S1E5 Showstopper: Tarts and Canapés

It's the end of pastry week already! This week has been all about pies so far, and now it's time to switch it up for tarts and canapés!

Today I had five hours to create three different flavours of sweet tarts and three different types of savoury canapés. The brief for this challenge was not fully described in the episode, but it seemed that the bakers were required to make two different types of sweet pastry and two types of savoury pastry. Therefore, I chose four different pastry recipes.

My inspiration for the tart flavours stemmed from my longing to return to Paris. I spent most of my time in Paris admiring and sampling all the beautiful pastries in the shop windows. So, I put my french immersion skills to use and found authentic french recipes for strawberry and chocolate tarts. I also chose to make a tart using passionfruit curd, since I've always been jealous of bakers using passionfruit. It's one of my favourite fruit flavours and it's so beautiful.

My inspiration for the flavours of my canapés also came from memories of my travels. When Evie and I were in Spain two years ago, Evie's grandmother made us a snack of pancetta-wrapped figs stuffed with blue cheese and baked with honey and balsamic. I can't have blue cheese, but those flavours sounded pretty amazing for a canapé! Another memory that came to mind was the first time I went to a formal hall at Evie's college in Cambridge (did I mention that my girlfriend went to Cambridge?). I had opted for the vegetarian menu and was served a goat cheese pavé with caramelized onion in a puff pastry case. It was so incredible that I still dream about it. My third canapé flavour choice was based on the memory of not eating steak pretty much the entire time we were away. Also, I was craving steak.

This was the plan:

Sweet tarts:

Tarte aux Fraises (French strawberry tart)
Tarte au Chocolat (French chocolate tart)
Passionfruit Curd Tart

Canapés

Puff pastry with fig, pancetta, and balsamic reduction
Puff pastry with caramelized onion, goat's cheese, and cranberry sauce
Shortcrust cup with steak, horseradish and thyme

Evie and I made a special trip to Granville Island Market on Friday to find figs and passionfruits, and also picked up a few other goodies because I felt like a fancy chef on the hunt for special ingredients. Among our spoils were also pancetta, strawberries, a beautiful block of 70% dark chocolate, and four new tart tins!

I didn't previously have any tart tins, but I had borrowed a set of four from a friend (thank you David!). Knowing that I had to make three different types of tarts, I decided that only having four tins would mean complicated batch baking, so when I saw a cheap set of four tins at the market I had to get them. In addition, I also fashioned some make-shift tart rings out of tinfoil. You will see them shortly. Be ready to be amazed by my ingenuity.

I planned this bake in a big rush and would probably have benefitted from waiting another day to complete it, but I got over-excited and I didn't want any of the beautiful ingredients that I collected to spoil. I selected my final recipe and immediately got started.

Five hours on the clock, and go!

The canapés need to be served hot, so I started with my sweet pastry. For my first sweet crust, I started by blitzing my flour, icing sugar and butter in a food processor until the butter was no longer visible. I then added two egg yolks and used my hands to bring the dough together. I then covered it up and put it in the fridge to chill.

Next, I prepared my almond sweet crust in a completely different way. This recipe called for me to whip all the ingredients in a mixer and then chill the dough to firm it up. Because this dough was very soft, I split it into three discs before placing it in the fridge in the hopes that it might chill faster.

By this time, my first dough was ready to be rolled out.

I envisioned my chocolate tarts as classic, straight-edged round tarts. Since I couldn't find tart rings on short notice, I made my own! I used tinfoil to create rings and then used an egg ring to stabilize them while I lined them with pastry.

I docked the pastry with a fork, lined them with parchment paper and filled them with baking beans. Time to blind bake!

While those were baking, I took out my almond shortcrust and lined my tart tins. I decided to try a new lining method this time and made a lining paste with a recipe from one of my favourite Bake-Off winners, Nancy Birtwhistle. It's a very simple mixture of equal parts shortening, flour and vegetable oil and I've been meaning to try it forever. (I highly recommend it!)

When the first round of tart cases came out of the oven, I switched out the baking beans and the next ones went right in.

I put the last round of tart cases in the oven and started on my crème patissière.

The tart cases were now all cooling on the side, and I was very happy! The makeshift tart rings had worked great. They weren't perfectly round, and the edges were "rustic", but they were completely functional! I was proud of them.

And then it was time for passionfruit curd! I was so excited.

While my curd was cooking, I realized that I hadn't added the butter to my crème patissière before putting in the fridge to chill. Typical. I pulled the crème patissière back out of the fridge hoping that it might still be warm enough to melt the butter. It was, almost, and I was left with only a few little lumps.

