Happy as a Gram Speculoos Cookie Crust
INGREDIENTS
32packaged speculoos cookies 6tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, melted
DIRECTIONS
Heat the oven to 350degrees.
Put the cookies in a food processor and blitz until the cookies are a uniformly sandy texture. Drizzle in the melted butter and pulse until the mixture comes together like wet sand.
Turn the mixture out into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Use your fingers to pack the mixture tightly into the pan, going all the way up the sides, then use your palm to flatten the bottom. Make sure the edges and the bottom are compact and of even thickness. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet to catch any butter drips that occur during baking and to provide stability as you transfer the tart shell in and out of the oven. Bake for 8to 10minutes, until the crust is no longer shiny with butter. It will continue to crisp up as it cools.
Keep the tart shell in the pan, cool completely, and store in the fridge or freezer until ready to fill.
Cranberry Curd INGREDIENTS
15ounces cranberries, fresh or frozen 3tablespoons fresh lemon juice
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
3large eggs plus 2egg yolks
6tablespoons butter, room temperature, cut into ½-inch cubes
DIRECTIONS
Heat the oven to 350degrees.
Combine the cranberries and 2tablespoons water in a 2-quart saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the cranberries burst and start to break down, about 5minutes. Remove from the heat and press the cranberries through a fine-mesh sieve with a silicone spatula, extracting as much puree as possible. Discard the remaining pulp and return the puree to the saucepan.
Add the lemon juice, sugar, salt, eggs and egg yolks to the cranberry puree and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat, whisking continuously, until the mixture is warmed through. Add the butter gradually and stir until all the cubes have melted. Continue cooking until the mixture is thickened enough to coat a spatula, 5to 8minutes, stirring frequently and scraping the corners of the saucepan.
Remove from the heat and strain the curd through a fine-mesh sieve.
Place the baked tart shell, still in the tart pan, on a baking sheet. Pour the curd into the tart shell, smoothing the surface. Bake the tart for 5minutes, just to set the filling Cool completely before decorating.
Tangram design process INGREDIENTS
1firm mango 1white-fleshed dragon fruit (pitaya) 2or 3firm kiwis
DIRECTIONS
Peel and cut the fruit into ¼-inch slices. Arrange the fruit slices on a large plate organized by type.
Cut any type of triangle — equilateral, scalene, obtuse, acute, isosceles, right — from a piece of mango, slicing as close to the edge as possible to maximize the yield of each fruit slice. Pause here if you feel the need to Google image search some triangles. Otherwise, throw math to the wind and cut any sort of shape with three sides. Place it along a tart edge.
Cut another shape from a kiwi slice and place it next to the mango, leaving some space between the fruit, not unlike tile grout lines. Generally, polygons like triangles, parallelograms and trapezoids work well for this design. I avoid shapes with more than four sides mainly to save time, but if manually sliced hexagons or even hendecagons (back to Google ...) are your thing, by all means, go wild! This is your tart, your life.
Cut another shape, perhaps a rhombus, from a slice of dragon fruit, and fit it next to the kiwi. Continue cutting shapes, alternating among fruits, and puzzling the pieces together on the tart. Build out from your starting point and slowly fill the whole surface, gradually working your way to the other edge.
Keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve. This tart is best consumed within 2days.
— From “Pieometry: Modern Tart Art and Pie Design for the Eye and the Palate” by Lauren Ko