[Ferrandi] Week 3: More Tarts…

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We continued with more tarts using variations of the pâte sucrée (sweet pastry dough). Take this Austrian Lintzer Torte for example, its pastry dough is added with just a dash of cinnamon powder for extra flavor. The tart shell is filled with a layer of almond cream, a layer of raspberry jam, then topped with a lattice design.

The dough strips of the lattice is made by this nifty little tool.

The completed lattice design.

Bake, glaze, and line with pistachio powder around the border for a striking visual effect.

I loved the tart shell for this torte – crumbly, with just a hint of cinnamon. All that raspberry jam made the tart very sweet, so it’s best when enjoyed with a cup of tea (if I were to make this again myself, I’d probably cut down the amount of jam in the recipe).

We also made a Victoria Tart, which is hazelnut praline cream wrapping pineapple cream, all sitting inside a sweet tart shell.

And a Tarte Dacquoise, which uses a egg white-based shell instead of a pastry dough, and is filled with light vanilla cream and fresh fruits.

Here’s chef’s official version.

I was more in a mood for red fruits.

The last tart we made using a sweet pastry dough was coffee tart by Pierre Hermé, who used to teach master classes at Ferrandi, by the way. Inside the sweet tart shell, we placed a biscuit à la cuiller that has been soaked in coffee, then filled the space with coffee ganache (a combination of cream, white chocolate, and coffee).

Then, we glazed frozen discs of coffee-flavored whipped cream, and placed the whole thing on top of the sweet tart shell filled with coffee ganache and biscuit à la cuiller.

The layers from bottom up: sweet tart shell, coffee ganache, biscuit à la cuiller soaked in coffee, coffee ganache, coffee-flavored whipped cream, and coffee glaze. Ah yes, it’s coffee overload! See Pierre Herme’s original creation here.

Next up: puff pastries!