I left the dish in the sun for a few minutes to gently warm it up, mixed it again and then put it back in the fridge.

Meanwhile, my passionfruit curd was thick. I poured it into my tart cases and baked them for 15 minutes.

Next, I made the ganache for my chocolate tarts. I chopped up and weighed my chocolate and put my milk, cream and butter on the stove to boil. Can you believe that there's no lactose in any of these tarts?

I poured the hot milk mixture over the chocolate and stirred it until the mixture was beautiful and silky. Then I mixed in two eggs and poured the ganache into a better pouring vessel.

And then my photographer got a little distracted because our kitchen was invaded by a little gremlin! We had invited Dexter and his dads over to be our taste-testers today and Dexter was having a great time asking what everything in the kitchen was. I love him to pieces and I can't wait until this pandemic is over so I can teach him how to bake!

So, while Evie was chasing after a two-year-old, I filled my chocolate tarts and whipped cream to add to my crème patissière.

I then filled my strawberry tarts with my crème pat and topped them with strawberries. I made a quick fruit glaze with warm apricot jam and water and brushed it onto my strawberries.

The chocolate tarts came out of the oven and looked puffy, but I trusted that they would settle since the passionfruit curd tarts had done the same thing and they had settled very nicely.

And now that all my tarts were cooked and setting, I got started on my savoury pastry for my canapés. I made the shortcrust very quickly using the same recipe that I had made many times for pasties a few months ago. Then I made my rough puff which was similar to shortcrust but with way more butter.

Once mixed, I covered it and placed it in the fridge.

While my pastries were chilling, I started preparing my fillings.

And then I rolled out my rough puff and completed two turns.

If you don't watch a million baking shows, rough puff pastry is the much quicker version of puff pastry, requiring far less chilling but resulting in a fairly similar flaky pastry. "Turning" the dough is the process in which the dough gets rolled out and folded to create the flaky layers.

The dough then went back into the fridge and I prepared my shortcrust cups for my steak canapés.

When I was ready to roll out and shape my rough puff pastry, I cut it in half to admire my layers. Cool, huh?

I rolled it out and divided it into 24 equal squares using a ruler to be precise. For the first 12, I gently cut in borders so that the centres could be punched down and filled. For the second 12, I started to experiment with fancy shapes and then decided that it would take too long, so I pinched the corners of the rest to create makeshift borders.

My pastry rose so beautifully I was so excited!

I cooked my steak and set it aside to rest, then I dipped my figs in honey, wrapped them in pancetta and put them in the oven to pre-cook before I filled my pastry cases.

While the figs were cooking, I filled my first canapés with the cooked onions and topped them with slices of goats cheese. I put them back in the oven, broiling them for the last few minutes to brown the cheese. To finish them, I spooned a drop of cranberry sauce on the top of each. I made the cranberry sauce last week with the leftover cranberries from my signature pudding.

Now it was time for my steak canapés. I had boiled a couple small potatoes and mashed them with creamed horseradish, which I then piped into my shortcrust cups, topped them with steak and garnished them with thyme.

Finally, I placed a fig on each of my last pastry pieces and baked them until golden on the edges. Once they were done, all that was left were the finishing touches! I drizzled on some balsamic reduction and then decorated my tarts.

And then I was done! I forgave myself for an extra few minutes because I took a break in the middle to spend time with Dexter.

Voilà!

Time: 5 hours, 17 minutes

Elles sont magnifiques, non?

I impressed myself quite a bit with this bake. Everything I made looked like something I would have hoarded at a fancy party. Evie and I couldn't wait to dig in.

Judgement time!

Caramelized onion, goat's cheese, and cranberry canapés:

These were so flaky, look at how puffed they got! The balance of flavours here was so lovely and the sharpness of the cranberry sauce really tied it all together. I also loved the little pop of colour!

Beef and horseradish canapés:

These ones were also great, but they were slightly too big, requiring two bites to eat them. The shortcrust pastry was nice and crisp and the horseradish potato mixture was a beautiful pairing, although as a fan of horseradish, I feel that I could have used way more.

Pancetta-wrapped fig and balsamic canapé:

These ones might not look as attractive as the others but holy cow, they were delicious. I don't think I would have changed anything about them. I want to serve them at my wedding.

Tarte au Chocolat:

This tart was far less sweet than we had expected, but that was definitely not a bad thing. The filling tasted like a beautiful dark chocolate mousse, and the crust tasted like a crisp shortbread. I was very pleased.

Passionfruit Tart:

I was a little worried about this one because I put too much vanilla in the curd (I never measure vanilla anymore, but maybe I should) but the sharpness of the passionfruit shone through and I was so excited about it! I will definitely be playing around with passionfruit more often.