[Sca-cooks] tart crusts

[Daniel Myers]

Howdy,

For the Cook's Symposium I made the Custarde recipe from TFCCB (
http://www.medievalcookery.com/recipes/custarde.html ) and experimented
with using a water paste instead of a short crust to see if the filling
would soften the crust up enough to make it edible.  Sure enough, it
did - though it wasn't as nice and flakey as a short crust can be.

An interesting side effect though gave extra value to the experiment.
During baking the crust pulled away from the edges of the pie plate,
and the crust was strong enough to allow the pie to be removed from the
pan intact.  If I had used a tart pan and not had the (inedibly hard)
flange of crust around the edge of the pie, the result would probably
have looked very like the tarts I've seen in period paintings -
freestanding with an irregular edge (due to inconsistent shrinkage).

I think I need to get a couple proper tart pans and make a few more
tarts.  If they work then I'll take pictures and post them to the web.

- Doc


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  Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
  http://www.medievalcookery.com/
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