Picnic and more struggle with short crust pastry
Picnic with friends in Richmond Park sounded like a great idea for a hot Sunday afternoon. I decided to contribute with individual fruit tarts.
The pastry recipe was from Jamie Oliver’s first book, I always get bit scared not to overwork it so usually it comes out too crumbly. I think this time I came pretty close to the real deal. My little tart shells baked and got decorated with fruit and jelly. I never poured jelly into pastry cases before so obviously I didn’t think about putting a layer of egg white on top. The jelly set beautifully overnight but it also soaked through the shells so the tarts became soggy and definitely not picnic worthy.
I had plan B, as I made a lot of pastry I had enough for a whole fruit tart so I set to work. I almost got it rolled out in one piece and it almost landed perfectly in the baking tin. I think I am close to getting it right, just need to practice a bit more. It is a very satisfying thing.
This time I sealed the pastry, whipped some cream and arranged summer berries. It looked very pretty. It lacked few mint leaves but I could not find any in the supermarket (damn you Pimms drinkers!).
The next challenge was the packing and wrapping. Cling film was used heavily and the tart landed in my basket. We set off to Richmond. But 20 minutes into the ride the cream started to melt and as the tart was right in front of me I was getting more and more stressed about it. In despair we stopped to buy some ice, the tart was placed on top of it and somehow we made it to the park. It wasn’t as spectacular as the original but it tasted very good indeed.
July 12th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
WOW… looks delicious! I certainly admire your persistence.
July 13th, 2010 at 7:59 am
Well it looks delicious despite all of the stress! I always have good luck with Martha Stewart’s pate brise recipe, and for hot weather pastry cream works pretty well in the place of whipped cream. But my lord, I would invite you to every picnic I had based on these photos!
July 13th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Wow, that looks amazing! You are dedicated to this cause! The only pastry I ever made that worked was when a friend and I made a galette from Smitten Kitchen – it was a savoury recipe but the pastry was just pastry, and it had sour cream in it. a friend swears by vodka in hers!
What a wonderful picnic. And anything transported in a basket on a bike automatically tastes better …
July 14th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
oh you are amazing and this looks amazing and i am sure it tasted amazing!!!
July 16th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Looks like it would taste great!
July 17th, 2010 at 1:46 am
read me: thank you, I am trying ;)
Laura, thanks! I need to look up the Martha Stewart recipe.
Jane: it’s true, everything eaten outside after a cycle get consumed very fast. vodka – interesting, it does make sense in a way.
if jane and aron: thank you ;)
July 20th, 2010 at 6:02 am
My mum used to wait for the jelly to half set before putting it onto a pastry. It prevented it from soaking through but the surface was less smooth.
July 31st, 2010 at 2:55 am
Hmm, looks delicious. I’m picking redcurrants and cherries from the garden today to make fruit tarts for a picnic tomorrow. If the weather sorts out, that is. x
August 1st, 2010 at 3:52 am
Caroline: sounds amazing! x
August 20th, 2010 at 9:49 am
[...] The tart was a huge success, the base is a classic short crust pastry and the cream is a mix of mascarpone, sugar and amaretto from Jamie’s Italian cookbook aka torta di more. It survived the bike ride much better than the picnic tart. [...]