from Around My French Table: Gerard's Mustard Tart Part Two

I wanted to try some mustard tarts with different veggies.  I made the dough in my food processor.  It was actually my first attempt at making pie dough in a food processor.  I used the dough blade and followed Dorie's instructions for making a tart dough, but my ingredients didn't seem to come together.  I finally dumped everything out of the food processor and finished combining the ingredients with my hands ... trying to handle the dough as little as possible.  At this point, I was already having a lot of doubts about my dough turning-out well.  I left it to chill in the fridge and when it was time to roll out, I had major issues with getting the dough to roll-out nicely & then it was nearly impossible to get it into my tart pan without it breaking & tearing.  My dough was definitely too dry. It was a good thing my children were napping or else they might of seen their mother flipping-out ... I was totally frustrated and mumbling Cruella Deville type phrases under my breath ..."Blast this dough! Blast this wretched, wretched dough!!!" (While banging the dough with the rolling pin....)

I moved on to my filling....

I made one tart with a couple varieties of tomatoes & fresh basil:

And a second tart with leftover carrots, leeks, tomatoes & mushrooms:

After baking, I took both tarts over to my mom's house for everyone to try.  The crust wasn't good ... too dry, but it was fun trying the different fillings.  My husband's favorite was the tomato and basil tart and my mom liked that one as well.  The basil & mustard together were too many strong flavors for me.  I liked the tart with mushrooms better but I've always loved eggs and mushrooms together.  My mom liked the mushrooms, too.  I used one tablespoon less of mustard in each tart, but did not miss any of the mustard flavor.

My sweet & patient mother then gave me a lesson making pie dough in the food processor.  One of my biggest mistakes was probably not using the regular blade cause the dough blade that I had attempted to use wasn't cutting my butter.  My mom also added 2 teaspoons more of ice water than the recipe called for, but she said when she made her first batch of dough for our original mustard tarts, her eggs must've been larger because she was worried about that dough being too wet.  It was nice to be able to touch and play with the dough a little in between my mom adding more water.  I have sinced turned that dough into a butterscotch-banana cream pie.

Now just for fun ... Cruella is WAY better in Russian!!