Four days back, I had no plans of baking a tart this week. In fact, I did not even know that such a tart existed! Yet, I baked this tart yesterday, took pictures this morning and am posting it this evening.
Meeta is celebrating her blog anniversary with a special edition of Monthly Mingle, her monthly event. This month she chose to celebrate with champagne. Now, alcohol doesn’t feature in any form in our scheme of things, so I wished Meeta** a very happy blog anniversary and four days back made my apologies about not joining her party unless she was willing to let me arrive without any food in hand.
The rules at Meeta’s mingles is that guests bring the food and this time its offerings of champagne in some form or the other. She also insisted that I couldn’t stay away and was even willing to accept grape juice instead of champagne, as long as I made an appearance.
So how could I disappoint her?
Making something with grapes isn’t too difficult, but what on earth could I make with grape juice? I’ve never thought along this direction before and a lot of searching threw up a Purple Cow as an option! With a name like this, I wasn’t to sure that there would be any takers for it here, and it also seemed too tame to take to a party where everything else would be “champagne” class.
Then I came across a grape juice tart/ Tarte au Raisiné at La Prochaine Fois
A “raisiné”, is a thick and dark brownish concentrate of fruit juices. An old Swiss recipe, this raisiné or sweet and sour concentrate is made by slowly reducing the juice of seasonal fruit like apples and pears.
The original recipe uses the juice of white grapes. If I had to do this, it would mean making my own grape juice. Our days are getting warmer and the temperatures right now are about 5C above the normal at this time of the year.
Reducing the fruit juice itself was going to take time, and the last thing I wanted to do was to stew in my kitchen along with some grapes. So I bought a litre of dark grape juice and set to work.
I have changed Cathy’s recipe somewhat, mainly to adjust for ingredients available here and to reduce 1 egg. She also doesn’t give a recipe for the crust, saying any sweet tart/ pie crust dough would be fine. I used a short crust pastry from Knead by **Carol Tennant.
This tart is quite interesting in that it requires reduction/ concentration of fruit juice for the filling. We liked the tart for its sweet yet slightly tart filling which is well balanced out when served with whipped cream or home-made mascarpone cheese
Dark Grape Juice Tart (Tarte au Raisiné)
Ingredients
For the short crust pastry:
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour generous
- 1 tbsp sugar
- pinch salt
- 45 gm butter cold , diced
- 2 to 3 tbsps water cold
For the filling:
- 1 liter grape juice dark (or white)
- 150 ml milk (3%)
- 180 ml cream (25% fat)
- 3 tbsps all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tbsps corn starch
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 egg , whisked
- 2 tbsps sugar (adjust to requirement)
- 1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
Instructions
- Make the crust:
- You can do this by hand or in the food processor. I find the food processor excellent for making pie/ tart dough.
- Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the butter and rub with fingertips into the flour, till the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.
- Add 2 tbsp water and using your hands, bring the dough together adding a little water if necessary. Too much water will result in a tough pastry.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly till dough is smooth.
- Form into a neat ball, flatten into a round, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Remove pastry from the fridge and place on lightly floured surface and roll out into a circle about 12u201d in diameter, slightly larger than a 9u201d fluted pastry ring/ dish. Roll the pastry in a back and forth motion and do not stretch or pull the pastry.
- Place the pastry circle in the ring/ dish and carefully press to the edges, removing excess pastry with a knife. Lightly prick the base with a fork. Chill for about 20 minutes.
- Remove from the fridge and line the pastry with foil or waxed paper, and fill with baking beans.
- Bake at 200C for 12 minutes. Remove the foil/ waxed paper and put the crust back in the oven for another 10 minutes till golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack.
- Make the filling:
- Pour the grape juice (one litre) into a pan and bring to a boil. Then turn down the heat to low-medium and simmer, while stirring frequently, till it has reduced to 150 ml. Once the juice has reduced to roughly 1/3rd, watch the pan and its contents or you will end up with a burnt liquid! Let this cool to room temperature.
