Day 14

Ok, so today went a bit better.  I actually got a lot done!  We were assigned a total of 4 tarts and after last night, I thought for sure I was going to be behind even more, but not so!!

I started with my nut-caramel tart.

To make caramel, you melt sugar in a pot with a little bit of honey (the honey is a partially inverted sugar and helps to stabilize the process)

It can only be stirred until all the sugar is melted.  This is about half melted and it is starting to boil.

OMG it worked!!  I put Hazelnuts and Pecans in it and it was tasty tasty.  Vincent loved it!

This was my favorite that I made, the fresh fruit tart.  It's a layer of pastry cream (pretty standard, kind of like bavarian cream) and then the fruit and a thin layer of apricot glaze to seal it and stop it from oxidizing.

This was my pear frangipane.  Frangipane is made with almond paste, which is possibly one of the tastiest substances on the planet.  The pear is poached in simple syrup and then baked with the tart.  It is also glazed with apricot glaze.

The apricot glaze is a nice, light gel that doesn't impart much flavor into whatever it's on.  It does a good job of sealing the tart to keep air from harming it.  These tarts were pretty amazing and I love doing them.  They've been very popular with everyone.  :-)