Get that pastry cream, caramel ready for tart time
There are two kinds of pastry lovers. The first orders a pastry and savors it in a moment of bliss, oblivious to the world. The second orders a few pastries and enjoys bites of each, acutely attuned to the flavors and textures, as their gears turn and they “figure it out.”
Though we all have moments of being both types of people, here at The Culinary Institute of America, we do spend a lot of time trying to “figure it out.” As chefs and culinary students, it is impossible to eat a sweet treat without analyzing its components. Not out of judgment (because we definitely know how to enjoy a decadent pastry) but for inspiration.
Very often, a professional dessert contains easy-to-prepare ingredients using professional tools and equipment. That gives us unique shapes, towering heights, and finished products that are difficult to replicate in the home kitchen. The small tart pans used to create the base of this dessert can be hard to find and expensive to buy, so we’ve revised this recipe to be prepared as one large tart in a basic 10-inch tart pan.
Of course, that’s not to say that you can’t make this Caramel Apple Tart recipe using individual tart pans, if you’d like. If you find molds like the ones in our photo, you may need more tart dough to make eight or 10 portions, since they’re so deep. So in that case, you’ll probably want to double your tart dough and pastry cream recipes, just to make sure you have enough.
Pastry cream is one of the most common professional pastry components, so you’ll be happy to master the technique. Chef Melissa Walnock says, “Pastry cream is simple, but easy to overcook. Once you have combined your liaison of eggs, sugar, and cornstarch with your hot dairy, you need to cook it on low while whisking constantly to make sure your eggs don’t overcook.” If you don’t nail this the first time, you’re not alone. Just pass the mixture through a strainer or cheese cloth to remove those lumps.
You’ll be making caramel twice in this recipe, and by the end, you may feel like an old pro. We added a little water to the method here, which is Caramel 101. It takes a little longer than starting with dry sugar, but it helps keep the sugar from burning. The amount doesn’t matter much — just add enough so it’s like wet sand. If you add too much, no big deal. It just takes a bit longer to cook, since the objective is to evaporate all of the water.