June 29, 2005

Recipes: The Minimalist - For Summer Baking, Take the Top Down

"IT may be un-American to say so, but the Fourth of July makes me think of tarts, not pies. This could be because I grew up with neither, and when I began making pastries tarts seemed more appealing: not only did they look prettier, but they also appealed to my then-burgeoning Francophilic food snobbishness.

Though I can now make and enjoy a pie, years later I've come to see the wisdom of my early judgment. Even the simplest tarts - which are simpler than the simplest pies, as you'll see - are prettier, and their superior crusts and higher fruit-to-crust ratio combine to make them taste better."

Includes recipes for:

Simple Berry Tart

Berry Tart With Pastry Cream

Free-Form Fruit Tart

Read more: For Summer Baking, Take the Top Down (NYT free subscription required)

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