Fruit Tart Adventures with a Pastry Chef
Posted on January 1, 2009
Filed Under Dessert Documentaries
I thought I’d kick off my blog with a post I’ve long-promised – Documenting my 10-hour baking adventures with local pastry chef and friend, Jen Chao. We didn’t make ‘The Cake’, but we did cater the rest of the desserts for a very posh wedding in the hills of Los Altos.
While I’m not thinking to pursue baking as my career, I will say that I’ve never had as much fun making desserts as I did that day. My hope is that you enjoy the following documentation as much as I enjoyed partaking in it!
We’ll Begin With A Classic:
Tell me, who doesn’t like fruit tarts? And what better time to make them than these final days of summer? We began by making endless trays of tart shells. (If you’d like to learn how, this is my first lesson on the Tutorials page)
The vanilla cream was also made from scratch. Piping came easy, although one tart did take the fall as my ugly first.
And the result? A perfect medly of summer fruits atop sweet custard and a buttery crust.
Its Hard to Top a Classic, but this Rebel will try..
Hands down, my favorite dessert that day was the fruit tart’s rebel brother – the tiny lemon meringues. Keep reading and you’ll see why. The first step was to make the meringue. We made enough Meringue to feed a village, but a light dallop is all each lemon custard tart got.
We didn’t use alcohol, but we certainly spiked the tarts.
We topped them off with blueberries and these bad boys appeared. It was teenage rebellion done right.
Flame on, One More Time
Oh, the famous Crème brûlée. Its just another type of custard, whose French name means “burnt cream”. So burn it we did. All it takes is raw sugar sprinkled on top and a butane torch from Home Depot, to get a beautiful flame like the one you see below.
Luckily for our guests, the fun didn’t just stop at one…
And the Grand Finale
Chocoholics unite! We all know that dessert isn’t the same without chocolate. So we had for our guests: truffles laced with kalua, ganache and irish cream, and dark chocolates filled with caramel, raspberry and (for the true-cocao-lover) more chocolate.
Could we have ended the evening on a more satisfactory note?
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So to my faithful readers, I’ve fulfilled my end of the bargain. You have your blog and you have your post. So its only fair for me to ask - What did you think? 
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30 Responses to “Fruit Tart Adventures with a Pastry Chef”
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AMAZING. i can vouch for the tastiness of all deserts in this post. =) my taste buds thank you.
Those chocolates rocked man.
uh oh, no more monitor…
I have died and gone to tart heaven!
annie it looks so good. we should make something this weekend. after my dentist appt. :X
everything is gorgeous
My good lord. Well done. Both the desserts and the Blog look delicious. Professional and friendly.
wowwwwwwww
everything looks SOOOO beautiful!
the food, the blog!
how cool
Ummmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!
My only regret is that I upgraded to a flat screen monitor. After that perusal of your delectable delights, Annie, I could have eaten a full 21 inch’r from circa 1998.
Annie,
Your baking blog is amazing! I can be your official taster from now on, if you’d like. When are you going to bring some tarts to work?
A visual feast. Congrats on the blog.
looks tasty.
job well done!
i’m down to assume dishwash duties if i get to eat.
all the food looks so delicious. why have we not cooked together before.
allow me to say – perfect two hit combo.
me – dessert dumb – but i cook mains/sides.
you – one tough muffin :O]
come over sometime and ill show you my knives!
[seriously - i love knives!]
looks good ank
annie!!!! can we bake together sooooon? =)
p.s. i loveee your blog! good job!!!!!!
I like the tart and creme burlee especially! I didn’t know you used a torch to do the top of the creme burlee??? that’s so cool~
yum. I love creme brulee!!!
Annie! Your blog is amazing and those desserts look ridiculously good. I’m salivating as I type this. Awesome job!
Oh my god you are aMAZING! you should totally open up your own pastry shop. GOSH ANNIE! ure amazing!!!
Oh nice pictures! What’s the name of the catering company?
that butane torch is crazy!!! and congrats on starting the site!!! w00t w00t
id be so fat if i still lived at home….
Annie! This looks terrific! I really hope you keep this up and I look forward to more posts in the future.
Wow, Annie! The desserts look amazing. Please become my mentor and teach me to bake!
My, my Annie…Great blog. Everything looks wonderful, when do I get to sample some!!!
Nice Job.
fruit tartsssssssssssssssssssss
ANNIE! we have to BAKE TOGETHER PLEASE! 
youre amazing.
seriously….amazing.
WOWSERS
if i wasn’t a girl, i would ask you to marry me.
haahahaha
thanks chica.
now that i know, i’ll be coming by more often.
SHEEEESH, youre so amazing!
i need to learn from a pro like you. WOWSERS
COME LIVE AT MY HOUSE FOR A FEW WEEKS. heeeeeeeee
and yea yea yea…patricio did a good job in creating this website.
as usual..we do expect nothing but the best from that kiddo
one day I want to be just like you.. love pastry & bakeing