Vanilla Bean Tart
By: BakingSimplicity
Published: Thursday, December 10, 2009 - 6:07pm

Ingredients




Sweet Pastry Dough

200 grams AP flour
100 grams Cold Butter, cubed
50 grams Sugar
2 Large egg yolks
2 tablespoons ice-cold water
Pinch of salt

Vanilla Pastry Cream

250 grams Whole milk
70 Sugar,
Half vanilla pod

2 Large egg yolks
40 grams AP flour, sifted

Preparation

1 Vanilla Pastry Cream 2 First, prepare the Vanilla Pastry Cream.  In a heavy bottomed pot on a low heat, bring the milk and half the vanilla bean to a gentle boil.  Remove from heat and cool the vanilla infused milk.  Remove the vanilla bean, scrape the seeds, and put back into the milk. 3 In a separate bowl whisk together the 2 egg yolks and sugar until well combined.  Slowly while still whisking, sift the flour into the mixture.  Continue to whisk until well combined. Then in a slow stream add the milk mixture, again keep whisking until well incorporated.  Return the mixture to a clean pot and with a wooden spoon stir over low heat until it starts to thicken.  Switch over to a whisk and whisk until there the custard has a smooth texture.  Take off heat and place in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. 4 Sweet Pastry Dough 5 In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a food processor), blend the flour and butter.  Add in the egg yolks one at a time, and then add in the sugar until well blended.  If the dough isn’t coming together add in some cold ice water, just enough so that the dough forms into a ball.  If too much water goes in simply, add some more flour.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 6 Roll out the dough and place in an 8 or 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.  Trim off the extra dough at the edges, this will be used for the lattice decoration.  Spread the Vanilla custard over the tart pan, smoothing it out with a small offset spatula.  Roll out the extra dough into strips and lay over the cream to form a lattice. 7 Please in a preheated oven at 350 and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until pastry is lightly golden.

About


There are a few things that I did different, while the recipe called for whole milk I only had 1%.  I must admit, I was a little worried that my custard wouldn’t thicken, but it did.  By using 1% all I may have compromised is some of the richness in the taste, but to be honest who would really notice. The recipe also called for lemon rind in the dough, now this was just a personal preference on my part, I just felt that the lemon taste in the dough would take away for the vanilla custard, again just a personal preference. Although, if I make this again I may very well but a dash of Rum or Bourbon in the custard for a little extra punch.  And lastly for both the custard and the dough I used regular granulated sugar, and it worked out fine.