Sadly the vacation is over. Time to go home after 8 glorious days in the UK. Such lovely days of freedom...I am not in the least bit excited to go back to work tomorrow morning....mostly because it means waking up, and that is not an exciting prospect. In just a little while Brandon and I will be heading to the airport to fly back state side. As if we weren't sick of each other after 8 days solid....now we get to sit next to each other for 8 hours solid. Lovely. I ran out of things to talk about five days ago! This should be interesting.
Here is another one of my daring bakers tarts I made! I'm madly in love with apple cider curd. It's rather lovely and has such a beautiful texture. Mmmm. I miss it. I think I'll make some more when I get home....after a nap.
Cheers!
Pasta Frolla
scant 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 and 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 T. vanilla sugar
1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl
Put sugar, flour, salt, and lemon zest in a stand mixer and stir a few times to mix. Add butter and beat using a wisk attachment until the mixture has the consistency of coarse meal.
Switch to using the dough hook attachment and continue to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients. Continue lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.
Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours or overnight.
While the dough is chilling make the apple cider curd.
Apple Cider Curd Recipe:
3 large eggs
2 cups cup apple cider
3/4 cup light brown sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
In a sauce pan, boil apple cider until it has reduced to a half cup of liquid.
In a stand mixer beat together eggs and brown sugar. While continuing to mix, very slowly pour the reduced apple cider down the side of the bowl.
Return the mixture to the sauce pan. Cook stirring constantly until the mixture becomes thick. This will take approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine mesh strainer to remove lumps.
Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk into the mixture until the butter has melted. Cover immediately and refrigerate.
To Assemble and Bake:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Roll out a batch of the pasta frolla, reserving one fourth of the dough to make the lattice topping and cover the base of the tart pan.
Spread the prepared apple cider curd to fill the crostata
Roll out the reserved dough and cut into long strips creating a design, or cut using cookie cutters into shapes.
Bake for 35 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
Enjoy!
