To those who know me I am not a sweet treat sort of gal. Although to complete an oxymoron, a batch of home made chocolate fudge will not not last a day in my house, yet a bar of chocolate can stay in the fridge for weeks or even months. When I get to about my birthday (June) I throw away the remains of Christmas sweet treats that are still lurking in the cupboard or fridge. I am not a huge cake fan except for Cindy’s lemon cake, oh and also Cindy’s carrot cake. I like a Devonshire tea with raspberry jam and cream and I adore liquorice all-sorts but on the whole I don’t really indulge in cake.
That is until I am here and I go to the Pastisserie. How could you not eat cake. Raspberry tarts are a weakness that has to be indulged whilst in France (or Italy or in fact Portugal). Truth be told over the past few days the look of some tarts have not been up to standard and I have taken to WH’s calling of trying a variety, venturing to apricot (Abricot) and also apple (pomme) and whilst I must say that raspberry is by far my favourite there is some stiff competition.
I can even now ask for my raspberry tart in French “tarts aux framboise s’il vous plait”. Sure I still do it whilst pointing and smiling and nodding and saying oui (wee) oui (wee) a lot as my pronunciation is probably not that good, but I do always receive a raspberry tart.
Now aunty V, I know that I have stated that in my quest I shall find the perfect tart so here it is. The perfect one has a thin layer of biscuit base which holds together and does not crumble at the first nibble. (Footnote 1). The best base is slightly darker than golden, more of a burnt butter colour. The custard stuff should just fill the base and not spill over the edges. The first layer of raspberries should be pushed gently into the custard stuff and then piled up in a pyramid as high as they will go and dusted with icing sugar.
Mission accomplished. Now that my quest is complete I will possibly eat far less tarts as my discerning tart tastes have become refined and my longing looks in Patisserie windows have been subdued. Or maybe in the spirit of joie de vivre, I will.
Footnote 1: note to all tart lovers. If someone wants to share your tart then DO NOT try to cut the tart in half. If it is a bad biscuit base it will just crumble in pieces. The raspberries will have to be removed for the cutting and then divided equally and the joy of tart eating will be lost. Just eat half and then hand over the other half in whatever state it may be in.
