By Corinna Arcellana Nuqui
Photo by Mary Rose Peña

To make pies and tarts, learn with both hands and heart

“Mettre la main à la pâte.” There is a French saying, which applies to all endeavors, but it is apt for the pastry arts. One learns by putting one’s hands to work, by learning the feel and look of the pâte, or pastry crust, as it were. There is only so much reading and study possible from the sidelines. There is no substitute for acquiring pastry hands to present perfect pies and tarts.

Learning to make a piecrust is one journey to tenderness. As a young girl, I tried to make crust after reading “The Joy of Cooking”, using two butter knives to blend the butter into the flour, adding too much water, taking up more flour. I made one novice mistake after another, shaping the overworked pie crust neatly along the edges of the pan, rendering it pretty, but tough. To get tenderness, I had to learn when to pat and push in ‘fraisage’, and when to hold back, much as I had to do when faced with matters of the heart.

In culinary school, I learned that pastry requires light hands, but brave ones, to risk melting butter in possibly “hot” hands, to rub fat into flour with fingers nimble and efficient. As I made fillings ranging from airy chiffon to denser baked custards, I saw the separate disciplines of science and art meet in between crusts. What is not done right in the beginning can haunt the ending, and whipped topping cannot conceal all sins. It’s about concentration, looking for the finishing point is a matter of mindfulness.

To get a finger or two of depth into pie and tart production, it is good to consult practiced bakers. This writer interviewed three chefs, Jackie Ang Po of Fleur de Lys, Patrick Fournes and Rolando ‘Mac’ Macatangay of Hotel InterContinental Manila.

Starting with questions of exteriors, there is no better source than to ask a European chef with classical training and kitchen smarts. Chef Patrick Fournes, the Executive Chef of Hotel Intercontinental Manila, discloses what he sees as an affection for crust among Filipinos. He doesn’t mean the upper crust of pies, but the bottom crusts which are often heftier and thicker than European counterparts. He interprets this as a wish for more sustenance: “They want to see more, bite into something more substantial.”

Chef Mac Macatangay uses disarming humor, cracking jokes on stories of this writer’s past with both baking and tenderness, before settling down to be interviewed. He shared that “sealing” the crust against sogginess can introduce a colorful stripe, with the use of raspberry jam in a linzer tart, or add another flavor, like melted chocolate to line the inside of pastry shell.

The more popular tarts are fruit based and have pastry cream in a basic sablé or sucrée shell. Macatangay observes, “Europeans enjoy their liqueurs as flavoring.” Fournes adds, “local customers have preferred less crème patisserie, and more fruit. We’ve had to use custard sparingly, as if it were just the glue to marry topping to the crust.” To create a new dessert, Fournes and Macatangay presented a polvoron-like sable open-faced tart topped with a fresh mango rose on coconut cream. The balance of crumbly crust and sweet mango flesh made this memorable.

A visit to Jackie Ang Po’s shop, Fleur de Lys, shows that she has an eye for the classics: banana cream tart with dulce de leche, frozen mango cream pie, an apple pie and a macadamia nut tart. What are some common student mistakes with pies and crusts that you can warn them about? “Being impatient.” Intones Ang-Po. She maintains that perfection takes time, which includes a resting or waiting period. In this case, the pastry is perfected from the outside going in. Macatangay adds, “too soft a dough, or shrinkage, is to be avoided.”

Sometimes the charm of a tart is in the crust, as in Fleur de Lys’ banana dulce de leche pie, with gingersnap crumbs providing a counterpoint to the sweet milky filling and sliced bananas. A winning thickness of shortbread nests under a layer of caramelized macadamia nuts in a dessert Ang-Po calls “Nuts about you”. One can never escape the puns about love, especially when it comes to pastry, it seems.

As for what’s inside? “Fillings are usually easy,” shares Ang-Po. It’s the crust that’s challenging to master. “It’s the mixing of the dough and the resting time. No matter how good the filling tastes, if the crust is bad - gummy, too hard, misshapen, then the pie is not a success.”

“Cooking fruits for pies is very economical,” says Macatangay, When faced with fruit that is ripening and even slightly past prime, one can be practical and make conserves or jam for tarts.

Macatangay discloses that experience is the best teacher, as fresh fruit, when processed into fillings, can vary in acidity, sweetness, pectin. “Some berries or fruit become bitter after baking or after being mixed with other things,” he cautions. A peek at Harold McGee’s indispensable “On Food and Cooking” confirms this, citing that pineapple is one of those fruits which needs to be cooked a certain way or it will be bitter. Bromelin in pineapple also interferes with the setting of gelatin and can cause fillings to break down if not deactivated with cooking.

Why don’t we see more native fruits in tarts? A trip around a local mall yields sweets from different regions and provinces: one can find nut tartlets of cashew and pili, boat tartlets of mango and durian, and there’s the ubiquituous buko pie, commonly attempted but seldom perfected. Ang-Po uses strawberries and mangoes while they are in season, reflecting that the appeal of a tart also lies in the way that sometimes it isn’t available.

Macatangay presents pineapple, strawberries, grapes as fresh complements to pastry cream and tart shells in a buffet setting he designed. Reflecting well on both practical and seasonal passions, bakers can please as well as watch costs.

Until this writer gets her wish, seeking eccentric pies made from sour kamias and tarts topped with crisp macopa, she will have to be content with what the present market offers. More bakers will distinguish themselves by using what is seasonal, fresh, and surprising along with the comfortable favorites.

As Macatangay put it, one is remembered through association, whether it is through people or pastry. Affirming that the practice of this art is centered around food as gifts, Fournes points out that hotel-produced pastry and cake is often bought for special occasions. As pies and tarts can be offerings of love and esteem, it would serve a baker well to heed both the crust and the filling. From outer tenderness, to inner sweetness, the perfection of a pie can embody the best exchanges.

Published in the September-October issue of Food and Beverage World Magazine