I’ll get the mandatory text out of the way first this time: The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800′s in England.

I’ve posted a chocolate bakewell tart once before on this site, but I have never had the “regular” version.  A traditional bakewell tart contains a shortcrust pastry, filled with some kind of fruit, and topped with frangipane.  The frangipane filling is light and spongy, flavored mostly from the almonds.  For the Daring Bakers challenge, we had to include the shortcrust pastry and frangipane but could use whatever fruit filling we wanted.

I decided to make a rhubarb compote to fill my tarts.  We were watering some plants for some friends that are out of town and noticed that they had a meyer lemon tree.  Since there happened to be a ripe one, and I already knew I liked the combination of Meyer lemon and rhubarb, I brought it home and added its juice and zest to the rhubarb.  I also ended up flavoring the rhubarb with lavender by adding a few stems while it stewed.

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I am always inspired by the beautiful desserts at La Tartine Gourmande, so when we decided to cook dinner for my in-laws for Mother’s Day, I finally got around to making these rhubarb tartlets that have been on my list for ages.  If you use ready-made puff pastry, as I did, they come together very quickly, but make for quite an elegant presentation.  The almond-brown sugar crumble underneath gets a nice bite from freshly grated ginger, which I love with the tartness of the rhubarb.
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I got this nifty square tart pan (how could I have gone this long without a tart pan?!) with a gift certificate from Christmas.  I was itching to try it out, but I’m cutting back on sweets, so I was on the lookout for a savory tart idea.  I ended up using a balsamic vinegar crust from La Tartine Gourmande and a custardy filling of beets, goat cheese, and walnuts from alpineberry.  It was a delicious but light and simple supper.  Matt’s comment was “it’d be good as an appetizer, and smaller” — well, not a bad idea, maybe I’ll try it sometime with miniature tart pans.  Anyway, the night we made it, all we needed was something light and simple, and this fit the bill perfectly.  It was also pretty good leftover, at room temperature even.

The balsamic vinegar added a different little tang to the crust, and I think beets and goat cheese are always a great combination.  The only problem I had was that the tart shell shrank — a lot — but I think that was probably my own fault since I didn’t want to wait to let the dough rest after I made it.  So, if you try this out, I’d recommend letting the dough sit in the fridge at least an hour before rolling it out, and then refrigerate again before baking.

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I know it’s January and everyone has New Year’s Resolutions to lighten up and cut back on the sweets.  I know I do too — however, you won’t be able to find whole cranberries much longer.  In fact, it may already be too late!  We were able to find a couple bags of cranberries in the freezer section at the grocery store this weekend, and maybe you will be so lucky, too.  And if so — you should rush out and make this tart, as soon as possible.

Fresh cranberries have a very limited season, and so they are only available around the holidays.  They freeze very well, and in fact will last for months in your freezer.  For some reason though, it’s hard to find them even frozen except in November and December, so if you’re still able to find them, grab as many bags as your freezer will hold, and they’ll last you into next summer!  I forgot to do stash up this year, and was afraid I’d missed them all, so I was very excited to find them when I was buying some other frozen fruit this weekend.

Matt and I made this Cranberry Pecan Frangipane Tart for his family over the holidays.  I’ve mentioned her before, and I’ll do it again — Deb over at the Smitten Kitchen hasn’t led me wrong yet.  I’ve made more of her recipes than I can keep track, and I’ve got an even longer list of things to try.  (Ok, I admit there was one dud — but even that tasted good but was just a pain to cook.)  So why are you still here?  Go on over to Deb’s place and make yourself a cranberry pecan frangipane tart.  And if you can’t find fresh cranberries, grab the ingredients for whatever else you find there — I guarantee you it’ll be delicious!

Tarts are a special dessert to me. In my Mom’s family, we always had Chess Tarts, usually made by my grandmother Meme, at special gatherings like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Before she moved into a retirement home, Meme taught me to make her tarts and gave me many of her tart pans so that I could make them on my own. So anytime I get to pull out her tart pans is special but I don’t think I’ve ever used them to make anything but Meme’s chess tarts, using her recipe for the pastry and the filling.

But, inspired by a recent post from Feeding My Enthusiasms for what Elle calls St George’s Chocolate and Qunice Jam Tarts, I decided to branch out. These tarts consist of pastry topped with jam (she used quince, I made some with apricot and some with orange marmalade) which is then topped with a filling made of dark chocolate and ground almonds. They are apparently reminiscent of English Bakewell tarts, though those usually don’t have chocolate in them. I made my own pastry instead of using ready made pie dough. I also used a new recipe for pastry, which I altered from a recipe my friend Stirling found at Cook’s Illustrated. It uses vodka to replace some of the water, which makes the pastry easier to work with but doesn’t make the pastry tough. The vodka evaporates while it bakes, and it apparently doesn’t react with the gluten in the flour the way water does to make it tough.

The tarts turned out pretty well. The new pastry was buttery and flaky, though a little less brown than my usual pastry, and the chocolate filling was rich but nicely complemented by the fruit in the jam. The apricot and orange were both good, but Matt and I both like the orange ones better. I didn’t really think the almonds added all that much though. I felt like they just made the filling heavier without adding much flavor. I think next time I would try using hazelnuts instead, which I think might go better with the chocolate anyway. But overall, it’s a recipe I would recommend. If you want to try the filling, click here for Elle’s recipe. My modified pastry recipe follows.

Sweet Pastry

3 c flour, sifted
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 c butter (1 stick), cut into slices
1/2 c shortening
1/4 c ice water
1/4 c vodka

Measure out sifted flour. Sift dry ingredients. Cut in butter and sugar. Add ice water and vodka, and mash together until just blended. If the dough won’t stick together, add a little more vodka. Pull off a small piece of dough and roll out to fit in tart pan. Place the dough in the pan, and use the palm of one hand to cut off the extra dough from around the pan. Reuse the extra dough scraps for the next tart. This makes enough pastry for a couple dozen tarts or two pies.