Summer . . . Sablée
I never realized, silly me, that summer fruits have their own dedicated pastry when it comes to turn them into desserts such as “tarte.” In my book, and until this summer, there were 2 kinds of pastries: puff and shortcrust, occasionally filo played the role of the third culprit. I had heard, seen, and even enjoyed “pâte sablée,” but I never realized it played an important role when it comes to fragile summer fruits.
So when I decided to make a strawberry tart, I was confronted and confounded by my ignorance: I had never made a pâte sablée and it was time to fill up that gap.
First of all I looked at the origin of the term: sand = sable, in this case sablage method, which is coating the flour with fat before adding liquids. I always feel reassured by terminology, and here I needed some comfort as my pastry was to be soft, crumbly, rich, and light but officially not too soft nor crumbly that it would collapse like a sand castle that has just been hit by a small child bearing a spade.
What one needs to know for a good sablée: sugar and butter are creamed together and the heel of the hand, not a rolling pin, is used to flatten the dough.
Pâte Sablée Ingredients:
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125g of butter
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200g of flour
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60g of caster sugar
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1 egg
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½ teaspoon of salt
Method:
Slightly warm a salad bowl with hot water, dry it up and start: cream the butter with a fork, add the flour and the sugar alternatively and bit by bit. Some recipes indicate that you can bang it all in the food processor; maybe you can. Then add the egg yolk. Work through until the pastry is soft - if it is not getting soft, add the white (beaten) a bit at a time. Note that you might not need the white.
Flour the work surface slightly and flatten your pastry with the heel of your hand until you get a large enough circle to cover the pie dish.
Bake in the oven at low heat: mark 2/3 or 120/130, cook it for 15 minutes or until slightly colored. Let it cool before using it
For the topping: gently heat 200g of red currant jelly with a couple of tablespoons of water for 10 minutes; let it cool right down. Wash and dry the strawberries, lay them nicely on the cool pastry, and finally pour the cold syrup all over. (Try to pour it at the last minute so that the pastry does not become soggy.)
