Strawberry Tart with Orange Cream

I woke up the other morning and was like: I feel like making something! So I run down to the kitchen and of course Phil's cooking beef stew at 8am. If you want to know how many times I've had beef stew in the 6 months i've been home, it's probably more then the previous 9 years combined. Don't get me wrong, beef stew is delicious, but it's summer now and i think the saying goes, "No white after labor day, no beef stew after Hitler's B-day"... or something like that. So this limited my culinary options right off the bat. Also i've been trying to eat a little healthier lately, and therefore staying away from desserts. But hey, strawberries are healthy right?

I especially like the empty aquafina bottle at bottom of the sink.

I started flipping through the Williams-Sonoma Baking Book  and found this strawberry tart recipe. So i thought, 'hey i work with some really cool people, I'll bring them a desert!' (But really: 'How can i make this delicious tart and not end up shoving half of it down my gullet?'(what a hideous word))

Let me tell you a little something about pastries. My mom's church has this yearly event (i think it's been going on for like 30 years or something) called the Peach Festival. It's kind of a big deal at our house. My first two years of college my mom flew me home for this event... from California, i'm just saying. Anyway basically it's a yard sale with all kinds of donated shit, but they make a million pastries and ice creams and stuff all with, you guessed it, peaches. From the time i could hold a pie plate (they start you young in this family) One week every year i spend 12 hour days making fucking peach cobbler, peach kuchen, peach ice cream, canned peaches, and of course peach pie. That's just for the food tent. The best is after you've spent the better part of a week locked in a kitchen with a bunch of elderly ladies you get the privileged of then going home and making the 10 pies your mom promised to donate for the pie sale. There is nothing worse then getting home and finding two bushels of peaches starring you in the face, demanding to be peeled. I can still remember the great argument of 2004 when i basically said, "I'm done with this shit." and my mom almost hit me with a pie pan. That was soon followed by the Great Compromise of five minuets later that basically states: If home, Lauren will help Nance make any and all pies at home with the specific intent of being used in the pie sale.
It was a good deal until she started doubling her pie donations. 

Anyway what i'm trying to say here is: I know how to make a fucking pie.

Ok, so this is a tart, but same difference. Really it's all about the crust, and the most important thing to remember is cold. Get your butter from the freezer, use ice water, re-freeze the crust after you make it, and again after you roll it and put it in the pie tin. This prevents the butter from breaking down, and gives you that flakiness that everyone loves.  Also use as little water as possible, you gotta dry that shit out so it's barely even holding together. Finally don't break down the butter too much. You don't want it totally mixed, because those large pieces of cut butter are what make the magic happen, duh. Details, details, details. If there's one life lesson i can impart upon you via blog its that the little stuff matters. Don't cut corners, focus on the little things, and you'll be the master of your own universe just like He-man. Anyway just don't be lazy, especially while baking. 

The orange filling is pretty simple:
8oz cream cheese
1oz orange zest
1/3 cup sugar
and something else i don't remember. Whip it all together and spread it in the bottom of the cooled tart shell.

Try not to break the edges, but if you do, you can just stick the sides back on via filling, well if your mom doesn't eat them first. Next place the strawberries on top, heat up some Apricot jam in a saucepan until it turns to liquid:

Run it through a sieve, then brush the strawberries with it before it re-takes it's gelatinous form. And Wa-la!

 

Picture fucking perfect.