My Morning Chocolate

Tomato Tart with Olive Oil Crust

Over the weekend, I continued to practice tart crusts.  I made this tomato tart with an olive oil crust, a dense, strong crust that could stand up to the fruit’s juices.  I used this filling recipe from the New York Times (with Muenster cheese instead of Gruyere because that’s what I had).  The olive oil crust recipe can be found on the Chocolate & Zucchini blog.

I also made a second peach tart last night, this time burning the crust (which I think could easily have been fixed by moving my oven rack higher) but only rolling the dough twice.  These tarts really are confounding me despite my slight progress.  Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1. No two balls of dough are the same. Some will need more water to come together in a ball; some will need more flour.  Some dough will be sticky; some will be dry.  It’s all about learning the feel of the dough rather than exactly following a recipe.
2. Use less flour. I can’t say I did this – I’m sure I added too much each time – but I read in Katherine Darling’s Under the Table that you only need a whisper of flour on your rolling surface and another puff on top of your dough.  You can always add more if your dough starts to stick.
3. Handle the dough as little as possible. Darling also says playing with the dough creates structure, i.e strands of gluten.  The gluten is a good thing for bread, which should have a chewy texture, but can take away the delicate texture of a pastry crust.
4. If all else fails, cool off your work surface. After my third failure at rolling out a tart crust, I decided to cool down my work surface by placing a baking pan full of cold water and ice on my rolling mat while my dough chilled.  It worked!  The fourth time, I ended up with a useable crust.
5. Chill your dough, many times.  Really, only twice if you can roll your dough perfectly the first time.  When I made my peach tart, I chilled the dough five times.  “Letting the dough rest after working with it allows the molecules of gluten to loosen the bonds they form with each other, enabling the dough to ‘relax’ and perform properly,” says Darling.

And of course, if the crust is burnt or dry; if it shrinks in the tart pan; if it falls apart when you’re cutting it, serve it anyway.