If Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts needed to order tarts she would call St Louis professional baker Helen Fletcher. Fletcher, renown as a gourmet baker, teacher and cookbook author, recently released her latest cookbook European Tarts - Pastries Like a Pro:Divinely Doable Desserts with Little or No Baking. Granted, the title is long but it needs to be considering the confidence its recipes provide for home bakers and wannabe pastry chefs longing for fail-safe, drop dead gorgeous tarts. “Baking has always been scary for people because its precise where in cooking you can make mistakes and rescue the recipe,” said Fletcher who has made baking easy by breaking down classic recipes into simple steps and tackling basic fears as rolling out pastry. “All the tarts in this book use crusts that are pressed into the pan. It’s much easier to do.” Fletcher believes in working with reliable components, which, when combined can build sophisticated tarts she calls decadent not complicated. These include basic crusts and fillings that can be transformed by making minor modifications such as adding cocoa to the graham cracker crumb crust to make a chocolate crust or by changing up a tart’s filling flavoring or topping. To help walk home bakers through her baking steps Fletcher solicited the help of her husband Mike, a professional photogragher to provide step-by-step photos of each recipe featured on the book that now appears on the website europeantarts.com. “The website supports the recipes in the book. It makes it easy because the photos show every step of a recipe. You can see how everything is supposed to look. It’s like I’m standing next to you coaching you,” said Fletcher, who guarantees success if directions are followed. “These tarts are the easiest things to do. And as I tell everyone – don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be perfect.” European Tarts is the first in a five-book series and features recipes from Truffes, Fletcher’s pastry shop that shuttered in 2009 and recipes she now bakes weekly for Tony’s, St. Louis’ legendary five-star restaurant. While you may not be able to afford dinner and dessert for mom at Tony’s this Mother’s Day - fear not, you still can bake a divinely doable tart using one of Fletcher’s recipes. Chocolate Strawberry Truffle Tart
- 1 9-inch chocolate graham cracker crust
- Base recipe for 9-inch chocolate truffle tart
- 1 quart strawberries
- Recipe: 9-Inch Chocolate Graham Cracker Crumb Crust
- 1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs(buy them in crumbs or run the crackers through a food processor)
- 1/4 cup cocoa
- 1/2 cup unsifted powdered sugar
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
Sift the cocoa and powdered sugar together in a bowl. Add the crumbs, mixing well. Add the butter and toss with a fork until the crumbs are completely coated. Spray the bottom of a quiche pan* and press 2/3 of the crumbs evenly over the bottom of the pan. Distribute them evenly against the sides. Press firmly against sides. Add the remainder on the bottom and press firmly. Base recipe for a 9-inch Chocolate Tart
- 1 cup cream (40% whipping cream)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 10 ounces semisweet chocolate
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Heat the cream and sugar until steaming and butter is melted. Whisk gently to make sure butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate and vanilla submerging the chocolate under the cream. Let sit for 4 to 5 minutes. Gently whisk to smooth out the chocolate. Using a rubber spatula, go around the bottom edges of the pan to make sure all the chocolate is melted. Prepare the base recipe for truffle tart and fill the shell (crust). Refrigerate until set. Release from pan. This can be done days ahead if desired. Several hours before serving, cut the tops off the strawberries. Place ten cut side down on a cutting board, Depending upon the size of the strawberries, cut straight down into 4 to 6 evenly spaced slices. Keep them together and continue in this fashion with the remaining strawberries. Starting at the other edge of the tart, lay the strawberries down slightly over the edge of the filling with the pointed ends toward the edge of the tart/ Continue until you have completed the circle. Alternate a second circle of strawberries inside the first with the pointed ends between those of the row above. Continue in this manner until you have reached the center and completely filled the tart. The size of the circles will decrease until you have room for only 2 to 4 slices in the middle. Refrigerate until about 1 hour prior to serving Make sure to display it for several hours for maximum effect. Cut into 10 –12 pieces *6 tablespoons butter Helen states using the same size strawberries I helpful. Avoid very large or really small berries if possible. If the strawberries are of mixed sizes, try to complete the circles with the same size, starting with the largest on the outside layers and working toward the center in decreasing size. Chocolate Coconut Tart 1 nine-inch chocolate Graham Cracker Crumb crust (recipes above) 3/4 cup cream of coconut (recommended brand, Coco Lopez)*spoons butter 4 ounces white chocolate 6 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/3 cup mascarpone 3 3/4 cups sweetened, shredded coconut Heat cream of coconut and white chocolate until melted but do not boil. Add the butter and continue to heat gently until butter has melted. Remove from the heat; whisk in mascarpone. Add shredded coconut then pour into the shell. Glaze: 1/4 cup 40% cream 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 tablespoons clear corn syrup 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut up finely 2 ounces white chocolate, cut up finely Crisco or cocoa butter Heat the cream, butter and clear corn syrup over medium heat until the butter is melted and mixture is steaming but do not boil. Remove form the heat and add the semisweet chocolate. Let sit for several minutes, whisk gently to smooth out chocolate. Set aside. Place white chocolate in a microwave container and microwave about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes on half powder. Stir to smooth. If chocolate is too thick to drizzle easily, melt a tablespoon of shortening or cocoa butter in a microwave. Add a little at a time until the chocolate will drop from a spoon in a steady stream without clumping up. With an offset spatula, spread the chocolate glaze to cover the coconut just tot he edge of the coconut. Immediately, dip a spoon into the melted white chocolate and holding it 6 – 8 inches over the chocolate glaze, make random circles by moving the spoon in a circular motion. Before either the glaze or white chocolate start to set, use a toothpick or bamboo skewer to draw a shallow line top to bottom near the edge of the tart. Move over about an inch and draw a shallow line bottom to top; repeat till you get the other side. Repeat drawing lines sideways 3 or 4 times form top to bottom. Lastly, pick the tart up and rap it gently on the table to smooth out topping. Refrigerate to set or freeze. To serve: If frozen, thaw overnight in refrigerator. This is best served at room temperature sliced in small pieces. * Helen recommends after opening the cream of coconut to place it in a bowl and whisk it together since it separates in the can.
