Sunday, June 8, 2008

La Palette's Strawberry Tart - Tuesdays with Dorie


Marie of A Year at Oak Cottagehas chosen this week's lovely summer tart - La Palette's Strawberry Tart. Great choice, Marie; good strawberries are gorgeous right now. I purchased mine at Citarella in the West Village in New York - this is an upscale food paradise, worth making a special trip to.

Another skills building lesson from Dorie - this time for the Sweet Tart Dough . I followed the recipe exactly except maybe I pressed down on the dough in the tart pan a bit too heavily, also the tart took almost 20 minutes after I took off the foil to get to a mellow shortbread color. What a relief to be able to turn the oven off - at 375 degrees F on the hottest and most airless day here in New York baking was not the usual fun. Supposedly the heatwave will lift in a couple of days.

I shook about 2 teaspoons of sugar on the strawberries and sprinkled them with a tablespoon of Cognac - I didn't have any of the liquers in Dorie's recipe. Tomorrow before work I'll whip the cream and off we'll go. I won't serve it until about 11:00am -it will be lovely for that third pot of coffee we make around then.

Next day: Almost ready to go but not quite: Oh dear! The whipped cream was ever so slightly off. I cut, photographed and ate one slice of pie - the shortbread crust is absolutely delicious, a definite "make again" for all sorts of pies but I can't take the pie to work because of the cream. It's the weather, even with the fridge. I won't put cognac on the strawberries again - they would have been nicer their natural sweet selves, but one lives and learns. I would make this again for an "at home" dessert, with the changes.

I guess "Cake Day" as my co-workers call Tuesday, will have to be put back until later in the week - I'll make another Dorie cake that can withstand traveling and the subway. Perhaps the Perfect Pound Cake.


15 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh...no tart with coffee. You still had the coffee though right? And at home, when you ate it, you had coffee then too, right? It was good with coffee. Mmm, coffee...

CB said...

That is so cute that your CWs call Tuesday - cake day! Bummer about the weather and travel-ability difficulties. I am sure it was still delicious nonetheless.
Clara @ I♥food4thought

Rebecca of "Ezra Pound Cake" said...

I couldn't travel with this one, either. But I wound up making some delicious smoothies with those berries. Whoa, Baby.

Rebecca
http://www.ezrapoundcake.com

steph- whisk/spoon said...

those berries look big and gorgeous! that's a bummer about the cream, tho....i've read that the NYC weather heat been ridiculously oppressive this last week.

Prudy said...

Your tart looks so pretty and I want that adorable vintage plate!

Gretchen Noelle said...

Too bad your coworkers weren't treated to this one. Looks delicious!

NKP said...

I pressed a bit too hard on my dough as well - but it still tasted good. We are going through the same heatwave on the other side of the lake. Nice storm last night though! Congrats for toughing it out in the kitchen during the heatwave, the tart looks yummy.

April said...

Looks great! It's so nice you shared with your co-workers.

Sarah said...

Looks great and I love Cake Day! My co-workers have come to expect goodies as well!

Nikki57 said...

Oh I feel ya on the weather. My hubs made me wait until late last night to make mine because I was banned from all things cooking this weekend due to the heat

Teanna DiMicco said...

Ahh Citarella! You make me so homesick! I can't wait to move back to NYC! One more year...

I'm sure your coworkers will be happy with whatever delight you bring them! Everything you make looks delicious!

Jayne said...

Oh - so sorry the cream failed on you. We've been suffering that heat wave, too, here in RI - it's terrible. I've heard it's supposed to break tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath. (Not that I can breathe anyway in the humidity!) Your photo looks pretty, though!

Susie Homemaker said...

I don't have coworkers anymore (yea!) and I have never lived in the city - so I will just have to imagine how upset they all were that you couldn't get them this tart! They have no idea what they were missing - even my 9 month old got in on some of the tart action tonight! hope you get some weather relief soon...

ostwestwind said...

I love your plate!

Ulrike from Küchenlatein

Shari@Whisk: a food blog said...

Too bad for your co-workers that it didn't turn out!
Shari@Whisk: a food blog