My trials with Dorie Greenspan’s sweet tart dough recipe continue. This time, I added pistachios to the dough for this raspberry and pistachio tart and it turned out amazing (even tough I over-baked it).
It would have been better to use more as I hoped to see some flakes here and there in the dough.
Dorie Greenspan’s basic pastry cream recipe is a star, too. Adding the butter in bits at room temperature is what makes it so silky. I recall this technique from the book “Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme” – another wonderful book by Greenspan.
I have prepared the chocolate pastry cream from this book for my Christmas cake as well as a raspberry version for my Swan Eclairs in the past and know how much of a difference it makes.
RASPBERRY and PISTACHIO TART
Recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s book “Baking: From My Home to Yours”
Makes one 9-inch tart or four 4-inch tarts
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1+1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 cup unsalted pistachios, skinned
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick plus 1 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
- 1 large egg yolk
For the pastry cream and garnish:
- 2 cups whole milk
- 6 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
- 1+1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3+1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes and at room temperature
- 12 oz fresh raspberries
- Finely chopped unsalted roasted pistachios
Method
- To prepare the crust, preheat the oven to 375 F (190C) degrees.
- Pulse flour, sugar, pistachios and salt in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until it resembles a coarse meal. Stir in the yolk and pulse again until the dough forms clumps and curds. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead just to incorporate dry ingredients.
- Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Freeze for 30 minutes before baking.
- Bake blind for 25 minutes, remove the weight and bake for another 10 minutes. Let cool at room temperature. Alternatively, you can divide the dough between four 4-inch mini tart pans and bake them individually.
- To prepare the pastry cream, bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.
- In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the yolks together with the sugar and cornstarch until well blended. Still whisking, drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the hot milk. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the milk. Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking constantly, bring the mixture to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat
- Whisk in the vanilla extract. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the bits of butter, stirring until they are fully incorporated and the pastry cream is smooth and silky. Scrape the cream into a bowl. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream to create an airtight seal and refrigerate until cold or, if you want to cool it quickly put the bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water and stir the pastry cream occasionally until it is thoroughly chilled, about 20 minutes. The pastry cream can be kept, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- To serve, spread the pastry cream in the tart shell and smooth the top with a spatula. Arrange the raspberries on top and sprinkle with the pistachios. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
This looks amazing!! I have been wanting to try to make tarts lately – this looks like the way to go!
Cenk, your tartlets look amazing. Although all your pictures came out great, the third one is my favorite. The colors are just stunning.
Deborah, Zinnur – Thank you for your nice comments!
Tek kelime ile bayıldım Cenk 2. resmin 1/1 boyutunu istiyorum lap topıma wallpaper yapıcam. Muhteşem yemek istiyorum ( kıyabilirsem tabii ) 🙂
What a delicious combination of flavors, Cenk. Not to mention how stunning it looks – I’m in awe.
yum yum! Beautiful little tarts! I love these types of desserts, so much so!
That tart and it’s wonderful decoration look amazing! I’d love to have a bite of it…
Eda – En kisa zamanda wallpaperin hazir.
Patricia, Bea, Rosa – Thank you for your lovely comments!
I was looking for a good pastry cream recipe, I think I wil try this one out, looks promising…
your blog is really beautiful. i love all your bakes!
I just love the different presentations. Very nice!
Absolutely gorgeous! I love it.
Cenk, I can’t believe I have only just found your site – it is so very, very beautiful. I love what you’ve done with the tart, adding nuts to the crust, sprinkling them over the top and crowning it with that great chocolate burst! Gorgeous. Also, I was intrigued by how you used the tart dough to make the Buddha cookies. I’m thrilled that you’re enjoying the dough and using it so creatively. Thank you for sharing these creations!
Dorie – Thank you so much for your nice comment!!! It is quite an honor to hear these from you.
Looks tempting !
Although I love chocolate&raspberry combo, the green pistachios really make the raspberries shine (or is it vice versa:) Lovely tarts, and I’ll definitely give this particular pastry a go soon..
Cenk, I finally came around to making the pastry cream. Hubby wanted to take some stuff to his office for his birthday, so I made little tartletts with berries, very similar to these, but other tart dough. The pastry cream was so easy to make and very yummy! I filled the raspberries with crema di balsamico and also sprinkled with pistachios. It was so good! Hubby took 18 of these to work (along with other stuff) and said they were gone so quick that he couldn’t try any himself! Thank you (and Dorie) for this great recipe.
Hande – Glad you liked it. It is my favorite pastry cream recipe. All the credit goes to Dorie!
I love your presentation! Look like your pastry cream has a very smooth texture!
I tried Dorie’s recipe for this vanilla pastry cream and honestly, I wasn’t at all impressed with it. It lacks flavor and I think her recipe asks for a bit too much cornstarch (?) The texture that I had was not smooth and it is rather too dry to my taste. I don’t think I’ll be using her pastry cream recipe!
I, too, had problems with this pastry cream… Is that really 1/3 cup of cornstarch? It is very thick and pasty, and tastes very much of cornstarch. Maybe the cornstarch in Europe is different than the one we have here in North America? Thanks for any advice, and I really do like the addition of softened butter at the end!
Marilou – Yes, it really is one third of a cup, but make sure to sift before measuring because it really makes a difference in the final weight. I don’t think it is about the difference in cornstarch as this recipe is from Dorie Greenspan’s book.
wow this is lovely