Honey Pine Tart recipe by Gina DePalma #cakefriday week 44/2012

This cakefriday post is a little tribute to my short trip to New York City from three weeks ago. I got to spend a couple of short but super fun days with my best friend Meigan. Meigan gave me a very special gift: a cooking book by Gina DePalma the pastry chef from Babbo Restaurant in NYC.
Gina signed this special book for me hoping it would serve as a source of inspiration for future cakefridays. – And yes, it did! Here is the first cakefriday interpretation of a great recipe by Gina DePalma.
I am also very fortunate that I got Gina’s permission to feature her recipe on the blog today. Thanks go out to Gina for a great book and creating these wonderful desserts. And a big THANK YOU to Meigan for being my best friend. I hate you being 4000 miles away!

Recipe by Gina DePalma from “Dolce Italiano” (copyright by Gina DePalma; publishing with permission by the author)

Recipe for the tart’s crust

2,5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
freshly grated zest of 1 Lemon or 1 small orange
1/4 cup (1,5 sticks/6 oz.) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/4 cubes

1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream
a few drops ice-water, if necessary

Put flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and zest in the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times. Then add the cold cubes butter and pulse again a few times.

In an extra bowl whisk combine egg, yolk, vanilla, heavy cream. Then add this mixture to the food processor and pulse a few times. You can also add some drops of ice-water to make the dough come together.

Remove the dough from the processor and kneat with your hands to even out. Form a ball and flatten it out; wrap it in foil and place it in the fridge for 1-2 hours before rolling it out.

For the filling

Makes one 10 inch tart

2/3 cup honey (mild honey: acacia, orange blossom, buckwheat, sage)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (1 sticks/ 8 oz) unsalted butter
1/2 heavy cream
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 3/4 cups pine nuts

Preheat your oven to 325°F.

On a floured board, roll out the dough into an 11 inch circle. Your prepared dough recipe will make more dough than necessary. You can freeze the rest for up to 2 months. Transfer the douch into a buttered and floured pan by rolling it over your rolling pin like a carpet and then unrolling over the tart pan. Press the dough into the pan, then trim its flush with the top the pan.

For the custard: PLace the honey, sugar and salt in a saucepan and stir to combine them. Then add butter and bring the mix to a boil, stirring often. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the mixture cool down for about 20 minutes.
Then whisk in heavy cream, egg and yolk.

Distribute pine nuts evenly over the botom of your tart shell and add the honey custard into the shell until it reaches the top of the crust. Discard the rest of the custard.

Bake the tart for about 30-55 minutes or until tart has a golden brown color and the custard is still jiggly.

Let the tart cool down before taking it out of its pan and serve with some vanilla ice-cream and an aged balsamic.

If you would love to bake more of Gina’s creations you can buy here book at amazon or by clicking on the pic below