[swan]

Today I made the Tarte au Fraise (UK edition page 229), which was not hard to make, looked gorgeous and tasted wonderful..BUT..Didn't want to come out of the mould!! I used a low quichepan, well greased, followed the recipe of the pâte Sablée to the letter, and it got SO stuck...luckily it was a family dinner and we laughed a lot about how it looked when we finally managed to get some on our plates, but I would like to know what might have gone wrong.
Thanks!

[Vexaveth]

Hi. I'm a young begginer cook, I don't have a lot of experience in french cooking, but I have made several successful quiches during the last months, so I think I could be of some help. I haven't got Clotilde's book, so I don't know the recipe you tried. My basic formula for pate brisee is: 500 g flour + 20 g sugar + pinch of salt + 250 g unsalted cold butter + about 120 mL milk. Keep this proportions independently of the size of the tart. I don't make the pate brisee in a food processor, I combine the dry ingredients with a whisk and then rub in the diced butter with my fingertips. Don't knead a lot, or your dough will harden dry. Roll the dough gently until the desired size, line up a greased quiche pan, cover with plastic paper, and let it rest for a while in the fridge. Take it out just before baking, this crash of temperatures gives the dough an exceptional crunchiness. Fill the tart and bake inmediately. Make sure your filling is cold or it will melt the butter and you will end un with a mushy tart. I hope this may help you. Good luck!

MJ
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Nothing can beat an uchepo...

[clotilde]

Hello Swan -
Hm. I'm sorry your pâte sablée stuck to the pan, but if you greased it well and handled the dough lightly (patting it into place but not pressing down on it with all your might), I'm not sure what the problem may be. I normally use a metal tart pan (with a removable bottom, they're the best), but my testers have had good success with ceramic dishes. What sort of quiche pan did you use? Ceramic or glass?
Clotilde.

[swan]

thank you Vexaveth, maybe I should try the hand-method next time.
I did use a ceramic quichepan and I think that maybe the patting down was a little too much - next time I'll try just a bit more milk so the dough is a little wetter (it was quite dry but did hold together) and pat less - or maybe accept that pâte Sablee is just not my thing - when it started fighting me in the quichepan I remebered previous tries with the different recipies with the same results. Or I have an excuse now to buy another tart pan!!

[Rainey]

As I recall, my pate was like moist sand and I formed it in a ceramic dish. It browned and released beautifully and had a lovely (ginger) flavor (the white peach and nectarine tart). In fact, I remember thinking how much simpler the technique was than more conventional ones I'd used.

I can't say I remember using a particularly light hand or mashing it right down firmly. I think I just created the shell. I'm wondering if proximity to the heating element could cause a bit of burning on the sugars in contact with the pan.

In any case, I thought it was a lovely, tasty and actually fun alternative to rolling something out. Hope your next one goes more smoothly.
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God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

[marcalpena]

I made the chocolate caramel tarte and the same thing happened to me. I blame it on the fact that I didn't wait for the pate to be completely at room temperatura before pouring the caramel... Next time I will be using a throwaway foil pan, and I hope this will help. Anyway, the tart was gone in ten seconds (it was for a big birthday party) so I suppose no one but me really noticed about the pate problem!

Here's a photo:


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Mar

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