Fig Tart with Mascarpone Cream (& Surprise Treat)

Another rarity! More like a whole bundle of rarities, this one. It was by far the most geographically challenging (and expensive) one to date; I ransacked the city (and beyond) to gather the various uncommon ingredients. At one point, I wondered if I was making a pie or a very particular potion.

I thought the crust (a sweet nut cookie tart crust) was just beautiful, and begging to have its picture taken. The little brown specks are ground pecan bits, which lent a lovely nutty flavor and texture.

The mascarpone cream was scented with Marsala, a Sicilian wine. I searched far and wide for this wine, and the most common response I got was a condescending laugh and the remark, “You can’t go looking for something so specific.” I finally found a specialty store in far-far-away Bundang that had the wine, and made the 4 hour round trip there by subway (my very first time venturing to Bundang, too!). I asked the owner if he does any mail deliveries, and he said he normally doesn’t, but will for me, telling me to “Just say you’re the person who came from Seoul to pick up the Marsala.” I think I’m becoming a strangely memorable person.

The mascarpone-marsala cream came out more watery than I’d expected. I worried all night and into my dreams: What if the cream doesn’t gel and the figs sink right through – it’s too late to make an upside-down fig tart. Should I make the cream again and waste precious mascarpone cheese? On and on I debated in semi-consciousness. And somewhere in the twilight zone it occurred to me to just place a thin sponge cake layer between the cream and figs. I bolted right up at the idea. It was 5 a.m.

Luckily, the cream had gelled, and there was no need to bake sponge cake in the wee hours of the morning. But the problem was the figs – they were much less luscious and enticing than I’d hoped. I’d only ever had the Fig Newton variety of the fruit until last year, when my friend served fig and cheese crackers in a Parisian soiree. I was entranced; so this was the fruit that had tempted Eve! The ones I procured, on the other hand, probably only merited tentative glances… But what could I do? These will have to do!

All the different flavors and textures came together quite nicely, from the nuts in the crust, slight taste of (what I imagine to be) Italy in the cream, and the queer mushiness of the figs. Quite worth the effort! No leftovers were left behind; the three of us finished off the entire tart in one (long) sitting :)

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And the surprise (Ziplocked away from the humidity)

I made chocolate macaroons! I had so much old egg white left over (and more on the way), I just had to make more meringue. I baked three batches, which were then divided into three distinct groups: rather nicely shaped, cracked in the middle, and total mess-ups. The first was made into actual macaroons, the second dispersed to friends as cookies, and the last will be laid out for the neighborhood stray cats.

All that fuss only produced nine macaroons (I will not be calculating my efficiency level). I used some cherry syrup I had left over from the strudel to flavor the cream, though it didn’t even scent it cherry and just colored it ever-so-slightly violet.

They were packaged and sent off to my friend who had humored me in the making of macaroons last month (which turned out to be a monstrous failure), and who is currently toiling away in her office, single-handedly saving the nation from diplomatic disaster (or so I think). Bravo to that! I don’t know if the macaroons survived the Seoul heat en route to her office, but the one that I saved for myself was really good. Crunchy-soft-creamy-perfection!