White Chocolate Berry Tart

I love the look of berries either piled high or in neat little rows for desserts...they are just too pretty that way. For dinner at Matt and Katie's house, we brought the dessert which is our typical contribution. I wanted to make something on the lighter more refreshing side so a tart it was! And instead of lemon curd I decided to try out my new Bain Marie and make a white chocolate pastry cream...

I love tarts...they are a simple dessert but provide a HUGE range for variation. Whether that be in the filling or crust plus you can go sweet or savory. For this one I made the Tartine sweet tart dough, a mildly sweet white chocolate cream which contrasted nicely with the tart berries. The recipe for tart dough makes more than you need for this dessert...but it freezes nicely if you shape into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap.


White Chocolate Pastry Cream
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup white chocolate pieces

Place vanilla and milk in a heavy saucepan (or double boiler!!!) on medium high heat and bring to just under a boil, stirring occasionally to make sure milk does not burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.

In a separate bowl, mix together cornstarch and sugar. Ladle about 1/3 of the hot milk into the mixture whisking constantly. Then pour the egg/milk mixture back into the hot pan and keep whisking until the custard is thick, about 2 minutes. Cornstarch needs to cook in order to "activate" the thickening process. Whisk in the butter and white chocolate, pour into separate bowl and let cool.

Tart Dough
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
pinch salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Add butter, sugar and salt into a mixer on medium until smooth. Add eggs one at a time. Stop mixer, scrape down the sides and mix a little longer to incorporate everything. Add flour all at once and mix on low until just incorporated.

Remove dough and separate into 4 equal balls, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours. Meanwhile preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Roll to about 1/8" thick on a lightly floured surface. Lay gently into tart pan and press into the corners of the pan. Using a knife, cut off the dough that hangs over. If there are any bare spots, using the remaining dough to patch the spots.

Bake for 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let completely cool.

To assemble, spoon pastry cream into tart shell until just under the brim. Then add berries in a pattern or your choosing.