tarts — Blog — Madeline Hall

I remember when I had the best strawberry of my life. It was in Paris, of all places! Do I sound like one of those cool girls for having my best strawberry in France? Well I'm not trying to, because it is simply the truth.

Kyle and I had rented an airbnb in Paris for nearly one week for a vacation, after getting a steal on flights while living in NYC. We walked over to one of the Paris outdoor markets, equally jet lagged and overly enthusiastic to be there, and bought a pretty blue box filled to the brim with strawberries. They were tiny, bright red, and so incredibly sweet and juicy.

We ate them all in one sitting.

Even with all the croissants, macarons, and steak frites, those French strawberries were one of the best things I ate there.

If you've ever had fruit picked at its peak then you can understand what I am talking about. Now, if you make this tart, I challenge you to find the best strawberries available to you for it.

This tart is a lot simpler than it looks, and it allows the strawberries to really shine. The hardest part is making the crust, but you can make that easily in a food processor. Then you simply dump that into a tart pan, press it into the pan with your fingers, and bake. Whisk together some mascarpone and top with berries.

Not too sweet, this tart gets a buttery crunch from the hazelnut crust, a smoothness and creaminess from the mascarpone, and a subtle sweetness from the fresh strawberries.

Basically, my ideal dessert.

Ingredients

for the tart

3/4 cup hazelnuts, skin on
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup ((1 stick butter), cubed
1 egg

for the filling

1 lb strawberries, hulled and halved
2 tbl sugar
2 cups mascarpone
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the hazelnuts, and toast for 5 - 7 minutes, or until fragrant. Pour the hazelnuts into a clean kitchen towel and rub between your hands to try to shake off the skin. It's okay if some skin stays on.

Lower heat to 350°F.

Pulse hazelnuts, flour, sugar, and salt together in a food processor. Add the butter, and pulse until it is the size of peas. Add the egg yolk and pulse a few more times until dough barely just comes together. Be careful not to over mix.

Press evenly into an 11-inch tart pan with your hands, including up against the sides. Chill for 20 - 30 minutes.

Add a layer of parchment paper and fill with pie weights (or dried beans). Bake in preheated oven for 15 min. Remove the parchment paper with pie weights, and bake another 5 - 10 minutes or until dry to the touch. Let cool completely.

Stir together strawberries and sugar in a bowl. Let stand for 30 min.

In a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment or with a handheld whisk, beat together the mascarpone, powdered sugar, and vanilla until thickened and stiff.

Spread the mascarpone filling evenly inside the cooled tart shell. Arrange the strawberries on top, along with any extra juices. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

One of the most anxiety inducing things I can think of for myself is blind baking a tart crust. Last fall there was a time I was recipe testing for a video shoot and made a tart crust 7 different times. Yes, seven different times.

Half of the time they failed - either the edges sliding down the sides while baking, or while rolling out the dough getting huge cracks and tears in it, or when transferring the dough to the tart pan, ripping the dough, to which I would utter a bad word and then try to patch up with my fingers, only to bake it and it result in a huge gaping whole in the middle. And then, more bad words would elicit after that.

Oy vey.

It took nearly 3 weeks but thankfully, on the day of filming, everything worked out perfectly. It can only be described as a literal miracle from above.

After the tart dough experience, instead of being turned off by it, I was angry and challenged. Why was this so difficult to master for me? So then, over the next month, I preceded to make more dough, except in the form of pie dough. I think last November I made like 5 or 6 pies!

While my tart or pie dough skills still aren't near perfect (as you can see in the above photo, the edges are not clean), I am a lot more confident in it by now. I understand dough is a tricky thing to work with: the butter needs to be chilled enough, there should be enough water to hydrate the dough but not make it too wet, and everything should be done quickly and efficiently before butter gets too warm.

All this rambling to say, this tart is the easiest tart I can think of, which was much needed for the anxiety that plagued my mind when wanting to make a tart for this space.

The tart dough is a little tricky if you have not worked with it before, I will admit, but if yours isn't perfect it's okay because it will be hidden with the filling.

Oh my, can we finally talk about this filling?!

Creamy and smooth, tart from the grapefruit but just sweet enough, and so so simple. I wanted to use coconut milk instead of the regular heavy cream for the panna cotta because it is lighter and I love the flavor of coconut paired with the citrus. Plus, it's pink!

If you want to try something different for Valentine's that isn't chocolate, maybe give this citrus tart a try. It can be made the day ahead, and kept in the refrigerator overnight.

Grapefruit and Coconut Panna Cotta Tart

makes one 11-inch tart

Ingredients

For the tart - recipe adapted from Bon Appetit

1 tbl sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup flour
6 tbl cold butter, cut into cubes
1 large egg, beaten

For the filling

3/4 cup grapefruit juice (about 1 very large grapefruit)
2 tsp gelatin (1 packet)
1 1/4 cups coconut cream
1/3 cup sugar
Pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla

Segmented blood orange and grapefruit slices, for serving

Directions

Whisk together the sugar, salt and flour in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or by hand, until butter is the size of peas and distributed throughout the flour. Add the egg, and mix together with a fork until dough comes together.

Dump out dough onto a lightly floured surface (it’s okay if dough is crumbly at this point). Knead a couple of times until dough comes together, and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap, and let chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Take dough out of refrigerator and let sit for 5 - 10 minutes to soften slightly.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until slightly larger than your tart pan*, making sure there is enough room for some overhang on the edges. Transfer the dough to the tart pan by rolling the dough around the rolling pin, and unrolling on top of the tart pan. Press edges into tart pan and cut off excess. Dock center of tart with a fork. Carefully transfer to the freezer for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Take tart out of freezer and cover with parchment paper and fill with pie weights (or dried beans). Bake tart in preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Carefully remove parchment paper and pie weights and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until shell is golden brown on top. Let cool completely.

To make the filling, combine the gelatin and grapefruit juice in a medium bowl. Set aside to allow gelatin to bloom, about 5 - 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the coconut cream, sugar, and salt to a simmer. Stir until sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla.

Gradually whisk the grapefruit gelatin mixture into the coconut cream mixture until fully combined. Carefully pour filling into the cooled tart, and transfer to the refrigerator. Let sit in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.

When ready to serve, top with fresh citrus wedges, reserving any juice to pour on top.

*use a nonstick tart pan with removable bottom, like this one

Hazelnut Strawberry Tart

Grapefruit Coconut Panna Cotta Tart