Tahitian Vanilla Tart with Summer Fruits & Sweet Wine Glaze
It ain’t easy to start cooking after a Top chef. You can become self-conscious, nervous even! And you start questioning everything you do. Is it good enough? What is he going to think about this? Is he.. Is he gonna say.. c’est quoi cette merde!? Ahhhh! The ultimate insult! Well maybe i’m just nervous because i heard from some good sources that some heavy-hitters visited this blog to check out the last post. I won’t cite any names but let me put it this way: if this was a church, i could say that God literally walked-in last week. I wish i had known ahead of time so i could have at least vacuumed the damn place. So i played it pretty safe for this post and i was pleasantly surprised. I thought this Tahitian vanilla tart with a lei of summer fruits and a wine syrup came out nicely. Really delicious.
I chose to call it a Tahitian vanilla tart because all too often vanilla plays the supporting role in desserts. It’s about time we give it the main role. I could have called it a cheesecake but what sticks out the most when you bite into this baby is the floral and exotic character of the Tahitian vanilla. What come next is the creamy (unbaked) cheesecake filling followed by the graham crackers crust you all know so well. I don’t want to sound like i’m bragging but it even earned the #sexonaplate label on twitter. huh huh. Jealous yet?
I used a Kendall Jackson cabernet sauvignon to make a glaze, just added some sugar to it and a few star anise and let it reduce to a shiny syrupy glaze. I could have tossed the summer’s fruit bounty with the glaze before placing it on top of the tart but for aesthetic reasons and also because i don’t care, i did it that way.
Oh.. Did i just said i don’t care? No no.. i care! I really do!.. Now that the culinary Gods are watching.
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Tahitian Vanilla Tart w/ Summer Fruits & Sweet Wine Glaze
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- Serves 8
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For the crust:
- 12 graham crackers
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted
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For the Tahitian vanilla filling:
- 1 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup creme fraiche
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon powdered gelatin
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon Tahitian vanilla extract
- 1 Tahitian vanilla bean, split & seed scraped. Keep the bean for wine syrup.
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For the wine glaze & topping:
- 2 cups cabernet sauvignon
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 star anise
- reserved vanilla bean from filling
- 2 cups mixed summer fruit, red currant, cherries, gooseberries, blueberries etc..
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For the graham cracker crust:
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- Preheat oven to 350’F
- Place the graham crackers (chunks) in the bowl of a food processor. Process until you obtain crumbs. Add the sugar and pulse a few times. Then drizzle the melted butter and process until the crust comes together. Press into a 9-inch tart pans or 8 individual tartelette pans.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown and cool completely.
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For the Tahitian vanilla filling:
- In a small bowl, place 1/4 cup heavy cream and sprinkle the gelatin over it to soften.
- In a small saucepan, bring 1/2 cup heavy cream and the cream cheese to a simmer. Whisk until smooth.
- Combine the cream cheese mixture with the gelatin mixture and whisk until smooth. Let it cool.
- In a medium bowl, whip the creme fraiche, 1/2 cup heavy cream, sugar, vanilla extract and pulp to soft peaks.
- Fold the whipped cream mixture into the cooled cream cheese mixture in two additions.
- Pour filling into the tart shell (make sure it’s cool) and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
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For the wine glaze & topping:
- Combine the wine, sugar, star anise and vanilla bean in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Lower the heat and let it simmer until you obtain a syrupy glaze, about 45 minutes. Strain and cool.
- When ready to serve, clean the fruit and arrange it nicely on top of the tart. Serve with the wine glaze drizzled on top or on the side. Enjoy!