Funny story about this tart.
I made it last week.
Why is that funny you say? Well, I rushed home from work, finished making my tart, rushed to capture the daylight to take some pictures of my masterpiece (if I do say so myself…), and got my husband to drive me and the tart to book club.
I knocked on the door with a big ol’ smile on my face only for the book club host to remind me that book club was not tonight, it is next week.
WOMP. WOMP.
The host was extremely gracious and offered to let me come in, but I just turned around with my tail between my legs, called Tom and made him come pick me up before he even got home.
At least I had a good story to tell when I brought the tart in to school the next day! You know something is good when you put it in the office when you arrive and it is devoured by 11:00am.
A few things about this recipe and the pictures:
1. I started with no balsamic drizzle and/or basil garnish. I wasn’t sure how it would look or taste. I liked the pictures with and without the garnish, but the balsamic really added a nice touch to the tart. You can actually find reduced balsamic vinegar on the shelves in your grocery store. It isn’t as fancy as you think!
2. This dough comes from the cooking class I took. Since we were in a fancy kitchen we used kitchen scales. I talked about how great it is to have a kitchen scale before, but if you don’t feel like getting it for just this recipe, the ratio of flour to butter should be 2 to 1.
3. This tart dough has a very fancy French name, pate brisee. I can’t say French words for the life of me so during class I wrote a phonetic spelling for myself. It is pronounced “pat bree-zay.”
4. If you don’t feel like making the pate brisee, you can use store bought pie crust. You still need to bake it completely before you fill it because you are not cooking any of the additional ingredients. Follow the directions on the package for this.
Stawberry Basil Goat Cheese Tart Recipe
Ingredients
- Pate Brisee (enough for a 9 inch tart)
- 4 oz. very cold butter
- 8 oz. flour (a little less than 2 cups)
- 1/3 cup water
- filling
- 8 oz goat cheese
- 4 fresh basil leaves, plus some for garnish
- 1 guart strawberries, sliced
- balsamic drizzle, optional
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix flour and butter just until the mixture comes together when you push it together with your fingers. (Don’t mix it too much longer than this).
- Very quickly add the water, turn up the speed one notch, mix until combined and then shut the mixer off. You do not want to over mix.
- Bring the dough together with your hands and shape into a disc. The dough will still be a bit uneven and crumbly at this point. That is ok. You should still be able to see chunks of butter as well.
- Allow dough to rest at least an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out pate brisee so it is a little larger than your tart pan. You want the dough to be about 1/2 inch thick.
- Fold half of the dough over the rolling pin and gently lift into the tart.
- Cut around the edge of the tart leaving about a 1/2 inch overhang.
- Fold the overhang up so the sides are higher than the pan. You want to tuck any remaining on the side not touching the pan (where you will put the filling and cover it up). Don’t fold it towards the outside, otherwise you won’t be able to get it out of the tart pan.
- Cut a piece of parchment paper slightly larger than your tart pan.
- Place the parchment paper on the pate brisee. Fill with dried beans or pie weights.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the edges are golden brown (check around 15 minutes to see how it is going).
- Remove the beans and parchment paper and bake for another 15 minutes or until the middle of the tart has browned.
- Allow pate brisee to cool completely before preceding. (I made mine the night before.)
- Either in the package (I used my hands and massaged the package) or in a bowl, warm up the goat cheese so you can spread it easily and it won’t crack the pate brisee.
- Spread the goat cheese on the pate brisee.
- Slice basil leaves in thin slices and sprinkle on goat cheese.Arrange strawberry slices to your liking on top of the goat cheese.Garnish with balsamic drizzle and basil leaves.
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