The increasing sunlight outside is certainly brightening my mood. But my body seems to think that spring should follow suit. That clearly hasn't been the case. It's still rather chilly for my taste, but I've been longing for more spring-esque food. Y'know..full of fresh tasting veggies and a hint of spring/summer harvest.
No this isn't a pizza, but it's similar in shape and located next to all the other frozen pizzas. I picked this up the other night for a "we-need-to-eat-something-other-than-salad" dinner with friends.
TJ's products hailing from France have had a pretty darn good track record, especially wherever butter and bread have been involved. I've never had a tarte flambée, but apparently it's a German creation but easier to pronounce in French. No open flames here but the original was cooked "in the flames" like in a wood-fire oven, hence the name. In my book, if it looks like that and hails from France, it has to be good right?
I'm torn y'all. This tarte tastes fantastic, but there is something about the structural integrity that doesn't quite seem to live up what this should be in my mind. The crème fraiche base provides such a luxurious mouth feel along with the brie, which has just the right amount of potency and creaminess without being over-the-top. And the tomatoes! They are so fragrant and juicy and delicious, like that of vine-ripened tomatoes plucked during the height of the summer harvest. That and the little bits of basil? BLISS.
Perhaps my misgiving about the structural integrity has something to do with my lack of exposure/understanding of tarte flambée. According to the internet, if a pizza and a crepe had a baby, you'd get the tarte flambée. So maybe in some world, the fact that the bottom crust never crisped is acceptable? We baked it according to package directions (but not directly on the oven rack because c'mon...that's like foreboding disaster) and the sides did crisp, wonderfully so. And while the bottom wasn't soggy, it stayed soft and floppy. Delicious, sure, and crepe-like but unable to hold up the toppings. Maybe some people out there like eating pizza with the toppings sliding off such that you have to eat those elements separately. But it just doesn't seem right here. I mean who eats pie filling separate from the pie crust? It's an entity that has to be eaten together! The only way I could eat it was by folding the slice in half. Which is fine..but it doesn't reconcile this question in my mind - is the tarte flambée supposed to be crepe-like all around or crisp like a tarte? I wish it could be either a crepe or a crisp tarte/flatbread/pizza but not both. It just doesn't work trying to straddle both.
My gut instinct, confirmed by a brief internet search of tarte flambée recipes, says that even if this is a marriage between pizza and a crepe, the bottom is supposed to have some kind of structural integrity. Like a flatbread. I mean Julia Child is lauding the "crisp pastry" of a tarte flambée, so how can it be that the crust never crisps? It's rather disappointing and bittersweet. It's like having the triple axel, the potential for rising to the occasion and then some, but not being able to land that in a clean program, which leaves you wondering what could have been. Not a perfect analogy (because Mirai Nagasu is a person whom I love and admire, not just for her skating, and not an impersonal tarte!) but just frustrating because this could have been easily a 8/10 product (which for me is a glowing rating).
Yes, I could take this home again and re-bake it in my cast iron to see if the crust holds up better. But as is, without any special doctoring, it's a nice tasting flatbread, very shy of its potential greatness. Repurchase for this $4.99 tarte for two? On the fence ambivalence y'all.
TL;DR: Trader Joe's Tarte au Brie et aux Tomates. French tomato brie almost-but-not-quite-pizza. That crust tho. Sigh. 5.5 out of 10.
Ugh. This crust can't even be called crust. Nothing crispy or even firm about it. Cheese, tomato and basil together are indeed blissful, but geez this French thing is a huge disappointment unless you just scrape it all off, from the get go, and eat it with a spoon - just don't even try to eat that stretchy gluey thing on the bottom they try to call crust. Definitely not a repeat purchase.
ReplyDeleteI just ate the ham/cheese/onion one tonight for the first time. Used a standard cheap generic box store purchased decades ago baking sheet, middle rack, 450ºF in a propane fueled stove's oven, 18 minutes to get the top nicely browned (like the packaging's stock image). Preheated the oven but not the sheet. Nicely crisped and browned bottom through out. Same dough as for the tomato tart so expect the same result when I do try it with. Learned the lesson from trying the mushroom tart yesterday not to use an air bake sheet as the bottom was indeed doughy/gluey with.
DeleteI placed my tarte on a cookie sheet that I preheated in the oven till it was quite hot, placed the tarte on it and baked at the suggested temperature for about 15 min. I slid a knife under it to test for crispiness. It turned out perfect. I will definitely buy this again as it was delicious.
ReplyDeleteGreat tip! This should be on the package instructions.
DeleteI put the tarte in as is so the whole tarte crisped up from the current I recommend that
DeleteJust put the tarte directly on the oven rack. It'll be ok, I promise! I just cooked the tarte d'Alsace that way and it turned out AMAZING. The crust was super crisp on the bottom and it was definitely sturdy enough to hold together when we took it out of the oven.
ReplyDeleteI did that and it works perfectly
DeleteYou didn't follow the instructions. Go on. Try just following the actual instructions. It's delicious. The tarte crust needs to go directly on the rack. Shame on you for deviating.
ReplyDelete