Published in 2000, this small but perfectly formed book became my go-to book for tarts of any kind, sweet or savoury. I always use Tamsin’s recipe for pâte sucrée, maybe because I’m too lazy to try anything else but mainly because it works for me and find it easy to work with and (touch wood) haven’t had any disasters with it yet.
Mainstays from this book are Tarte aux Pommes which is a delicious combination of half pureed and half sliced apple, well worth the effort of cooking the apples to make the puree first, it makes the tart that little bit extra special. The White Chocolate Tart with Raspberries has been cooked so many times it’s like an old friend and a very welcome visitor to the tea table and the Tomato and Prosciutto Tarts pictured on the front cover are a summer picnic staple.
The very generous section on Other People’s Tarts introduced me to the delights of Lindsey Bareham’s Tomato Tatin and Simon Hopkinson’s Chocolate Tart which certainly deserves all the praise heaped upon it by the writer.
A really lovely little book, I have a few of the author’s other titles but this is the one I always grab for anything with pastry, probably because everything I have cooked out of it has been a roaring success.
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