Baking and Pastry - Short Dough, Pastry Cream and Fruit Tarts

Meet Chef Thomas Grauke. An easy going, funny, down to earth guy who was inspiring and eager to pass on his knowledge. A certified Master Baking and Pastry Chef for 35 years, he owns and operates his own bakery, The Moonside Bakery, in Half Moon Bay, and teaches part time here at PCI.
What a lucky class class we are to have him as a teacher.
He is taking us to his bakery (a real field trip!) in a week so we can experience some baking in an actual commercial bakery kitchen.
We began our first lesson with a demonstration on pastry cream ( or custard), making a short dough and assembling a fresh fruit tart. A short dough differs from a pie or flaky pastry. It is a more crumbly dough in texture and contains sugar.


After slowly mixing the ingredients together until it was just beginning to come together, Chef Thomas poured the dough out on a board and kneaded it together gently and quickly. After letting it chill in the in the refrigerator for a bit he rolled it out and formed it into the tart pan. This was also done very quickly as to not let the dough soften too much. He laid a piece of saran over the shell and filled it with a good amount of beans so the shell would hold it's shape while it baked. After about 15 minutes, he removed the beans, then continued baking it until it was a beautiful golden brown.


We all were set loose to make our own tarts. I moved very slowly and measured out everything carefully. The pictures to follow show the evolution of my tart.
After baking it and very carefully removing it from the pan and placing it on the cardboard round, I began to assemble.

Uh oh. Dennis, my new partner forgot his cardboard round, that won't happen again.











I had so much fun. I was a little afraid of this unit because I don't have much experience with baking. I was so excited after today's class. If my mother lived closer I would have driven to her house to show off my creation.

I think I'm going to like Baking and Pastry.

Goodnight.