The smells of pineapple, vanilla, and rum flooding my house when I baked this tart made me think of umbrella drinks and tropical vacations. These ingredients are topped off by a beautiful, intricate lattice crust. It may look complicated, but the only difficult part of this recipe was keeping the dough cold during the summer heat. It kept getting melty and sticking to my board and tearing, and it took a few return trips to the fridge and a bunch of patience I was running out of.
But the smell of pineapple and rum instantly restored my mood. And in the end the crust looked great and it's always fun to weave a lattice. The filling tasted like the top of an upside-down pineapple cake (or the bottom, if you haven't up-ended it yet).
Half your dough is used for the tart bottom, but the other half is cut into strips for your lattice top. The lattice is woven on parchment paper (or waxed paper, in this case), frozen until ready to use, and then carefully slid on top of the tart.
Fresh pineapple is simmered with rum, sugars, and vanilla bean. The cooked and cooled chunks are added to the tart shell. This tart is in the very sweet category, so next time I would personally halve the sugars. If you enjoy sugar rush, follow the recipe.
The taste of rum is faint in the final product, if that's a concern of yours. I'm not sure if this is because I used whatever rum was in the house instead of the dark rum that was called for, or if the alcohol simply cooked off.
The taste of rum is faint in the final product, if that's a concern of yours. I'm not sure if this is because I used whatever rum was in the house instead of the dark rum that was called for, or if the alcohol simply cooked off.
The tart is then chilled with the lattice, which is brushed with egg wash before going in the oven.
And since I made this recipe in a square pan, having no rectangular tart pan, there was some filling and dough left over for a mini. Isn't it cute?
This post was submitted to Sweets for a Saturday.
