French Style Browned Butter Tarts

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     Last week, when I didn't post Friday Faves, my plan had been to celebrate Bastille Day which is always on the 14th of July.  I guess it is just as well that I ran out of time because it was hard to limit our love of French culture and products to just a few things.  After all, we all studied French, my husband served a french speaking mission in Tahiti, Lindsey served one in France, plus did a semester of law school there, My son Jacob is currently serving a french speaking mission in the Ivory Coast!  That is a lot of french influence in our lives!  The language is beautiful, the country has so much rich history, the cuisine is amazing, France has been the center of fashion for ages, there is just so much to enjoy.  
     So, Instead of trying to get everyone to focus on a favorite, I decided that this week I would share a french dish that I learned from Panna Cooking for a delicious Brown Butter Tart to give a nod to a favorite place of ours, France.  

This is the one I made! I am so proud!

      This tart recipe is currently being offered for free on Panna. If you love watching cooking shows like I do, you know that it can be frustrating to try to reproduce the recipes you see on TV and get a good result.  The videos on Panna and step by step written instructions make it so easy to follow and make their recipes yourself. Blueberries have been priced fairly reasonably lately, so when I saw this Browned Butter Tart with Berries, I knew I had to give this recipe a try. You can click on the link and give it a try as well.   The chef that teaches this class is Nancy Silverton. I am referring you to her class for this recipe, but I will share some of the tips she gave and some adaptations that I made for my purposes.  
     At first I thought that this recipe was going to be too much for me to do as I babysat my granddaughter, but as it turned out, each step was fairly quick to do and then it would have to chill awhile.  When the baby went down for her nap, I could do the next step or I would put her in her high chair to watch me for a bit.  It was a breeze!  Then, one of the best things about this recipe is that it makes enough crust and custard for 2 tarts and the extra dough and custard keeps in the fridge for a good amount of time.  In the middle of the week, I made the blueberry tart, and then on the weekend, I made a peach tart!  The peach one was super fast to do since the dough and custard were already made.  

Fresh, in season peaches on a tart! So delicious! And the color of the peaches is so nice, don't you think?

My Take-Aways From Nancy Silverton:

• When working this dough for the crust, be very careful to not overwork it! Try to keep it cool by using your fingertips and not the palms of your hands.
• After the dough is refrigerated, begin by pounding it out with your rolling pin rather than rolling it.  (You have to watch her do it! It is so cool!  Also, when you do it yourself, it is very therapeutic).
• Use a simple syrup to make the blueberries shine! 
• When browning butter, use your ears and your nose to tell when it is ready.
• Sprinkle powdered sugar like you mean it, but also let some of the fruit show.

A Couple of Adaptations:

• I pretty much followed Nancy's recipe spot on, but one thing that she used that I don't have is a Flan Ring to form her tart. I had never heard of one, but here is the link to one.  

• I used a spring form pan instead.  I just fit the crust only halfway up the side of the pan and trimmed it to make it somewhat even.  It worked pretty well. Here is a pan like the one I have.

• When I made the peach tart, I sliced the peaches and laid them decoratively on the custard.  Then, after the tart was baked, I used chopped peaches on top.  I didn't coat them with simple syrup because they were already shiny.  Click the pictures below for descriptions. 

The peaches on the custard, ready to bake. You can see the dough inside the spring form pan as well.

Out of the oven

Covered with peaches before the sprinkling of powdered sugar.

Here it is again. A thing of beauty! See how I dusted the sugar "like I meant it" but still let some berries show?

The peaches have a much more noticeable taste, in my opinion, so the peach tart was probably my favorite of the two.

     If you try this recipe, let me know how yours turns out!  

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