The French tart, isn’t just dessert… I have to admit, that Curtis made this as the final course for our Thanksgiving dinner, but in all fairness, I finished it during breakfast for the week to follow. Something about the fresh persimmons, vanilla, orange, lavender and perfect crust, paired with a cup of French press Kenya Nyeri Karindundu from Barefoot Coffee… well, can you blame me?

+ use this recipe as a base, and substitute another seasonal fruit.

for the Persimmon Tart
pastry crust
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup of water

Crème Pâtissière / pastry cream
makes about 2 cups
2 cups whole milk
3 large egg yolks
1 egg
6 tbs granulated white sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
pinch of salt
2 vanilla beans, split and scraped
+ 1 orange, zest and juice
+ 1 bay leaf

glaze
simple syrup
1 sprig of lavender
peel of 1/4 orange
1 bay leaf

pastry crust
Preheat oven to 400°. In a bowl, whisk or sift together the flour and salt, and set aside. In a mixer, beat the butter until soft, add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Gradually add the water and beat until just incorporated. Be careful not to over mix and cause separation. Add the flour mixture and mix into a ball, again, do not overwork the dough. Flatten the dough into a square, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Grease an 8-9 inch tart pan with a removable bottom. On a lightly floured surface roll out the pastry dough to a 1/8 of an inch thick circle about 12 inches. You want the dough to be uniform in thickness and an inch larger than the tart pan. Roll the dough around the rolling pin and gently lay over the tart pan and lightly press pastry into bottom and up the sides of pan. Roll your rolling pin over top of pan to get rid of any excess pastry. Roll the rolling pin over top again to get rid of any extra pastry. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes to chill the butter and to rest the gluten. Line the unbaked pastry shell with parchment paper and fill the tart pan with pie weights, rice or beans, making sure the weights are to the top of the pan and evenly distributed over the entire surface. Bake crust for 20 to 25 minutes until crust is dry and lightly golden brown. Remove weights and cool crust before filling.

pastry cream
Set aside 2/3 of a cup of milk and bring the rest to a light boil with the vanilla, bay leaf, orange peel and salt. In a mixing bowl, add the flour and beat in egg yolks, whole egg and sugar. Gradually stir in the reserved milk. When the mixture has become smooth and creamy, stir in the strained, boiled milk and return the mixture to the saucepan. On a low heat, cook, stirring constantly until the cream is thick. Remove from heat and chill.

assemble the tart
Quarter and mandolin (or thinly slice), removing the cores, 4-5 persimmons. Remove the tart shell from the pan by placing your hand under the pan, touching only the removable bottom not the sides. Gently push the tart straight up, away from the sides. Spread the pastry cream into the tart, filling about 3/4 full. Smooth off with a spatula. Arrange the fruit on the tart either randomly or in concentric overlapping circles, starting at the outside edge. Try to cover the surface completely with the fruit so that no pastry cream is showing through. Glaze the top of the tart by brushing the infused simple syrup over the surface, avoiding the tart shell and, do not over glaze. Garnish with a bit of picked lavender.