Creme Fraiche Custard Brioche Tart

I had this tart in my books to bake for a long time and finally I made it! Among many other interesting things about this recipe what was especially stuck in my mind is that this tart made Julia Child cry upon tasting it. Nancy Silverton baked this tart in “Baking with Julia” TV series in 1997. As Julia tried the tart she briefly stopped and with quivering voice, between the tears, said: “It’s a dessert to cry over.” What a wonderful reference and motive to embark on this baking challenge!

I always enjoyed baking rich and buttery brioche dough with its silky texture and was really looking forward making this dessert. The fall also seems to be the right time due to the abundance of fresh fruits that are used for topping, but it can be made at any part of the year. Fresh fruits can be simply substituted with dried fruits.

The experience turned out just as anticipated! The tart is deeply satisfying, soft and tender, as one would expect from a brioche dough, but the white sauce or sabayon and fruits sautéed in caramel-wine syrup elevated the tart to a special place!

It takes some effort and time commitment to make this recipe, it is not something that can be slapped together quickly. But that is ok, this is the world of baking adventures and wonderful culinary discoveries!

The best use for this recipe is perhaps a sweet breakfast, similar or analogous to pancake breakfast. That is my own first hand impression after trying the tart fresh as well as several days after the baking. By far the best taste is when the tart is still warm and topped with freshly made sauces. The longer it stays and especially after being refrigerated, although still good, it starts to lose from its flavour profile.

One tart serves 8-10 people so it is perfect for a delicious and memorable family breakfast!

The dough recipe is sufficient to bake two 10.5″ (267 mm) tarts. If tightly wrapped and placed in zip-lock bag and frozen it can be kept up to 3 weeks. In fact I prefer to make the dough ahead, divide and freeze and then used as needed. The dough is defrosted overnight in the refrigerator and used in the morning.

Although challenging I made the dough by hand. I like to work the dough manually and being able to feel as it changes in the process. It took me about an hour of hand kneading which amounts to a decent workout! Obviously it is much easier and faster if you decide to use a heavy duty stand mixer. If you decide to follow my footsteps and manually knead the dough, you need to use a  kneading method that is called “fraisage” , otherwise if you like to use a stand mixer the recipe is here.

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Creme Fraiche Custard Brioche Tart

Brioche tart with creme fraiche custard, a perfect recipe for a cozy family breakfast!

Course

Bake, Breakfast, Dessert, Main Dish, Snack

Cuisine

American

Keyword

Brioche, French pastry

Prep Time

2 h

Cook Time

40 min

Servings

people

Ingredients

Brioche Dough

• 1/3 cup organic milk warm to touch
• 1 3/4 tsp instant yeast
• 5 large eggs divided
• 3 1/2 cups all purpose non bleached flour sifted and divided, min 12% protein
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 170 g unsalted butter chilled

Creme Fraiche Filling and Tart Assembly

• 1 cup Creme Fraiche
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar plus more for sprinkling

White Secrete Sauce - Sabayon

• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 vanilla beans cut by length with seeds scraped
• 1/3 cup filtered water
• 2 1/4 cup white wine dry
• 1 cup heavy cream 35% MF
• 4 large egg yolks

Poached Fruit

• Italian plums as needed
• nectarines as needed
• peaches as needed
• caramel - wine syrup remined from sabayon making process

Additional garnish

• confectioner's sugar to taste
• roasted nuts to taste

Course Bake, Breakfast, Dessert, Main Dish, Snack Cuisine American Keyword Brioche, French pastry Prep Time 2 h Cook Time 40 min Servings people Ingredients Brioche Dough 1/3 cup organic milk warm to touch 1 3/4 tsp instant yeast 5 large eggs divided 3 1/2 cups all purpose non bleached flour sifted and divided, min 12% protein 1/3 cup granulated sugar 1 tsp sea salt 170 g unsalted butter chilled Creme Fraiche Filling and Tart Assembly 1 cup Creme Fraiche 1 large egg 1 large egg white lightly beaten 1/2 cup granulated sugar plus more for sprinkling White Secrete Sauce - Sabayon 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 vanilla beans cut by length with seeds scraped 1/3 cup filtered water 2 1/4 cup white wine dry 1 cup heavy cream 35% MF 4 large egg yolks Poached Fruit Italian plums as needed nectarines as needed peaches as needed caramel - wine syrup remined from sabayon making process Additional garnish confectioner's sugar to taste roasted nuts to taste

Instructions

Day 1

1. In a large mixing bowl sprinkle 1 3/4 tsp instant yeast over the 1/3 cup of warm milk, leave for 5 minutes.
2. Whisk in 1 egg and 1 cup flour and mix until it comes together.
3. Sprinkle over 1 cup of flour and set aside uncovered for 30-40 minutes. By this time the cracks will appear in the flour layer, indicating that the yeast is active.

