Bonjour! Bonjour!
Even before I got on the plane to come to Paris, I was thinking about strawberries. About how there’d be piles of them at every market. About how I’d buy them at every market. And about how I’d eat an entire box on the walk home. It's impossible not to! Just like in America, strawberries are available year-round here, but when they’re in season, they’re celebrated. Shoppers ask for the berries by variety – yep, you can do that – and there's something strawberry in every pastry shop window. It’s a moment!
Since I’ve been here, I’ve eaten strawberries every day. Straight out of the box. In a bowl with cream - whipped cream, crème fraîche, lemon cream, heavy cream straight up and very cold. In a tart. In many tarts.
I love a simple tart. If the crust is good and the berries are ripe, then you don’t need much else. In fact, one of my favorite tarts is only a well-baked crust brushed with jam and then filled with fresh berries. It’s impossible to cut neatly since the berries fall out in a tumble, but that’s a big part of the dessert’s charm.
Simplest strawberry tart: crust + jam + berries + cream
I also love tarts that have more going on – but not so much more that each of the little parts has a hard time making itself known. If a tart were a sport, each player would have to be a star and a generous team member at the same time. (This may be the first sports analogy I’ve ever made!)
And I loved the tart (actually the tartlet) I had this week at one of the most interesting patisseries in Paris, Maison Aleph.
Strawberry Tartlet from Maison Aleph in Paris/xoxo Dorie
Myriam Sabet is the shop’s resident genie and we met shortly after she opened Maison Aleph in 2017. Then, as now, I was fascinated by her take on pastries: she has an elegant way of blending the flavors and touchstone ingredients of her childhood – she grew up in Syria – with those of France, where she studied pastry and has lived for almost 25 years.
Myriam Sabet and moi at Maison Aleph
Her “mother” doughs are homemade phyllo and kataifi (phyllo angel hair); her staple fillings and fillips are frangipane, confited fruits and ganache; her mainstays include rose- and orange-flower water, sesame, halva and pistachios; and the way she combines everything borders on alchemy.
At first glance, the tart looks like a classic strawberry tart – crust, something in the middle, berries on top, a little dollop of something to finish it. But it’s a model of cross-cultural diplomacy and a lesson in how to build a dessert: Every bite includes crunch and creaminess, sweetness and tang.
For the crust, Myriam uses layers of phyllo. Each sheet of phyllo (there are 10) is brushed with clarified butter and sprinkled with sugar. If you’ve ever worked with phyllo, you know that it can be finicky; you’ve got to keep it pliable; and you’ve got to accept that no matter how skilled you are and how much you try, some sheets will tear. Phyllo can be rough on a perfectionist’s nerves! And so it's kind of gobsmacking to see how Myriam presses the layers into the tart mold as though they were a single piece of pie dough! Once baked, the phyllo is both flaky and hyper crunchy.
To play against the crunch, the next layer, a crème pistache (think pistachio frangipane), is soft and moist. It’s a cushion between the crust and the fruit and, as Myriam said, “as comforting as a hug.”
The crust and the crème are baked and then topped with strawberry confit, a jam, flavored lightly, but hauntingly, with orange-flower water. The jam is the go-between, the cooked version of the fruit that gets you ready for the fresh berries.
When Myriam made the tart early in the season, she told me that she used a variety of strawberries called Ciflorette. Then, as the weather warmed, the berries got sweeter and they threw the tart off kilter. Now she’s using Charlottes. As she described trying to get the right balance, it reminded me of how we always refer to strawberries as sweet, and yet the most satisfying berries are those with a touch of acidity – the acidity pulls back the fruit’s sweetness and highlights its essential flavor.
And then there’s the cream on top – not whipped cream, but a whipped white chocolate ganache with a hint of orange flower. The finish is tiny pieces of pistachio, for color and for bite.
Take a peek at what this beauty looks like inside:
Maison Aleph Strawberry Tart/photo by Joanne Pai (cover image also by Joanne Pai)
Whether or not I make my own version of this tart - if you make one, please, please, show me! - from now on, when I make any tart, I’ll be thinking about balancing textures (I’ll definitely want some crunch and some hugs), flavors and sweetness, too.
If only all of our lessons could be learned by eating tarts – how sweet life would be!
See you on Friday for NIBLETS - I've got a really good one for you! (Remember to subscribe so that it will land in your mailbox automatically!).
- xoxo Dorie
PS: To get a head start on creating your own tart, here’s a recipe for a simple pistachio frangipane, or crème pistache.
PISTACHIO FRANGIPANE/Crème Pistache
Makes a scant 1 1/2 cups/enough for a thin layer in a 9-inch tart
Pistachio frangipane needs to be baked. You can spread it into a crust (I like to partially bake the crust), top the crème with fruit – cherries in summer, plums in fall and pears in winter, for instance - and then bake the fruit into the filling. Or you can bake the filling and then top it with jam, if you’d like, and fresh fruit, as you would for an Aleph-style tart.
If you don’t have ground pistachios, then shell the nuts, weigh out 75 grams (about 2 3/4 ounces) and finely chop them (you’ll have about 3/4 cup). Put them in a food processor (a mini is great here) with a couple of teaspoons of the recipe’s sugar and process until the nuts resemble a coarse meal – you'll have some chunklets and that's fine.
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons; 85 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (134 grams) sugar
3/4 cup (75 grams) ground pistachios or an equal weight of shelled pistachios (see above)
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or orange-flower water to taste)
You can make the frangipane in a food processor, a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, in a bowl with a hand mixer or with a flexible spatula and a little muscle. No matter what you’re using, beat (or process) the butter until it is smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the sugar and beat/process a minute or two more. Add the ground pistachios, all-purpose flour and cornstarch and beat/process until the mixture is smooth once again. Drop in the egg and beat/process for a minute or so, until it, too, is thoroughly incorporated. Finally, blend in the vanilla (or orange-flower water). The frangipane can be used now, but it’s better if you cover and refrigerate it for 1 hour or for up to 3 days. It will firm in the fridge, so give it a few smart beats with a spoon to loosen it before you use it.
To bake as a filling: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Loosen the crème, if necessary, and spread it evenly in the crust. The baking times are approximate, so check early and often – a 9-inch tart without fruit might be done in 20 to 30 minutes; a tart with fruit might need 40 to 50 minutes, more or less. When the frangipane is baked, the top will be dry and the interior still moist, and a tester inserted into the center will come out clean.
Storing: Covered tightly, the frangipane will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Playing Around: Instead of pistachios, you can use almonds or hazelnuts.
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