little sarah Big World

Did you know that the way to say “easy as pie” in Spanish is “pan comido”? It means, “eaten bread,” except wordreference.com translates it as “piece of cake,” but that doesn’t make sense with this entry’s subject, which is:

THE WORLD’S EASIEST PIE/TART

Did I mention that my oven here in Spain doesn’t have degrees? Well, it doesn’t. It has either “fuego arriba” or “fuego abajo.” It’s basically just a glorified broiler.

And I have not been able to convince my roommates (or anybody else here, for that matter) that a no-degree oven means extremely limited baking possibilities. I also keep losing the argument that baking, unlike cooking, is more of a science and therefore requires more specific measurements, temperatures, timing, etc. (will somebody back me up on this?).

Anyways, even without degrees or measuring cups/spoons (did I mention I’m in Spain?), I still made this super-easy tart:

Easy As Pie Tart

Ingredients for the Crust (from The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer):
● 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
● 1/3 cup sugar
● 1/4 tsp. salt
● 1 stick butter (salted or unsalted, whatever)
● 1 egg yolk
● a little cream or milk (I used soy milk)
● 1 egg white, beaten

Directions:

1. Mix the flour, sugar, and salt together. Using your hands, squish the butter into the dry ingredients. The mixture should look like cornmeal with a few larger lumps of butter.

2. Break up the egg yolk with a fork and add to the flour/butter mixture. Continue to work with hands until the dough comes together in a ball. Add a splash of soy milk (or cream, or regular milk) to keep dough from being too dry.

3. Don’t overwork the dough–it will become tough. Cover the bowl and place it in the fridge to chill for about 20 minutes.

4. Pat the crust into a 9″ or 10″ pie or tart plate. Prick all over with a fork and chill for an additional 20 to 30 minutes. (This is when you will probably want to start pre-heating your oven).

5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake the crust for 15 minutes, or until it starts to become lightly golden.

6. Remove from oven and brush the inside with the beaten egg white.

7. Return to the oven and finish baking until crust is golden (like, 5 more minutes).

Ingredients for the Filling:
● about 500g plain, full-fat greek yogurt (I used three 170g containers of Fage)
● about 300g honey (slightly less than one bear, if you will)
● fresh fruit (I used clementines, kiwi and banana)

Directions:

1. Spoon yogurt into completely cooled crust.

2. Cover with a layer of honey.

3. Then arrange fruit in a pretty pattern! (You may want to start from the center and work your way out. I did it oppositely and the fruit really wanted to slide around in the honey. But I managed).

And that’s all! I made this same tart last summer for the 4th of July, using Greek Gods Honey Yogurt (instead of yogurt and honey), with raspberries, strawberries and blueberries (it was very patriotic). It’s a very versatile tart. And did I mention easy?