A Tart for Julia - Mango Lime Curd Tart

My friend Julia came over for dinner Friday night because she is leaving for the University of California, Irvine where she will be a slave to science a part of the M.D./Ph.D. program. Here's to you Julia! Good luck down in Cali and keep an eye out for the bunnies that roam campus. :)

Mango Lime Curd Tart

Lime Curd
1/3 C lime juice, roughly juice from 2 small limes
1 to 2 tsp lime zest, zest from 1 - 2 limes
Save some zest on the limes to garnish the tart
1/2 C sugar
3 eggs
3 Tbsp butter

*Half a mango cut into 1/8 in crescent slices
1 prebaked tart shell
Additional lime zest for garnish

Start preparing the tart crust first (click here for tart crust recipe. The dough will need to chill for at least an hour, then rolled out, chilled again for at least 30 minutes, baked for at least 35 minutes, and then cooled to room temp.

Whisk the eggs, sugar, and zest together. Whisk in the lime juice and butter and cook the mixture of medium heat. Continue whisking until the butter is completely melted then use a spatula and stir the curd constantly. Cook the curd until the mixture has thickened. The spatula should leave a clear trail that slowly disappears. Do not overcook the curd otherwise it will curdle.

Immediately pour the curd through a sieve into a bowl. Use the spatula to push all the curd through. The zest will most likely remain in the sieve and you can discard that since it will no longer be a vibrant green. Press a sheet of plastic wrap against the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming on top. Chill in the fridge for a few hours to thicken slightly. The curd can be made a day in advance.

To make the tart, spoon the curd into the prebaked tart shell that has been cooled to room temp. You may not use all of the curd, I used about half (the rest you can spread on toast, yum yum). Arrange the mango slices on top of the curd and garnish with some additional lemon zest.



*In retrospect: For even more mango in the tart (using a whole mango rather than half), arrange mango slices from half the mango in the tart shell before adding the curd. Then fill the tart with the curd and arrange the remaining half of the mango on top.

Mangoes are one of my favorite tropical fruits so this will be my entry for the 33rd edition of Sugar High Friday: Tropical Paradise hosted by Mary of Alpineberry.

Flaky Pate Sucree

Pate sucree is one of the three basic French pastry crusts (pate brisee - the all purpose crust used for pies, savory and sweet tarts, pate sucree - a sweet crust used for tarts, and pate sablee - the sandy crumbly crust). It is sweeter than the all purpose pie crust, the pate brisee, however the texture can vary. Some recipes call for creaming the butter and sugar then adding the flour, resulting in a crumbly, shortbread cookie-like crust. Whereas other recipes diverge and call for processing or cutting the butter into the flour sugar mixture, which is the same method used to create a pate brisee. This recipe uses the latter technique and yields a sweet, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth crust that is unbelievably good. I'll try the creaming the butter and flour for the next tart but I have a feeling I will be coming back to this recipe again and again.

Prebaked Flaky Pate Sucree
for an 8 or 9 inch pan

1 C flour
1/3 C confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp cold butter, cut into 6 pieces
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp cold milk or ice water
1/2 tsp of vanilla

Add the flour, confectioner's sugar, and salt together in a food processor and pulse once or twice to combined. Add the pieces of butter and pulse until the butter pieces are no bigger than a pea. Alternatively use a fork or pastry cutter to cut in the butter, or freeze the butter and coarsely grate it then use your fingers and rub the pieces into the flour. It is very important to keep the butter cold otherwise it will melt and make the crust greasy and you'll lose all the flaky layers.

Mix the egg yolk, milk, and vanilla together. Drizzle the mixture over the butter and flour mix in the food processor. Pulse again until the dough start to form large clumps. If it looks too dry add a little more milk.

Scrape the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and press the clumps together to form a disc. Wrap the dough in the plastic wrap and chill at least an hour up to overnight. Or store it in the freezer for as long as you want.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Lightly flour a work surface and rolling pin and roll out the dough to into a large circle. Move the crust around often to make sure it doesn't stick to your work surface.

Transfer the dough to an 8 or 9 inch tart pan. To make this easier, drape the dough over the rolling pin and lay it over the pan. Lift the edges of the crust and gently press the dough down into the pan. Roll over the top of the pan with a rolling pin to trim any overhanging dough.

Prick the surface of the dough with a fork. Press a sheet of aluminum foil onto a crust and add pie weights, beans, or clean pennies on top. I like using pennies because they are the best heat conductor. Bake on the middle rack for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and baking weights (be careful the weights will be very hot!) and return the crust to the oven to bake for another 10 or so minutes until it is golden. Cool to room temperature before filling.