Fresh Berry Tart

Simply classic.

“All” it called for was a basic cookie tart crust, pastry cream lightened with gelatin-stablized whipped cream, and a topping of fresh berries. It really doesn’t get much simpler than this, as pies go.

 Except I managed to mess up quite spectacularly. I was so afraid of the pastry cream curdling and clumping that I undercooked it and it never gelled. (*Explanation: Pastry cream, the lovely vanilla-specked cream found in French pastries, is thickened with corn starch. Corn starch is only activated at a full boil, but it becomes clumpy if you overcook or underwhisk.) And then I dumped in the whipped cream, hoping that it’d magically thicken it somewhat... What I ended up with was a huge bowl of watery, starchy, pretty much useless cream. Argh! I keep meaning to document my mess-ups as well as my happy successes. But somehow in the black-hole of disappointment that inevitably follows every catastrophe, I forget to reach for the camera. It’s too bad because they really are the more interesting moments – in retrospect.

I discarded the batch (I think clogged arteries are the price you pay for yumminess, but it’s not worth it for the crappy mess-ups), and started over. I briefly considered giving up, but the crust had already been baked and the blueberries bought, and they would just taste sooo much better with pastry cream…

It was heavenly, if I do say so myself :)

Who doesn’t like berries and cream on cookie crust? And you can even delude yourself into thinking that it’s good for you because blueberries are apparently the king of healthy fruit (according to this NYT article).

So was it worth the extra effort? Absolutely.