You Saucy Little Tart!

I love jewelry. Not necessarily the fancy blingin' stuff, but more so funky costume pieces, with bright colors and semi-precious stones. One evening, we threw a party and I was wearing just such a bracelet--a wrist collar made of several strands of bright red seeds from a Hawaiian tree strung between two pieces of dark wood (I bought it at one of my favorite stores anywhere, the Yellow Fish Trading Company in Kauai, which was selling the bracelets as part of an effort to save a tree endangered by a form of blight). My friend Sue, who is among other things a glass artist, came to this party and silently observed my bracelet. A few weeks later, she presented me with a glass ring to match, the exact shades of red and brown as the bracelet, all based on a single viewing! The accompanying card featured the line 'You saucy little tart!', over a funny little rendering of a bright red strawberry tart. I still have the card, along with the ring.

I was thinking of this when I was cooking last week. The first strawberries of the season have arrived from Spain to liven up the weekly fresh markets. Unable to resist, I bought a flat and from somewhere in the mists inspiration hit: why not make a strawberry tart?!? For reasons unknown, I was not satisfied with any of the tart recipes in my cookbooks or on the internet. So, I decided to cobble together an amalgam of my own. And, with pretty good results if I do say so myself. Lemon cream cheese filling, a slightly sour citrus glaze, loads of pretty red sliced berries.



Except....one little thing. The crust. Feeling very chi chi à la mode, I decided to whip up a quick pâte sablée (short pastry) for the tart crust. Using my lovely Chocolate & Zucchini Parisian cookbook, I followed the recipe closely, dispensing with my usual haste and ish measurements (i.e. 2-ish cups). The tart came together nicely, the presentation beautiful. Troy and I indulged in large pieces that evening. We took our first bites, discovering a wonderful taste, but with something slightly....off about the texture. Troy commented that the crust was so moist it was like eating cookie dough. Not unpleasant, just....different. I decided to go back to the cookbook and see if I had missed something. And, merde, I had. In this cookbook the crust recipe opens a section devoted to tarts and cakes and, apparently, is meant to be used in conjunction with other recipes for fillings and sauces. And it is in those other recipes that it tells you HOW TO BAKE THE CRUST!

There were no eggs or other potentially harmful-if-consumed-raw ingredients in the crust that would have aroused my suspicions on a lack of baking instructions. I thought it was just a fancy French pâtisserie pack-and-chill kind of method. Not so much. Just an American girl's funny little way of (mis)constructing a tart.