SHF #9- Tarts- Nectarine blueberry frangipane tart and Mocha tart

This month's tart-mania is hosted by Life in flow. Having possessed two tart pans and a set of tartlet molds, I chose to go for the free-form tart (or the galette or the crostata, however called). I don't know why, but the rustic look of these folded over tarts were very appealing. I had to just pile up the fruits and fold over the excess dough to form a package of sorts. Here is the David Lebovitz's recipe in which I made the nectarine and blueberry substitutions for the fruits. I don't try new fruits and I have by-passed nectarines for their peachy, over-powering fragrance. But making this tart really made me get over this aversion.



The baked tart was really a juicy, sides too caramelized sort of mess. Not a pretty picture. Some tears on the sides caused the juices to flow out. Not a pretty sight, but delicious all the same with or without icecream. The frangipane formed a sort of pasty base coat (but indiscernible) to prevent the bottom crust from sogginess.

I wanted to make a tart that looked good. So off I went with tart baking, Take-2. Since it is my husband S's birthday today, what better way to celebrate than by eating mocha tart? This recipe is from the chocolate guru, Alice Medrich's book Bittersweet. Of course, even after making some sacrilegious fat-cutting substitutions (like using fat-free evaporated milk for the cream), the tart was very delicious. I did not feel the espresso flavor gave any depth to the chocolate mixture. I added a little mint extract and it sure did warm things up. The tart did have a pudding like filling when warm. I don't care for jello-like foods and so I served the tart chilled. The filling had become almost like soft-fudge. Delicious!