Under the Table by Katherine Darling Page B

learned, I was not eager for a repeat performance.
    At last, Chef deemed our tarts well baked, and out of the huge ovens they came. But they were not quite finished. A thin glaze of apricot preserve would need to be applied to the top so that the tart had a shiny, “come hither” look.
    â€œLike a stripper putting on lip gloss,” Tucker whispered to me.
    I was too besotted with the gorgeousness of my own creation to pay any attention to Tucker’s redneck observations. I reverently painted on the apricot glaze with my pastry brush (a tool that looks exactly like a small paintbrush from the hardware store, but costs about five times as much) and waited impatiently for my masterpiece to cool. This was it, the very essence of French cooking—a dessert that made much of its very simple ingredients, prepared in a regimented, time-hallowed manner, and decorated with dizzying attention to detail. Now I was to taste this apple tart from the tree of knowledge, and know food with all the glory of God—as a true chef, in other words.
    Like the sound of one hand clapping, my first attempt at a tarte aux pommes lacked the resonance I was hoping for. It was good, even delicious in its own way, but it was not the religious experience I had anticipated. There was no jolt to my taste buds, no heavenly choir, no path to nirvana magically appearing before me. There was just a glimpse: a tiny twinge, somewhere in my hippocampus, of something greater. It wasn’t enlightenment in a blinding flash of brilliance. More a quiet awakening, the gentle warmth radiating from a tiny crumb of knowledge. I was learning. Slowly.
    Pâte Brisée (Short Crust)
    Food Processor Method
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    This is it: the basic short pastry crust that all other short crusts are based on. It can be used for everything from an apple tart to a rustic tomato and herb pizza (my favorite meal in the summertime). With a few modifications (egg yolks instead of ice water, some confectioners’ sugar, a sifting of cocoa powder with the flour), this recipe can be used in hundreds of ways.
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    1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
    1 teaspoon fine sea salt
    8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, well chilled and cut into small lumps
    1 to 2 tablespoons ice-cold water
Dump the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and blend briefly to combine. Add the butter all at once and blend in short on-off bursts until the mixture resembles very coarse cornmeal. Add 1 tablespoon of the water and blend briefly. The dough should begin to come together. If not, with the motor still running, carefully add a few drops of water at a time until the dough just begins to clump. Continue to blend only until large clumps of dough form.
Remove the dough from the bowl of the processor onto a large square of plastic wrap. Using the plastic wrap to guide the dough (especially helpful when the dough is a bit too sticky from overzealous watering), gently pat it into a rough disk shape. Wrap securely in the plastic wrap and stow in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes, until the dough has fully chilled and is firm to the touch.
The longer the dough is chilled, the better off it will be, I think. Should the dough be very firm when removed from the fridge, don’t attempt to manhandle it with the rolling pin—it will only cause cracksto form in the dough and frustration to boil over in the chef. Leave it alone on the counter for a few minutes. The warmth from the other things you no doubt have going on in the kitchen should be sufficient to warm the dough enough to roll without letting it get sweaty. On the other hand, beating the dough with hearty thwacks from your rolling pin will soften the dough without the chance of it overheating.
When rolling out the dough, be sparing with additional flour. It is tempting to create a snowstorm on the work surface, to ensure that the dough will not stick during the rolling process and will make