How do you bake a tart without a soggy crust?!
How do you bake a tart without a soggy crust?
This is how I usually bake tarts. First, I make the dough by kneading some flour and butter together. I then add a few teaspoons of ice cold water and work the mixture into a ball of dough, which I then flatten into a disc and refrigerate for 30 min.
After rolling the dough out and fitting it in a tart tray, I put on the fruits (if it's a fruit tart) or vegetables (if it's a vegetable tart). Then, I pour on the egg mixture (eggs and cream) and bake the tart till set.
The problem is...sometimes the crust seems to absorb some of the moisture from the egg mixture and become soggy. Sometimes it doesn't. Should I brush the dough with butter? Should I bake longer? (But a lot of times, the tart is set, and it's pretty much done...yet the crust is soggy. I don't want to burn the tart.)
Answers:
I good solution would be to pre-bake the crust first. After you refrigerate the dough, roll in out and fit it into a tart tray. Place the empty tart shell into the oven and bake it for about ten minutes or until it is slightly turning brown. Do not over bake the shell. Pull the shell out and place your ingredients in it and bake as usual. The bake time may be less than usual due to the crust being all ready somewhat cooked.
You have to pre-bake the crust for about 25-30 minutes, depending on size, before adding the filling. After the crust has been in the oven for about ten minutes or so, brush it with egg yolk and return it to the oven for another 15-20 minutes; this will help prevent sogginess. Some recipes tell you to weight the crust, which means line it with wax paper and fill with beans, this will prevent the crust from puffing up, but I normally don't have that problem.But if you choose to weight the crust you do so only for the first 10 minutes of baking. Sounds like your doing everything else right. Good luck!