A near-universal problem for all who like to cook: what to do when the weather is sticky but the urge for decent food is still strong? My apartment, while for the most part quite serviceable, is on the 3rd floor and thus becomes an oppressive cage towards the end of July and pretty much all through August. My little window A/C unit is just enough to cool the bedroom and sunroom, leaving the rest of the place to its own devices. Luckily, the sun doesn’t shine too hard on the kitchen side, but I am in no hurry to do any extended baking. This presents a little problem, of course, when there is abundant fresh fruit and it’s eager to be used up in some kind of baked good or other.
Some folks might just avoid turning the oven on, but my approach is instead to make the A/C extra-cold, so the chilled rooms are full of icy relief when I can’t take the proverbial heat. It is in this way that I tried out the low-fat raspberry tart from Nick Malgieri’s mouthful of a new book Perfect Light Desserts: Fabulous Cakes, Cookies, Pies, and More Made with Real Butter, Sugar, Flour, and Eggs, All Under 300 Calories Per Generous Serving. I usually do not truck much with low-fat desserts, but recently The Mad Scientist (boyfriend of Cookworm) has issued an ultimatum of sorts: I need to start cooking low-fat or smaller quantities of sweets to preserve his waistline (oh, and that nonsense about health, blah blah). Well, reducing quantities can be tricky, so onward we shall march to the low(fat) lands! Still, I was a bit skeptical of trying a low-fat pastry crust, mainly because of fears that it would become too hard or be flavorless. Luckily those concerns were quickly laid to rest, as Nick Malgieri truly knows his stuff. I was careful not to overcook the crust, and the result was tender and easy to work with. Although it did not have a knock-your-socks-off glory of a fully buttered up crust, the texture was sort of like a crisp ladyfinger and definitely pleasant. Actually, it was so light I was encouraged to eat more.
The tart crust I filled with Nick’s low fat pastry cream and topped with fresh raspberries. The pastry cream had a good texture and did not taste particularly “light”, although I may prefer Alice Medrich’s low-fat pastry cream a bit more, even though they are fairly similar ingredients-wise. I might actually just use regular pastry cream in the future with a low-fat crust, because we prefer the thicker egginess of a non-enlightened patisserie cream. On the other hand, stronger flavorings might also help - I kept it pretty low-key because this was essentially a trial run. It’s a very standard summer fruit tart, something difficult to mess up if done the usual way, but I’ve tried enough low-fat desserts in my time to know that the simple can turn downright terrible when the fat compensation is not managed well.
The conclusion? This tart was ultimately successful, and would be fine to serve to others at a casual summer dinner. While it tastes a little “different” than the standard full-butter crust with rich, eggy filling, it tastes substantial and not oversweetened as if to hide a nasty secret (too often I’ve noticed that low-fat desserts seem to do this, especially muffins). I’ve also tried a few other recipes in the cookbook (the chocolate sherbet is outstanding), and I recommend it highly. Not only does he explain how to do things, but also whyit’s important to use certain techniques in low-fat cooking or just all-purpose tips (the reasons for using liquid sugar in ice cream may seem obvious to some, but to me it was a revelation). I can only imagine what sort of mouthwatering desserts and care his non-low-fat books contain. In fact, I may just sneak out and buy one on the sly…