Recipe for Berry Tart (pareve)

Although there are a lot of steps in this recipe, they are all quite easy to do. It is best to start this dessert early in the day, because the dough must chill for an hour, the pastry cream should chill for an hour as well. These hours can run concurrently, but the tart shell needs to be baked and cooled before the pastry cream can be added. When completely assembled, the tart is chilled for another hour before serving.

Use whatever fresh and beautiful berries that are available. Frozen berries are not recommended for this tart, as the berries are not cooked in this recipe.


Ingredients:

Tart dough: 8 oz. (1 stick) margarine 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup all purpose flour

Pastry cream: 1 cup soymilk 1/4 cup sugar 3 Tablespoons all purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 4 egg yolks 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 Tablespoons margarine

Apricot glaze: 1 jar apricot jam (preserves, jelly, whatever...)

Berries

• 2-3 cups fresh berries

Instructions:

1. Place margarine, salt and margarine in food processor. Process for about 1 minute, when the dough forms a ball on top of the blade.


2. Wrap the dough and chill for an hour. (I used two recipes for the rest of the pictures in this tutorial, and wrapped them in plastic wrap to save space in the refrigerator. The dough just needs to be covered, such that it doesn't dry out. It doesn't need plastic wrap if your refrigerator has space.)


3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.


4. Press the dough into the pie pan. This recipe works well with glass pie plates or metal tart (removable bottom) pans. The chilled dough can be rolled with a rolling pin, or just manipulated by hand. It is a very hearty, easy working dough.
   


5. Bake the unfilled tart shells for 12-14 minutes at 425 degrees F, until lightly browned.


6. Set the baked tart shells aside to cool.


7. Whisk the flour, sugar and salt in a separate bowl.


8. Heat the soymilk in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan until it is hot, but not boiling.


9. Separate the eggs and beat lightly. (I'm making a double recipe in the pictures below, so there are eight egg yolks, etc.)


10. Add a bit of the hot soymilk to the dry ingredients, and whisk to mix. Add a bit more soymilk, mix again. Do this until the dry ingredients are fully moistened and not lumpy.


11. Put the moistened, mixed (formerly) dry ingredients into the saucepan, where the remainder of the heated soymilk waits.


12. Whisk the heated soymilk-flour-sugar-salt mixture over low heat, whisking constantly and vigorously, while the mixture boils gently.


13. Continue until the mixture is very thick and smooth, like a custard.


14. Remove the pan from the heat, and allow it to cool for a few minutes.


15. Add the egg yolks to the cooled mixture and whisk to incorporate. (Eggs won't curdle/scramble because the mixture is thickened with flour.)


16. Return the pan to heat. Boil while whisking vigorously for another minute or two.
    


17. Remove the pan from the heat, allow to cool for a minute or two.


18. Add the vanilla extract and the margarine with the wire whisk, stirring to incorporate.


19. Quickly after adding the vanilla and margarine, transfer the pastry cream to a different (i.e. not hot) container, place plastic wrap on the surface (to prevent a crust from forming - it should make contact with the pastry cream) and chill for an hour.


20. While the pastry cream cools, make the apricot glaze. Place the apricot jelly/jam/preserves in the (cleaned out) sauce pan. I use a whole 12 oz. jar for two tarts.
    (Approx. 3/4 cup per tart.)


21. Heat the jelly until it boils, stirring well to keep it from sticking to the edges of the pan.


22. Strain the boiled jelly. The result of the straining is the glaze. The jelly's solids can be discarded (I usually sneak them into the cooking cholent, as a 'secret ingredient'.)


23. Paint the cooled tart shell with a little bit of the glaze.


24. Add the chilled pastry cream to the glazed tart shell. Smooth the surface so it is even.


25. Arrange berries on top of the pastry cream.


26. Brush the berries with the remaining apricot glaze. It should form a thick coat, sealing the berries in place, coating the whole top of the tart.


27. Chill the completed, glazed tart for at least an hour before serving.

Enjoy!

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