Sourdough and Tarts

A couple weeks ago, some of my family and I visited some friends in North Carolina. It was a good trip. While I was there, I took baking classes on how to bake sourdough bread and tarts. The classes were given by La Farm Bakery. They have a website, www.lafarmbakery.com if you are interested. Since then I have been working on making sourdough bread, and it has turned out, so-so. I will have to improve on that sometime, but just a couple days ago, I tried for the first time to make tarts, and they turned out very well. Just one thing, be prepared to use A LOT of butter!

For the tart crust:

• 4 cups flour
• 2 1/2 cups butter
• 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 egg

Basically, just mix everything but the egg, until it is all flaky and as mixed up as possible, and then add the egg. Be careful not to over mix once you have added the egg. You can use this dough to make one big tart, or several small tarts, like we did. Furthermore, if you decide to make small tarts, you have the option of either using small tart forms, or just making free form tarts. At La Farm, the called them, "rustic tarts." That is what we did. So, once you have it mixed up, let it sit in the fridge, so that it will be easy to work with when the time comes.

Meanwhile, begin working on a filling.

• 4 cups almond flour, we just milled a bunch of almonds up in the blender.
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cups regular flour

To make this filling, fluff the butter and sugar. The use of an electric beater is recommended. Add eggs, one at a time to this mixture. Add the almond flour and regular flour slowly. Now this is ready to go into the crust.

Assembly instructions:
Roll out about half a cup to a full cup of dough, onto a counter dusted with powder sugar. Put some filling in the middle. We put about a couple tablespoons in, but had a bunch leftover, so be generous. Also, you can just spoon it onto the middle of the crust, or like us, pipe it. Then add your favorite fruit, I would recommend strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, or cherries. Finally now, fold up the edges of the dough and place on a baking sheet. It is okay if there is a gap in the middle of the folds of dough, it is actually good because it lets the steam escape. Then bake it at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-30 minutes. That's it, if you have any questions fell free to comment!