The curd in this recipe is made with guava paste and cream cheese—two ingredients I don't often use in my baking, but which after much trial and error yielded the best result. My favorite brand of guava paste is Guayeco. It’s minimally processed and can be ordered online.
Ingredients:
For the curd:
400g guava paste (roughly one block, it's okay if it's a little over or under. The weight is on the package.)
3/4 cup H20
200g cream cheese (roughly one block, it's okay if it's a little over or under. The weight is on the package.)
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 /2 lemon, juiced
For the pate sucrée:
4 ounces butter, room temp
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg + 1 yolk
1 Tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Making the curd:
Cut the guava paste into 1-2” pieces. Place them in a medium sauce pan with 3/4 cups of water and gently melt them over medium low heat. Every few minutes stir and break the guava paste down with a wooden spoon to help it dissolve. Be mindful that it doesn’t scorch at the bottom of the pot and that if it bubbles it can burn you. Add a little more water, one Tablespoon at a time, if it needs it.
Once the paste has dissolved completely, cool it enough to put into a blender add the cream cheese and blend. Add the eggs, sugar and lemon juice— blend. If you have specks of cream cheese after blending you can push the mixture through a fine meshed strainer.
Making the pate sucrée:
In a small bowl whisk together the egg and egg yolk. Add the vanilla extract and set aside.
In a medium sized bowl mix the butter, sugar, and salt with a wooden spoon. Alternatively mix in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix until everything is light and fluffy—about 4 minutes if using electricity and 6-8 if using elbow grease.
Add the egg mixture and mix until it is completely incorporated. Add the flour and mix until it looks crumbly.
Add the cream and mix until dough comes together.
Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap that is big enough to hold everything. Bring all the corner together and twist the extra plastic so that it makes the plastic around the dough tighten. Press the dough into a flat, round disk, and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Shaping the pate sucrée:
Pull it out of the refrigerator and let it sit for about 10 minutes. The exact time will depend on how cold or warm your kitchen is. You want the dough to be flexible and malleable— not refrigerator hard and not too soft or paste like.
I like to roll this dough between to sheets of plastic wrap. Roll the disk out evenly into a 13” circle. The way to do this is to roll out the dough a little and then turn it Roll it out some more and turn it again. Keep repeating this until your dough is about 1/8” thick.
I like to measure my dough by lightly placing my tart pan in the center and making sure I have 2 inches of extra dough around the pan.
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Once you have the desired shape roll the dough around the rolling pin and unroll it over the pan.
Press the Botton edges flush to the pan then gently press the top along the fluted part. You want an even thickness along the edge.
If your dough cracks, smoosh it back together or patch it up with a little bit of extra dough.
Dock the tart by gently puncturing the bottom
flat part of the tart all over with the tines of a fork.
Freeze the tart.
To bake:
Preheat your oven to 350. Place the frozen tart pan on a cookie sheet. This makes it easier to pull it in and out of the oven. Bake the tart shell from frozen. The height of the tart will shrink a tiny but everything will hold its shape if you dock all of the
Par bake until the dough is lightly golden and no longer looks raw, about 10-15 minutes, but don’t over bake it.
Lower the temperature of the oven to 325 and pour the curd onto the tart shell. Bake for 15-20 minutes. The tart is done when the curd has a slight bounce or jiggle when you gently shake the sheet tray.
Allow to cool completely before cutting it. Tart can also be refrigerated once cooled for easier slicing.