a recipe and an apology

I'm sorry. I promised to be better about posting, and I haven't been. But I've come down with an awful cold and I've been so busy with the house and had no extra energy.  I also do write over at The Loud and Clear, so sometimes those posts take precedence over the ones here.

Anyway, these aren't house pictures, but they are dessert pictures, and I'm pretty sure that's almost as good better anyway.  I made this fresh raspberry custard tart for Dan for his birthday.  I saw it in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living and was dying to try it.  I figured Dan's birthday was the perfect excuse. Raspberries are his favorite fruit and I thought it would be a refreshing break from the typical birthday cake.  I still topped it with candles, obvies.

This recipe is really quite easy to make.  It has a lot of steps that require long amounts of time, but labor-wise it's not bad.  Above you'll see my tart crust cooling in the fridge.  It's important to pay attention to the times in the recipe.  I cut into the tart too soon at the end - that's always the hardest part to wait through, isn't it? - and it wasn't pretty. Hence, why you see no pictures of slices here.  (p.s. can you tell I'm obsessed with Fage yogurt?)

I recommend splurging for a heavy bottomed tart pan for this one.  My Target purchase - while colorful and fun, was a bit flimsy for the job.  My crust burned a bit, and I blame my penny-pinching ways.

Here it is with the custard inside.  The custard was AWESOME. By the way, it can be a bit difficult to find creme fraiche in America.  Trader Joe's carries it and so does Whole Foods (I think), but if you don't live near one of those places, try any small gourmet grocer you might have in town.  Maybe they'll even order some for you if they don't already carry it. 

The final tart.  It makes me realize how badly I need to learn photography.  The colors are so off and the focus isn't where I want it to be - and this is the best of the batch.  I kind of feel like Tyra Banks on ANTM - "And here's your best photo." Clearly, I'd be getting kicked off the show this week. One final note, I think the recipe ends up calling for 3-4 of the little things of rasperries that you get at the grocery store.  I found this to be too much.  I put on just under 3 of the containers and the raspberries were a bit overpowering.  

Here's a link to the recipe again, in case you're still reading.