Rustic Tartlets with Fresh Fruit and Lemon Curd and Baking with Friends

Written by Becky

Last weekend, Maria, friend and fellow food blogger, from the food blog TwoPeasAndTheirPod, came over for a day of cooking and baking.  I had been wanting to try making these individual rustic tartlets I spotted at the Frog Hollow Farm Cafe  during my trip in San Francisco.  It was labor day, and both of us couldn’t imagine a more enjoyable afternoon than to be cooking and chatting in the kitchen.

Baking is a much more fun endeavor when its shared with someone else.  As is eating the final product!  Just think about it… screwing a recipe up becomes an exciting challenge to fix it instead of an annoyance, spilling flour is humorous not a hassle, and a seemingly complicated recipe becomes achievable with two sets of hands.  Not to mention the conversation and enjoyment from just being with someone who enjoys a similar interest. So, this labor day I found myself cooking for hours in the kitchen, but I felt restored and encouraged by enjoying a friendship and creating something delicious in the kitchen.

I saw these beautiful tartlettes as we meandered through the San Francisco Saturday Market at Embarcadero.  We stumbled upon, Frog Hollow Farm’s Cafe, where I enjoyed a delicious yogurt parfait.  My mother tried their fresh fruit tartlette, which I of course sampled, and found it to be delicious. Not too sweet, it relied on the natural flavors of the fruit to be a simple yet delicious pastry.

So, then I cam home on a mission to make my own. I had made a similar pasty recently, Zucchini & Ricotta Galette from one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen, though it was savory instead of sweet. Then, I found a similar recipe in a cookbook on my shelf called, The Painted Garden Cookbook. Their recipe was for a Plum and Rhubarb Curd Tart, which gave me the inspiration to add curd to the base of the tart. So, we added lemon curdto the base of the pastry, then layer fresh fruit on top, and sprinkled it all with some natural sugar crystals. We also used yogurt instead of sour cream in the pastry dough due to what I had in my kitchen.

Here is the basic recipe:

Rustic Tartlets with Fresh Fruit and Lemon Curd
adapted from SmittenKitchen and The Painted Garden Cookbook
4-6 tartlettes

INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour, chilled in the freezer for 30 minutes
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tb of sugar
8 Tb (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chill again
1/4 c plain yogurt
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 c ice water
1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp water (to glaze the dough)

1 beautifully ripe and delicious peach (or other fresh fruit), cut into thin slices
turbinado sugar (for dusting)
lemon curd (may be replaced with jam or you can make it without)

DIRECTIONS
Whisk together the flour,sugar,  and salt in a large bowl. Cut butter into small pieces then scatter bits of butter over flour and using a pastry blender, cut it in until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with the biggest pieces of butter the size of tiny peas. In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, lemon juice and cold water and add this to the butter-flour mixture. With your fingertips or a wooden spoon, mix in the liquid until large lumps form. Pat the lumps into a ball; do not overwork the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. (the dough will be sticky)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured work surface, cut the dough into 4-6 wedges (depending on how many tartlettes you want or how big) and roll the dough out into rounds. Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet or baking stone (though if you line it with parchment paper, it will be easier to transfer it to a plate later). Spread the lemon curd evenly over the bottom of the galette dough, leaving a 2-inch border. Lay the peach slices attractively on top of the lemon curd. Sprinkle some natural sugar crystals over the fruit. Fold the border over the filling, pleating the edge to make it fit. The center will be open. Brush crust with egg yolk/water glaze. Bake at 400 degreed for 25 to 30 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

(Tartlettes from Frog Hollow Farm and San Francisco Market flowers)

More Fruit Tart, Tartlet, and Galette Recipes:
Strawberry Rhubarb Galette, Tiny Tarts, and Peach Galette by Two Peas And Their Pod
Yogurt Tartlets by 101Cookbooks
Blueberry Tartlettes by Me
Vegan Blackberry Lime Tartlets by Fat Free Vegan
Chocolate Truffle Tarts by Tartelette
Walnut Tartlets and Simple Apple Tart by Smitten Kitchen

Or if you don’t want to make them at home, you can order them online from Frog Hollow Farm, 3 for $12. They ship frozen, ready to bake.

Comments (9)

  1. Oh, those look delicious! Every time I make lemon or lime curd, I want to just sit and eat it all with a spoon instead of whatever I intended it for. Yum…

  2. Your tarts are beautiful and you two must have had a wonderful time cooking together! So much fun in the kitchen. Maybe now we're into fall we could do a bread class . . .

  3. The photography is wonderful and really draws me in. Love that you made these mini-style. I will be trying this later this year, if I can wait that long;-)

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