The challenge: Getting them to retain their shape while cooking, as they are extremely delicate.
Well, it would seem that Julia Child only gives recipes for a regular sized fruit tart, which also means a regular pastry crust. In her recipe, she recommends either placing a piece of buttered foil with uncooked beans or another pie tin over the top of the pie tin in order to set the shape of the shell. I thought that since I have two muffin pans that bake 12 muffis each I could simply use one to cook the crusts in ans the other to lightly set on the top. This idea may have even worked had I not made my crusts too think to where the bottoms were thick and bubbly and my overlay pan didn't flatten them enough. Also, it seems that I didn't grease the overlay pan enough because when I went to remove it, the entire pastry shells came with.
Much to my dismay, only 2 of the 10 survived in tact, and even they look a little funky if you look at the bottoms, which are about 1/3 inch think and warped looking.
Here's a picture of the best ones:
And here are the rest of them:
So, what does that mean for my poor American guests who truly need to experience the amazing goodness of une tarte française? It means I had better dust the flour off and try again. This time I will try a different strategy and double the recipe so that I can make 20-24 in one batch. Wish me luck as I am losing my energy to tackle such a feat.
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