St Tropez tart

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 1 tart, you will need:

• 1 500 g Brioche dough
• 2 80 g Pearl sugar
• 3 20 g beaten egg
• 4 300 g Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)
• 5 2 sheets gelatin
• 6 200 g Chantilly cream
• Total weight: 1,105 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
1 hour 9 min.	2 hours	25 min.	3 hours 35 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Roll out 500 g Brioche dough into a flat cake the size of your tin or mould. (This one is 26 cm or 10 inches). Cover with a plastic sheet and leave in a warm place to rest for 2 hours.
2	Preheat the oven to 370°F (190°C). Glaze the top and sprinkle with coarse sugar grains (or crushed sugar cubes).
3	Cook for about 25 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
4	Prepare 300 g Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream). As soon as it is ready, mix in the 2 sheets gelatin. Cover and leave to cool.
5	Prepare 200 g Chantilly cream.
6	Tip the Chantilly into the cold confectioner's custard...
7	...and incorporste gently by folding in with a soft spatula, leaning the pan over on its side. Stop as soon as the cream is mixed in. This cream is light and delicate, so there is no need to overdo it.
8	Slice the brioche in half horizontally.
9	Spread the cream over the bottom layer (a forcing bag is very useful for this).
10	Then place the second layer on top and press down gently. Tidy up the edges if any cream has been squeezed out. Refrigerate for at least one hour.
11	Cut into portions and serve if possible after leaving at room temperature for around 30 minutes.

Remarks

The true St Tropez tart recipe is a closely guarded secret and patented, so the details are not known. We can only attempt to get close to it, as I have done in this version.
Apparently it was Brigitte Bardot who, during the filming of And God Created Woman, suggested the name "Tarte de St Tropez", but the pâtissier himself preferred "Tarte Tropézienne". [Translator's note: a not-so-subtle difference in French which is entirely lost in translation.].

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