Sunday, May 01, 2011

Maple syrup tart

The maple syrup tart should be as famous as the chocolate tart. This Québécois recipe proves it, c'est magnifique.
The crust is flaky, very buttery and not sweet at all. Do not be tempted to use your favourite crust recipe. Use this one. It is perfect pair for the sweet, sweet maple filling. Thin slices of this tart will go long way and it tastes even better the next day. If you have dark maple syrup this a perfect occasion to use it.


Maple syrup tart
Recipe from here
112 gr cold butter
137 gr flour
about 35 gr cold water
pinch of salt
Cut the butter into small cubes, add flour and with a pastry blender or food processor blend until you have grainy texture with tiny (about 3 mm) pieces of butter. Slowly add water and blend until everything comes together. Wrap and put in the fridge for 2 hours or more.

200 gr maple syrup
60 gr cream 
50 gr butter
1/2 tbsp flour
80 gr eggs (about 2 small)

In a saucepan bring maple syrup and cream to boil. Remove from heat, add butter and flour and stir everything together. Set aside to cool. 

Preheat the oven to 190C. Roll the dough and line a 20 cm tart tin, the dough should come up the side by about 3 cm. Keep the left over dough as you might need it to fill any cracks in the baked shell. But keep it outside the fridge as it needs to be soft. Blind bake for about 20 min, then remove the beans and parchment paper and bake for another 15-20 min until golden. 
Because of the high amount of butter, this crust is going to shrink by 1/2 cm, which is totally ok.

Add eggs to the cooled maple syrup, mix well. If the shell has any big visible cracks cover them with the left over dough, pressing very lightly. Pour the maple filling into the hot tart shell as soon as you can. If you pour it into a cool crust the filling will find all tiny cracks to escape through. Hot tart shell makes sure that the filling cooks as soon as you pour it in. Decrease oven temperature to 150C and bake the tart for another 25 - 30 min.Voilà!