baking sheet. None of that removable-bottom-weirdness. Anyways, I don't think the Picard dough was meant for traditional tart baking. Perhaps they just assume people throw it in a pan with a bottom, or use it flat on a baking sheet. To make a long story short, when I poured in my lemon filling and threw the sucker in the oven, a little of the filling began to seep out from under the ring. That tart went right into the bin.

Since there were two tart doughs in the package, I figured I might as well try again. The second tart had worse results. This time half of the filling seeped out, the baking sheet overflowed, and yours truly was left with a lemony-sticky mess to clean. Lovely.

 So last weekend I figured I'd do it the more difficult way. I won't say hard, because making tart dough from scratch isn't all that difficult. In the end it took me about 15 minutes to throw together, which is less time than it took to clean the oven after the lemon tart disaster.

I made a linzter torte which is just a short crust sweet dough filled with almond cream (frangipane) and topped with raspberry preserves and some lattice work. It turned out pretty well. Lesson learned? No more short cuts.