Pecan Tart and Apple Crumble [(DC9 G1)]

This week in Pastry and Bakery Class with Chef JM, we made two delicious desserts, that is the Pecan Tart, and the Apple Crumble. 

Firstly, a little background check on both of these amazing desserts.

Pecan Tarts were generally inspired by traditional sugar pies and sweet nut confections. It is popular in American, especially the American south. Some have stated that the French invented pecan pie/tart soon after settling in New Orleans, after being introduced to the pecan nut by Native Americans.

Next, the Apple Crumble is said to have been invented by the British during World War II. Traditionally, Apple Crumble was made without a pastry base as they had a shortage of pastry ingredients during the war time. Therefore, they made do with what they had, and thus the crumble was born! Here's a link to: A short history on the Apple Crumble

For more information on the history of the Pecan Tart and Apple Crumble, here's a page on Food Timeline about pies and pastry in general, Pecan Tart and Apple Crumble included. Check it out here: History of Pies


Moving on, for both recipes, we were required to prepare a simple shortcrust pastry, which was refrigerated for a few minutes to make it easier to work with. After that, we lined our tart moulds and blind baked them at 180 °C for 10-15 minutes, before removing the blind baking rice and letting them brown in the oven for another 5 minutes. 

While the tart shells were baking, we prepared the fillings for both desserts. 

Both of the fillings were simple. The Pecan Tart filling consisted of butter, brown sugar, eggs, flour, cinnamon powder, and pecan nuts (toasted and roughly chopped). The Apple Crumble filling consisted of apples, walnuts, raisins, sugar, salt and cinnamon, while the crumble part was just flour, butter and brown sugar. 

Once the tart shells finished blind baking, we loaded them up with the fillings and baked them for another 30 to 40 minutes. 

Here's a video on us filling the pecan tart. 

Meanwhile, Chef JM taught us how to make little piping bags out of parchment paper. Besides that, Chef told us that if we did not have piping bags or parchment paper, we could also use normal plastic bags as they would work just fine. 

The mini piping bags

Here's a link to a video on how to make parchment paper piping bags.
These were later filled with melted white chocolate (done over a bain marie) and piped over the Pecan Tart as a decoration. 

Finally, the end products: 

A tray full of tarts!

After making one of each tart, we found that we had a lot of leftovers. So Chef JM told us to combine our ingredients and make more tarts. This is because pecan nuts are very expensive, and therefore, no wastage is allowed!

As our finished products started piling out of the oven, we transitioned into the more easier part of the lesson, which was *drumroll* tasting!

The Pecan Tart was sweet and full of pecan nuttiness, with the rich melt-in-your-mouth white chocolate hanging in the background. 

The Apple Crumble was well, crumbly, and juicy. There was a little of everything in each bite; apples, raisins, and walnuts, while the flavour of the cinnamon danced merrily on our tongues all the while.

A dancing cinnamon stick...
gif credits from: http://www.tumblr.com/search/dancing+food

Tasting the tarts were a magical moment, bringing back nostalgic memories of a long forgotten childhood. Here, our friend gazes out the window. What reminiscent thoughts may be floating through his head, no one knows but him...

Chef JM mentioned that although these were classical recipes, once we had a good hold on the techniques and basics, we would be able to modify and change the recipes to suit our taste. For example, Chef said he could have lessened the sugar in the Apple Crumble, as it was too sweet for his taste. These little modifications are what allows us to put a unique spin on each of our desserts, and separate us from conventionality, yet giving a respectful nod to the classics. 

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