Tart

I love this natural fruit-nut pairing and how the apricot juices run right into the frangipane filling.

I love clafouti, especially with ripe pears, but I always felt something was missing. To make a great French dessert even better, I added a buttery crust. That thin, crisp layer makes a world of difference. Tender pears soaked with caramelized honey do, too.

This recipe comes straight from my home in Alsace. My mom didn’t always have time to make fresh pastry cream, so she combined homemade strawberry jam, which we kept on hand, with fraises des bois. Those tiny, wild, sweet strawberries pair perfectly with the almond and vanilla sablé dough.

When I was an apprentice, I had to perfect a four-star version of this classic dessert. It was painfully involved and difficult. Over the years, I discovered that I much prefer a more rustic take. The fundamentals remain the same, and I still love the Tatin technique. The sound of the buttery caramel sizzling is music to my ears. Serve this with a little crème fraîche, and life is beautiful.

Look for rhubarb stalks of the same width to ensure even cooking. If necessary, you can cut differently sized stalks lengthwise to match. The crust, filling, and poached rhubarb can be made one day ahead. The baked crust can be kept, loosely covered, at room temperature; refrigerate the filling and the rhubarb (in the poaching liquid) separately. Strain the rhubarb and reduce liquid several hours before serving.

If fresh lavender is not available, you can use another fresh herb, such as rosemary or thyme. Half of a vanilla bean also works well.

You can also make this recipe in a fourteen-by-four-inch rectangular tart pan with a removable bottom. Roll out the dough to a sixteen-by-six-inch rectangle before fitting it into the pan; bake with parchment and weights for fifteen minutes, then remove parchment and weights and bake for eight to nine minutes more.

This artfully composed tart looks like an elegant tapestry, with carefully placed fruit “roses” in a prebaked tart shell. While it is easy to make, it’s essential to use a very sharp knife in order to cut the nectarine slices precisely. You can make the tart shell one day ahead; keep at room temperature, loosely covered.

We love to serve a variety of shapes and sizes of tartlet shells filled with different flavors of fruit curd; feel free to mix and match flavors to your liking. Similarly, you may choose to top some with meringue while leaving others unadorned. The ones pictured at right are filled with Lemon and Passion Fruit curds. Grapefruit Curd and Lime Curd work equally well. These tartlets are especially appropriate for garden parties or bridal showers.

We’ve reinvented the classic Key lime pie as a tart made with a homemade graham cracker crust. Key limes are smaller, rounder, and have a yellower cast than regular limes; look for them in gourmet shops and some supermarkets. Otherwise, substitute regular limes; six limes should yield 1/2 cup juice.

This traditional French apple tart is really more of an upside-down single-crust pie. Our method is unique because the apples are not cooked on the stovetop before baking; instead, they cook entirely in the oven.

This classic tart has a filling of frangipane (an almond-flavored cream) and caramelized pears enclosed between two layers of puff pastry. The tart is named for the French town in which it was created. It is best eaten the day it is baked.

Combined with garlic, fresh chile, walnuts, olives, and Parmesan, the humble scallion is the basis for a delightfully earthy, toss-together topping for puff-pastry squares. As the tartlets bake, the scallions caramelize, turning golden, sweet, and intensely flavorful. Instead of individual tartlets, you can form the dough and filling into two large tarts: Roll out and cut pastry into two eight-inch squares, divide filling evenly between crusts, and bake thirty minutes.

Thin slices of roasted red, golden, and striped beets overlap atop a combination of ricotta and goat cheeses to produce a stunning shingled tart. The beets are sprinkled with grated fontina before baking. Use beets in a variety of colors if you can find them.

Just a sliver of this ultra-rich tart will satisfy even the heartiest appetites. It features a quick herb-infused custard, made by blending softened Brie, eggs, and cream in a food processor, then pouring over sautéed Granny Smith apples in a deep pâte brisée shell.

This pie combines the ease of a galette—no need to attach a top crust or crimp any edges—with the convenience of oven-to-table serving. Before the tender dough is fitted in the pie plate, it is cut into flaps around the edge for neat, even folding over the filling. When the pie emerges from the oven, the tomatoes will be near bursting, their juices mingling with the cheeses, zucchini, and basil. It just might remind you of another delicious savory pie: pizza.

Baby leeks, sautéed until meltingly tender and arranged end to end, top this showstopping first course. Other components include Niçoise olives and two types of cheese—one fresh (Pavé d’Affinois, a soft cow’s milk cheese similar to Brie); the other aged (Parmigiano-Reggiano). If you can’t find baby leeks, you can use regular leeks, or if it’s springtime, look for ramps at a farmers’ market.

Dark chocolate–on-chocolate tartlets lend themselves well to bold decorative patterns stenciled with white confectioners’ sugar. Snowflake-shaped stencils are appropriate for the winter holidays, but any shape will do, depending on the occasion. You could also use this recipe and apply the technique with letter stencils to spell out a holiday message or birthday greeting.

This Yuletide variation on the popular Austrian linzertorte (page 236) features an innovative gingerbread crust surrounding a homemade raspberry-jam filling. Snowflake and dot shapes are cut out from the top; sprinkle the snowflake cutouts—and any others cut from dough scraps—with sugar and bake them to serve as cookies alongside.

In a season filled with supersweet treats of all sorts, this aptly named tart stands out for its mouth-puckering flavor. Serve it on Thanksgiving or Christmas—it’s equally suited to both holidays. To keep the crust from becoming soggy when the cranberries are added, brush lightly beaten egg white onto the partially baked shell.

Consider this tart a welcome alternative—or an addition—to pecan pie at Thanksgiving. The recipe is virtually the same, but with walnuts filling in for half the pecans, and maple syrup replacing the corn syrup. You can incorporate other nuts, such as almonds and hazelnuts, as long as the total volume remains the same.

Elegantly piped ruffles of whipped cream and a fluted crust make for a decidedly more stylish version of the holiday classic. The velvety pumpkin mousse filling is flavored with all the traditional Thanksgiving spices—ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice—and a healthy dose of brandy for good measure. Graham-cracker crumbs are combined with cocoa powder in the crust.