How a pastry comes to be
The bright burst of sunshine was just enough to nudge my thinking towards spring. Even if it was a short lived tease before the onslaught of rain. In that small window, dreams of lighter flavors tempted me and hopes of the first stalks of rhubarb filled my mind. A quick call confirmed that a box was secured and the next day slender ruby red stalks arrived. The fruit was cut into long planks, the handiwork of a talented baker, then submerged under a bath of subtle flavors - hibiscus, raspberry and cherry - to balance the fruit’s natural tartness. Now they will sit for the week to slowly poach, allowing the flavor and color of the liquid to permeate the fruit.
A short list in production offered a rare window of time for me to play in the mixer. I pulled out a recipe for Rustic Rye dough and began to swap ingredients -– milk in place of water for tenderness and a pinch of yeast for extra lift. The golden mill gleaming in the window caught my eye. Whole Kamut and Rouge de Bordeaux berries were substituted for Rye flour. They streamed through the stone plates on a coarser grind than usual to give the dough a nubby bite.
The dough is turned like puff pastry as is done for our pie dough, laminating the butter in long streaks, marbling the surface, tenderizing each bite. Once rested, the dough is cut into squares, about the size of my palm, and chilled until we assemble the tarts in the dark of the night when all is calm and quiet.
A thin spread of almond ricotta cream will grace the pastry’s surface, then a topping of rhubarb over the cream. After a bake in the oven, the open-faced tart shall have crisp edges and a tender center, with intensely flavored fruit after the sugars caramelize in the oven.
This weekend's Secret Item is a Rhubarb Ricotta Cream Tart. Because of the complexity of its process only 48 of these will be available, so we suggest you order quickly! Available to our newsletter subscribers only, so be sure to join our email list for access to all future Secret Newsletter Items.
In other business news, we, like most everyone, are encountering a steep rise in raw product and bakery supply costs due to ingredient shortages, supply chain disruption, increased shipping charges, and overall wholesale price spikes. We are dealing with increasing labor costs, both from our suppliers and within the bakery itself in order to attract and retain stellar employees. I have held back a price increase as long as I can. The price of butter alone, the main ingredient in everything we make, has increased from $65.20 to $110.25 over the past year, and I have been advised that the price will continue to climb into March. We have faced weeks where we cannot buy any cream cheese from our wholesaler and have had to buy it retail at the supermarket. We have held off as long as we could, but without any increase in our pricing, or decrease in the size of our pastries, our current model isn’t sustainable. Therefore, we must change our prices judicially. To start, this weekend we have increased the price of the Almond Croissant and the Hand Pie.
We thank you for your understanding.