Sunflower Tart

 Hi there! It's Rebecca...

I love baking and I love politics…So I’m a very happy girl when I can find a fun way to combine them in to one activity, and that’s exactly what I did for Sunday nights dessert.

While at Mt. Vernon (George Washington’s Historic Plantation) last December, I had the opportunity to meet Roland Mesnier, the former Executive Pastry Chef at the White House, who was signing copies of his various books. Mr. Mesnier was hired by Rosalynn Carter in 1979 and continued turning out delicious goodies for first families and state dinners for the next 26 years (meaning he also worked for First Ladies Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush).  While there I purchased his book Dessert University, which is an amazing encyclopedia of fantastic looking cakes, pastries, tarts, cookies and other desserts. It offers fantastic hints and tips and even step-by-step instructions on how to create those intricate sugar and chocolate decorations, which seem all but impossible to make.  For 8 months this book has been sitting on my shelf untouched, so I decided it was time to break it open.

One Recipe that has always caught my eye, is a beautiful tart featured on the cover of his book, with brightly colored mango slices arranged to look like a sunflower.  It seemed like the perfect recipe for my inaugural experience with this book. 

SUNFLOWER TART

Now the book describes this as “…simple and fun to make” and in the grand scheme of pastry making it’s probably not that difficult. That being said that I’ve always found pastry shells and pastry creams to be a bit finiky, but you get used to dealing with them I think.

The first step is to put together the dough for the tart’s crust, a pretty basic pâte sucrée that turns out like a sweet buttery cookie.

The dough begins by mixing together softened butter and sugar until it becomes creamy and smooth. If you have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a paddle attachment, it works great with for this! Add in vanilla, lemon zest, a pinch of salt and an egg.  Finally, stir in the flour until all agreements come together.

Remove the dough from the bowl and dust lightly with flour. Then wrap the ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Meanwhile, prepare a 10-inch tart pan, by buttering the bottom and sides.

Preheat the oven to 425°

While your oven is heating up and your crust is chilling, you can put together the pastry cream filling.

In a bowl mix sugar and cornstarch together and then whisk in 5 large eggs. Meanwhile in a medium sauce pan bring one quart of milk to a boil.

Now you need to mix the egg and milk mixture together, but you have to be careful that your boiling milk doesn't in fact cook the eggs, which will cause your cream to become lumpy. So you can temper the egg mixture by slowly dribbling ½ cup of the boiling milk into the bowl while constantly whisking. Repeat with another ½ cup of boiling milk. Then begin to whisk the egg mixture back into the hot milk. Again whisking constantly is crucial. Bring the mixture back up to a boil, so it will start to thicken. Pour the mixture into a bowl and stir in butter, vanilla and salt. Allow to cool somewhat.

Remove the prepared crust from the fridge and pour pastry cream into the tart shell. 

Bake tart for 30 minutes. The edges of the crust should be a light golden color and the cream should be set.

Let the tart cool. A skin forms on top of the cream while cooking. It can easily be removed while the tart is still somewhat warm.

In theory, this next part should be the easiest; Slice 2 fresh mangoes. These slices will form the petals of the flower. Mangoes have a hard nut in the middle that you have to work around (and unfortunately it doesn’t nicely separate from the pit the way most peaches and avocados do). I have figured out that it’s easiest to slice into the fruit, pull it away from the nut and then cut the skin off of it. Warning: The first slice always seems to get butchered in the process! 

Time to decorate! Place a 3-inch biscuit cutter in the center of the tart and layer the mango slices around it, so that it begins to resemble the petals of the flower.

In a small sauce pan melt a ½ cup of apricot jam and brush the liquefied jam over the mango slices. Scatter the chocolate sprinkles in a layer inside the biscuit cutter and remove the biscuit cutter. Your sunflower can be done here or you can spinkle crushed pistachios around the outside of the tart. Remove the tart from the pan and serve!

Pâte Sucrée
½ cup of Sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened
½ tablespoon of Vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Pinch of salt
1 large egg
2 ¼ cups of all-purpose flour

Instructions:
1.    Combine the sugar and butter with an electric mixer. Cream together until smooth. Stir in the vanilla, lemon zest, and salt. Then stir in the egg. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl if necessary.
2.    Add in the flour. Mix until just combined.
3.    Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour (and up to 2 days).


Pastry Cream
¾ cup of Sugar
½ cup of Cornstarch
5 large Eggs
1 quart whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons of butter

Instructions:
1.    Mix the sugar and cornstarch together. Whisk in the eggs.
2.    Bring the milk to a boil in a large saucepan.
3.    Slowly dribble ½ cup of milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Repeat with ½ a cup more.
4.    Whisk the egg mixture back into the milk and return to a boil, continuing to whisk constantly.
5.    Remove the pan from the heat and pour the contents into the a bowl.
6.    Stir in the vanilla, salt and butter.

Sunflower Tart
1 recipe pâte sucrée, chilled
2 cups of pastry cream, cooled
2 large ripe mangoes, peeled and cut into long thin slices
½ cup of apricot jam
1/3 cup of chocolate sprinkles
1/3 cup of crushed pistachio

Instructions:
1.    Butter the bottom and sides of a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.
2.    Turn out the chilled dough on a floured work surface sprinkling the dough with flour. Roll out the dough into a 13-inch round circle, that’s about 1/8 of an inch thick.
3.    Lift the dough and place into a tart pan
4.    Prick bottom of the tart shell about 12 times with a fork.
5.    Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes
6.    Preheat oven to 425°
7.    Fill the tart shell with pastry cream and spread evenly
8.    Bake for 30 minutes; until crust is golden brown.
9.    Cool slightly; Remove skin that has formed on top of the cream. Allow to cool fully
10. Place a 3-inch round biscuit cutter in the center of the pastry cream. Arrange mangoes around the biscuit cutter; layering the slices so that they look like petals.
11. Bring the apricot jam to a boil in a small saucepan. Strain the jam and brush it lightly over the mango slices
12.  Scatter the chocolate sprinkles in an even layer inside the biscuit cutter and carefully remove the cutter.
13.  Scatter the pistachios around the outside edge of the tart (optional)