Loose Bottomed Tart Pans and Other Baking Innuendos

There's a lot of things I excel at. Pie crust is not one of them. The New York Times recently posted an article rounding up their top twenty pie recipes- with a suggestion to try a few while summer is in full swing. Friends, I am convinced that it would be a shame to let any of these delicious sounding pie remain unmade. Thus begins my challenge.

End result

I am making one of these pies every week (barring sickness or travel) for the next twenty weeks. Every Thursday at 7pm I will be serving a new pie - hopefully bringing together new groups of people to enjoy company and dessert.

So anyway. I made a pie yesterday. An Easy Summer Fruit Tart - with a mix of jams and jellies and fresh to bursting peaches and plums from Findlay Market. The crust came together surprisingly well, though a little sticky - I didn't flour my work-surface quite enough. I thought it would be harder to arrange the fruit, but seven or eight little plums and five or six largish peaches exactly filled my pan. It was a little leaky after removed from the oven - I may have used too much jam. But the lovely people I shared it with at the cookout (cook-in, it was really rainy!) yesterday didn't seem to mind too much.

The one thing about the recipe that really threw me off (I had to consult my mother and a foodie friend for secondary opinions) was the it called for a specific type of pan - specifically, a springform style with removable sides. I used the pan usually required for cheesecakes, but I had a good chuckle over their recommendation of a "loose bottomed tart pan". Oh, come on. You laughed, too!

Easy Summer Fruit Tart - adapted from this recipe

Total time: 1.5 hours
Serves 8
Really good cold and for breakfast

Here's what you need:

• 1.5 cups flour, plus more for rolling
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 11 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
• 1 egg yolk, beaten
• 2 1/2 to 3 pounds fruit - I used six or seven small plums and five or six larger peaches. Figs, nectarines, or apricots would also work well. 
• 6 tablespoons preserves - I used a combination of strawberry jalapeno, apricot, and raspberry

Here's what you do with it:

• Blend flour, salt and 2 tablespoons sugar in a bowl or food processor. Dice 8 tablespoons of the butter. Use a pastry blender or two knives to blend flour mixture and butter, or pulse them together in a food processor to make a crumbly mixture. Beat the egg yolk with 3 tablespoons cold water. Dribble it over the flour mixture, then stir or pulse slowly until the mixture starts clumping together. A bit more water may be necessary. Gather dough in a loose ball and form into a disk on a floured surface.



I was nervous the fruit wouldn't stand up,
but it worked out well.

• Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough and line a 10-inch loose-bottom tart pan- what they mean here is some sort of springform pan. But they worded it funny-  Blind bake pastry for 12 minutes - line with foil and put pastry weights or dried beans on top. Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter, cooking it on low until it turns a light brown. Pit fruit and cut in eighths or, if fruit is small, fourths. After 12 minutes, remove foil and weights from pastry. Return pastry to oven and continue baking until it is lightly browned, another 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pastry from oven and increase temperature to 400 degrees.
• Brush pastry with preserves. Arrange fruit in tight concentric circles, starting by placing it around the perimeter, skin side down, against the vertical sides of the pastry and standing it up as much as possible. Brush with melted butter. Dust with remaining sugar. Bake about 35 to 40 minutes, until edges have browned but fruit has not collapsed. Refrigerate and serve with creme fraiche, if desired.