Fig and Cheese Custard Tart

So the husband said this is by far the best tart crust I have ever made. I’m flattered, and also a bit sad because I’ve made SO MANY TARTS BEFORE. He told me this has been the flakiest crust I’ve made. And quite honestly, it was so flakey because I got really lazy when making the tart (it was late at night and I knew it needed to be par-barked). I didn’t (a) make sure the dough was consistently moist all the way around and (b) I barely kneaded it. But apparently, the phrase, “Less is more,” is for realsies. Reminder to self: when making tarts, less is always more when it comes to the crust.

I’m just gonna say it. I like savory tarts more. That’s why I made a cheese custard one. It’s sooooooo good for breakfast/brunch. I purposely made this tart with cream cheese to give a subtle cheese flavor but also because I wanted this to resemble a quiche in some sorts. I used eggs and some heavy cream to give it that dense, rich, and luxurious mouth feel like they do in a quiche. I purposely didn’t shave in any cheeses into the tart because I was going to add toppings. I wanted the bulk of the flavors to come from the toppings – like figs.

It’s undeniably fig season right now. And I’m in heaven. These green figs were such a GORGEOUS color on the inside. They were a tad bit on the small size but they worked better for the tart. I love a mixture of sweet and savory. The figs added the sweetness needed to the tart. The freshness from the fig against the creaminess of the custard and salinity of the prosciutto are just the perfect counter balances to each other. Also, blink and fig season is over (SAD FACE).

These facts about figs really blew my mind this weekend. Husband found some gif on @reddit about why we don’t eat male figs. I decided to dig around just to make sure what I learned was true. First, figs are not fruits; they’re inverted flowers. And because they bloom internally, figs need some help with pollination. Figs are dioecious which means there are males and females. The male figs are not edible. Their sole purpose is for pollination. Female wasps crawl into male figs to lay their eggs. Once the eggs hatch, they escape the male fig and find their way into a female fig and pollinate it. Now this is when things get a bit gnarly. There is no escape route and there is no room inside a female fig for the wasp to get out. The wasp will die inside the fig. The female fig has an enzyme called ficin to break down the wasp into protein which the fig will absorb. Sometimes, the exoskeleton of the wasp doesn’t break down completely. This is the slight crunch you get when eating a fig – it’s extra protein. Some vegans choose to not eat figs for this particular reason. I learned all these facts but still ate all the figs that were on this tart. Savage? Or realistic?