Tart fruits can bite when you first eat them, but after eating the fruit for a bit the sweetness begins to come through. This can be said for our next Strawberry Shortcake character: Raspberry Tart and her pet monkey named Rhubarb. When Raspberry Tart was introduced as a new character she was a tad bit mean. But, eventually, her sweetness came through. Life is truly delicious this time of year as we enjoy the summer season, berry season.

One of the things we love best about summer is all the fresh berries. We cannot eat enough of them. Initially we wanted to make this tart with the lovely black raspberries found at the local farmers market, but we were impatient, having eaten the black raspberries on the walk home. Unadorned, these raspberries were as nature intended…tart enough to make us wince a little and sweet enough to make us want more. Luckily we made it home before diving into the red raspberries.

Raspberry Tart

Sherry Yard’s Master 3-2-1 Flaky Pie Dough

Ingredients

• ½ pound cold, unsalted butter (2 sticks)
• 2 ½ cups AP flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup ice water
• 1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar

Directions

1. Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place it in the freezer to chill for 15 minutes.
2. Sift together the flour and sugar into the bowl of a standing mixer (paddle attachment).
3. Add the butter and salt. Mix on low speed for about 2 minutes. Stop mixing and by hand pinch flat any large pieces of butter that remain.
4. Combine the ice water and vinegar in a small bowl. Turn the mixer on low and add the liquid all at once. Mix just until the dough comes together, about 15 seconds.
5. Remove the dough from the bowl and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 1 hour.
6.  After properly chilled roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to desired thickness.
7. Fit dough into tart shells. Bake at 350 degrees or until lightly brown. (Bake using pie beads or poke a few holes in the bottom of the crust with a fork.)
8. Cool tart shell completely before filling.

Vanilla Pastry Cream

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups whole milk
• 3 egg yolks
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, warm the milk over low heat until it is just hot enough to steam. While the milk is warming, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, flour, and cornstarch until the mixture is completely smooth.
2. Once the milk is steaming, add half of it, whisking constantly, to the egg mixture.
3. Add the milk and eggs back into the hot milk continue stirring, and heat it for 1-2 minutes, until the custard reaches 170F on a digital thermometer and is very thick. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, and chill before filling tart shells.

To Assemble

1. Use berries of your choice. For this tart we used raspberries.
2. Spoon or pipe the pastry filling into the tart shell.
3. Gently place rinsed and drained raspberries onto the pastry cream.

Rinse raspberries. Make sure they are as dry as possible before arranging on the tart.

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Featured Viktorija Kuprijanova