Egg Custard Tarts

A week or so ago, a friend sent me a link to Serious Eats' write-up on the best egg custard tarts in New York. I knew I wanted to make them right away. I've never had one, but they sounded not-too-sweet and absolutely delicious. But alas, I was neck deep in my series on cake and they got put off. Until today.

These were nice and easy (since I already had puff pastry in the freezer) and were a great late-afternoon project. The filling recipe makes enough filling for about a pound of puff pastry, rolled to about 1/4 inch thick, not counting the scraps.

Makes: Approximately 9 tarts

Ingredients:

• 1 lb puff pastry, thawed
• 4 oz water
• 4 oz evaporated milk
• 1.5 oz sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Roll out the puff pastry to 1/4 inch thick and cut rounds approximately 3 inches across (or use tartlet pans). Place the puff pastry into muffin tins, stretching the dough as little as possible. Freeze for 10 minutes.
3. Combine all remaining ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine. Fill shells with custard to about 3/4 full.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, or until custard is set.

Have you ever had these before? What's your favorite thing about egg custard tarts?

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Almond Clafoutis

Having a big bag of fresh cherries presented quite the dilemma today. There were just so many different things which sounded delicious. Cherry ice cream? Black forest torte? Cherry jellies? Recipe after recipe fluttered into my mind. But in the end, the idea for a clafoutis dropped in like a piano in an old cartoon, lodging itself firmly in my thoughts. So I caved. Not that that's a bad thing. But I still have more cherries, so maybe some of those other ideas will come to fruition. Yup, fruition.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1.5 cups cherries, stemmed and pitted

Directions:

1. First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then combine the flour, sugar, yolks, and salt. Whisk until well blended. Then whisk this into the heavy cream.
2. Pour this mixture into a 9 inch pan and place the cherries into the pan.
3. Sprinkle the almonds on top of the mixture and bake for approximately 20 minutes, until the custard is set.
4. Once cooled, dust with powdered sugar and devour.

Pretty simple, huh?

What's your favorite easy summertime dessert?

Check out other great desserts at http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2011/07/sweets-for-saturday-25.html

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