- Put the milk, cream, cornstarch and flour into a pan. Mix well, and cook the mixture over medium heat till it becomes a smooth and thick paste. Add the butter and mix well. Let this cool.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg, sugar and vanilla extract. Add to the cooked and cooled mixture. Mix well. Now add the reduced grape juice and mix well. You might find your tart filling seems a little granular but thatu2019s fine.
- Assembling the tart:
- Pour the filling into the tart shell and bake at 200C for about 40 minutes. The filling will have set well. Do not be tempted to cook for longer or the texture of the filling will change.
- Cool the tart well before slicing.
Hari Chandana says
Nice entry..Looks very tempting… i will definitely try this.. thanks for the recipe.. 🙂
MeetaK says
well i am glad you made this just for me! thank you and you get the biggest honor at the party! love you for doing this. and how creative this tart is!
lata raja says
hit two birds with one throw!!! Great looking tart and you get to go too.
simply.food says
This is an interesting recipe,never thought fruit juice alone can be used for pie filling.Lovely rich colour too.
Divya Vikram says
Looks so professional and healthy too!
Madhuri says
Awesome.looks perfect
BangaloreBaker says
Simply beautiful.
Pavithra says
Looks so perfect aparna..
Curry Leaf says
Perfect Aparna. Love the way you made the filling.Normally I would simply add just cornstarch to thicken juice and simply use it.Your filling is exquisite.I too missed the mingle.I thght the deadline was 16th march? Do check it up.I tried making non alcoholic champagne but then got cold feet.
Curry Leaf says
Aparna missed out Meeta’s comment. Forget my previous rant on deadline
jayasree says
Looks like you have a way with cooking grapes – in bread, pie, icecream. Great going.
Srimathi says
Hi Aparna,I am so amazed that you have done some serious thought into creating the pie. Making the cheese at home needs serious passion. Good Job! I am sure it will taste good.
jayasri says
Hi Aparna, I am always amazed at the way you search and do things!!, You are really such a passionate baker, hats of to you It looks I should give it a try
Danielle says
Wow…what a nice looking tart. At first sight I thought it was chocolate LOL. But no…it’s a lovely refreshing grape juice filling. YUM!
Natashya KitchenPuppies says
Delicious, and very creative. In (U.S.) prohibition times they used to market grape juice as unfermented wine.
Rosa's Yummy Yums says
It looks delicious! In Switzerland, we also have “Tarte/gâteau au Raisiné”, but it’s made with pear juice concentrate…Cheers,Rosa
Trissa says
Very clever use of grape juice! I have never heard of this tart but I can imagine it would taste fabulous! Well done!
farawayme says
This is so unusual! But is looks and sounds delicous!
Rachana Kothari says
Awesome! looks so delicious 🙂
cathy says
oh yay! you just brought back happy memories of me making this tart last summer 🙂 so happy you enjoyed it!
Julie says
Wow, what an interesting looking tart! I’ve never seen anything like it. Very nice 🙂
Y says
Fascinating tart! I don’t think I’ve seen a filling quite like it before. So wish I could taste it! 🙂
Raaga says
Yummy… reminds me of this healthy grape dessert Amma makes called Purple Fantasy… should make that sometime.We’re 7 degrees C above normal.
Aparna says
Thanks, once again.I get the place of honour, Meeta? Wow! :)No problems, Sweatha. ;-DYes Danielle. Does look like chocolate at first glance, doesn’t it?That’s interesting, Natashya.I did read that “raisiné” is actually pear or apple juice. Thanks, Rosa.Just discovered it myself, Trissa.Thanks Cathy for your recipe. :)Purple Fantasy sounds most interesting, Raaga.Yikes, its hot there!
Rambling Tart says
A truly wonderful and unique addition to the party! 🙂 What a splendid notion for a tart. 🙂
tasteofbeirut says
I am doing research on raisiné and stumbled on your blog; I find it very interesting and will be back often, and I like this tarte very much.