   
4. Add to the bowl 4 lightly beaten eggs, 1 tsp sea salt, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 cup of flour. Mix with wooden spoon for a few minutes or until everything comes together.
5. Sprinkle last 1/2 cup of flour over the dough and mix until incorporated.
6. Knead for about 20-30 minutes on kitchen counter or until gluten is well developed, confirm with the windowpane test. You will know you are almost done when the dough stops sticking to your hands. Note: Do not add any more flour and you have to knead the dough by using fraisage technique.
7. Use a rolling pin to beat and soften chilled butter. Use a bench scraper to smear and mix butter on a counter until is pliable and with similar consistency as the dough.
8. Take 1-2 tbsp of butter at the time and knead until fully incorporated into the dough. The dough will break every time you add new portion of butter, but don't worry it will come together. Don't be inpatient and add too much butter at once! This part of kneading process may take about 20-25 minutes. By the time you are done the dough temperature should be 25-26°C (77- 79°F)

   
9. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl, cover with stretch wrap and keep at room temperature 2-2.5 hours or until doubles in size.
10. Deflate the dough, cover the bowl tightly with stretch wrap and refrigerate overnight.

    

Day 2

1. Line 17" x 14" baking pan with parchment paper and remove the bottom from 10 1/2" springform pan. Set the springform ring onto the baking pan.
2. Divide the dough, wrap tightly one of the pieces, place it in zip-lock bag and leave in the freezer.
3. Work the remaining dough into a ball and then by using your palm flatten it into a disk.
4. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to about 12" diameter. Use the springform ring to lightly imprint the circle into the dough surface, centered. This circular line will be your guide for the edge crimping.

   
5. The edge is crimped by pulling and folding an excess dough (part that is outside of the circle) diagonally over your fingers and sealing it just inside the circle. You simultaneously press down onto the dough with your left hand fingers (just inside the circle) and pulling outside dough edge with your right hand fingers and folding it over the left hand fingers. For the best results refer to "Baking with Julia" video link in the description.

   
6. Transfer the dough onto the baking pan by placing it inside the springform ring. It should fit tightly, if it is too small gently spread it out to the ring size. Set aside uncovered and leave at room temperature for about 1 hour.
7. Preheat the oven to 135°C (275°F), rack in the middle.
8. In a small mixing bowl whisk together creme fraiche and egg until uniform and smooth, set aside.
9. Using your fingers create dimples all over the bottom of the puffed up dough, do not touch crimped edge.

   
10. Pour off creme fraiche evenly over the dimpled bottom.
11. Sprinkle sugar evenly over the custard's surface. You will see that sugar will sink in on a first pass but after several additions will appear to stay on the surface, that means that enough sugar is added. Creme fraiche custard absorbs just certain amount.

    
12. Brush the tart crimped edge with beaten egg white and sprinkle with 1-2 tbsp of sugar.
13. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until crust is golden brown and custard is almost set. Test it by lightly shaking the pan, the custard should jiggle just slightly.
14. Transfer to a cooling rack, after the few minutes remove the springform ring.

    

White Secret Sauce - Sabayon

1. Prepare and add 4 egg yolks into a stand mixer metal mixing bowl. Have a saucepan fitting this mixing bowl filled with about 1" water, but make sure it is not touching the bowl when set onto the pan. Prepare and have on hand manual whisk.
2. Scant the sugar into a separate medium size, heavy bottom saucepan.
3. Split and scrape seeds from vanilla beans, add to the sugar.
4. Pour in enough water just to cover sugar, about 1/3 cup.
5. Over high heat (10 out of 10) and without mixing bring the sugar to boil. When the first signs of caramelization appear (amber color) gently swirl the pan over the heat. Keep cooking until caramel reaches deep gold color approximately 7-10 minutes in total.

   
6. Take the saucepan of the heat and pour in white wine. Pour the wine carefully in in 2-3 additions.
7. Return the saucepan to heat and bring to boil. Take it off the heat.

   
8. Pour off 1 1/2 cups of the syrup into a heat proof measuring cup. Set aside the rest of syrup which will be used to poach fruits.
9. Over high heat (10 out of 10) bring the prepared saucepan with water to boil.
10. At the same time drizzle hot syrup into a mixing bowl with egg yolks while whisking vigorously all the time. Keep whisking and place the bowl over the saucepan with boiling water. Whisk for 5 minutes until egg yolks become foamy and voluminous.
11. Attach the mixing bowl to the mixer and mix at high speed for 10-15 minutes or until cool, pale yellow and triple in volume. When you start mixing the egg yolk the temperature will be hot and by the time you are done it will cool off to room temperature. This is very important to check before the next process step!

    
12. In medium size mixing bowl whip the cream to stiff peaks.
13. Using rubber spatula gently fold in the cream into an egg yolk mixture. Cover with stretch wrap and refrigerate.

    

Fruit Poaching in wine-caramel sauce

1. Pour off wine syrup to a large non stick skillet. Over high heat (10 out of 10) bring it to boil.
2. Add cut fruits and sauté for 3-5 minutes, gently mix with heat proof soft spatula. Set aside.

   

Serving

1. Cut the tart and place the piece on a serving plate.
2. Spoon over some poached fruits and syrup.
3. Top it up with a good dollop of sabayon, sprinkle over with roasted nuts and dust with powdered sugar.

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