I baked my first practice pie for the fair last night and we ate it today. I’m making a fruit entry and a savory tart entry. Today we tried the savory entry, so I wanted to walk through what I made and what I thought of the my first try.
My savory tart is a Caramelized Onion tart from Erin McDowell’s cookbook, Savory Baking. Her recipe calls for a press-in crust, in decided to go with a traditional rolled crust, since that’s what started me on my pie journey. It has a layer of caramelized onions, and then a thin custard that is just 2 whole eggs, crème fraiche and gruyere cheese. (Before I go further, I am sorry about my very bad pictures, I forgot to take any before it had been cut and served).
Results - What Went Right and What Needs Work
Overall, the tart was excellent. Under normal circumstance, I would be happy with the results and would make again. But since I am planning on entering this in the pie competition, I have to be a little harder on the whole thing.
First, this crust leaked a lot of butter. I really don’t know why. I used the same method I always do, it was a cool night the night I made the crust, the butter was even more incorporated. At this point, I don’t really have a planned fix, but I will plan on making my competition crust early enough that if it leaks a lot when I parbake it, I’ll just redo it.
Second, the caramelized onions were delicious, but the recipe called for 3 tablespoons of apple brandy and they ended up being a little more apple forward than I would have liked. Not bad, just not the flavor profile I wanted, so I think next time I make this, I will try sherry vinegar. Here are the before and after of my onions:
Third, Michael described the tart as one-note. I think what we was picking up on was a heaviness to the tart. I mean, caramelized onions, crème fraiche and gruyere are delicious, but they’re all rich. I think the sherry vinegar might help cut the heaviness. I also think I might try some Dijon mustard in the custard and see if that brightens up the tart.
Here are some pictures:
This is what the baked tart looks like. It did bake up quite easily.
You can see the custard is thin and really sits on top of the onions. It was a lovely tart, but just needs some tweaks to be ready for judging. I’ll be back next week with my second try. And I’m baking my sweet pie this week, so lots more pie to come!